Add This to Troubleshooting - Montana Owners Club

indy roadrunner · 03-07-2012, 12:40 AM

After sitting at Gulf Shores for a month, time to head back home. Unhooked water, sewer hose, put slides in, hook up raise legs, disconnect anaconda, hook up truck electrical cord, check lights. Oh no left brake light don't work. Hmm, remember seeing some type of bulb in camper lower junk drawer in bedroom. So lets open bedroom slide - what!!!!!!!! slide won't work, but I had just put them in. OK trouble shooting time, check battery ground, check fuse boxes, hmmm all ok. Well Camping world just up the road will stop in there and buy bulb. Waved bye to Country Guy and Country Girl in their brand new spanking wheels on the way out and proceed to Robertsdale without incident. All the way up there trying to think through the lack of DC power. OH NO camping world closed - Sunday hours - open at 11:00. Next option is Loves at Loxely just a few miles up the road. Arrive Loves, got new bulbs (one for spare) and install, all is good. Buttt - DC problem, could the battery cut off switch be corroded??? Lets check, open convenience door and long and beholthe battery cut off key is just dangling. Piecing together what happen, I guess that when I disconneted the water hose and in the process of pulling out of the access hole I must have hit the switch. So lesson learned, no DC power first step is check master cut off switch.
OK Bingo the door is open, payback time so fire away.

bncinwv · 03-07-2012, 12:53 AM

Actually, I think it was a very good and informative post. Having been down this road (more than once), it just reinforced the point that has been made here and many times before, anytime that one suspects battery problems, if your rig is equipped with a battery cut-off switch, check it first (and remember to check it before you take a sightseeing tour covering South Alabama - sorry couldn't help myself there Phil

). Besides, I would venture to say that there are many of us who have done similar things, but were too proud to admit it to the MOC membership. Thanks Phil!

Bingo

PS: I am proud of myself for not even mentioning an Armadillo in this response......well, shucks, now I guess I did!!

southern thunder · 03-07-2012, 02:01 AM

Good info. I once cut off a fuel valve on a boat by accident on a boat and spent about 4 hours trying to figure out why it would not start. LOL!!

Mrs. CountryGuy · 03-07-2012, 02:22 AM

OH, Dear. Little did we know while we were waving frantically that you had issues.

Well, glad it worked out ok, and yep, we all have "silly" war stories to tell, but by sharing them, hopefully we all learn.

Safe rides you two! Hope to see you again sometime down the road.

**DQDick** · 03-07-2012, 02:28 AM

One of my first posts on this forum was sent in a panic because we arrived at a campsite and couldn't get things to work. Yup it was the cutoff switch, but in my case I was read what it says wrong. The sign says battery disconnect and has off and on. My assumption was if it was in the off position the battery disconnect was off. No so, the off position means the power is off. By the way, no one said a mean thing about that and everyone was helpful. That's what's great about this forum. There are a couple of other forums I participate in where several someones would have taken the opportunity to have fun at my expense. Not what you need when you're in a panic.

1retired06 · 03-07-2012, 02:49 AM

We pulled on to a state highway, from a side road, and the trailer brakes locked up, and I could not move the trailer, blocking three lanes of traffic. I crawled under the trailer and cut the brake wiring, and freed them. After pulling into a campground, discovered that in making the turn, my brake cable got caught in the hitch, and pulled out the plug. All I had to do was put in back in, and then my punishment for stupidity was to crawl back under and splice!

bncinwv · 03-07-2012, 03:06 AM

Confession is good for the soul, when I took a sharp turn and dislodged the emergency brake cable, I was about two miles from the campground (NE rally in Gettysburg), thought something was different, but proceeded on to the campground where we arrived with smoke rolling out from under the rig. Seems like it was about 2 in the morning and it took over an hour to de-brake-fume the rig before we could go to sleep. The next morning in the daylight, I discovered what had happened. I will add that the Duramax/Allison combo pulled it with no problem, but it did not lock up the brakes completely!!

Bingo

H. John Kohl · 03-07-2012, 03:53 AM

I think the best lesson on this post is to check the simple things first. Too many times I have started taking it apart to find the plug had come out of the wall.
Good job.

Jay Bird · 03-09-2012, 08:41 AM

Good post. Something to add to th check list.

Bill-N-Donna · 03-09-2012, 09:38 AM

This post reminds me of things I’d do!

wingerphil · 03-09-2012, 05:16 PM

Phil,

do you happen to be sitting in McFarland Park in Florence, Alabama? Saw a Montana and white dually with Indiana plates but have not been able to catch you outside to introduce our selfs. We are leaving first thing in the morning to move closer to Indiana.

Phil

indy roadrunner · 03-10-2012, 12:43 AM

No, we stopped at Cullman AL last Sunday night and drove on in to Brownsburg this past Monday.

wingerphil · 03-10-2012, 11:38 AM

Thought it might have been you. 06 or 07 Monty, white dually and Hendricks County plates on the 5er. You have a twin! LOL.

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