What broke on your last trip?

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by 432bartman

My trip didn't even start yet, and my refrigerator decided to go bonkers. I have a Norcold 4 door fridge, model #2118. Well yesterday I got our trailer from storage and turned everything on, which included the fridge, so it could cool down before we leave tomorrow on the 9th. Hooked up to shore power, my fridge audio alarm went off and was throwing multiple codes, but still cooling. The audio alarm would not go off, even with the magnet reset trick. Both batteries showing 14+ volts. After tearing into the mother board for the fridge, the two fuses were fine as long as the 3V fuses externally. All the interior fuses and relays were fine, which steered me to the only possibility that the mother board was shot. I was very fortunate to have an RV supply shop nearby that had a replacement board. $220.00 later I was up and running. The part number for this board by Norcold is: 637082, and lists for around $135.00, which you can buy on line. I didn't have the time to wait and needed it ASAP. Always something.............. Oh when changing the board, make sure you turn everything off, including the main power switch, relays, so you don't arc something and accidentally fry the new board why switching over all the connectors. Happy trails

https://www.buyautotruckaccessories....xoC67kQAvD_BwE

Dam that would suck! My rig is always plugged in so I test and turn on everything a week prior. I clicked on the link and it looks like you got the last one! LOL

[TaintedSoull]

Welp, the RV life is definitely for us here in our Big Sky; however we did lose (AND found!) the squarish/rectangular door cover to the hot water relief valve and anode rod area. It did get run over but hey, we got it back!

[Lee-CI]

Glad you got it going again. Perseverance is the name of the game with RV Life. The entire trip is the adventure, not merely the destination.

[Foldbak]

I fought the dam auto level again! Parked on a concrete pad that was 1.6 degrees downhill on the bedroom side. Rolled the wheels up on 2 legos and when I hit auto level it said relieving twist. I fought it for a hour. Once it said it was level I tried to open the bedroom and it started to bind

I used a level to level it manually and the slide opened. I went to recalibrate the auto level and it said it was level.... I give up....and good luck finding a level surface on the trailer to trust.

Oh ya and woke up to 4" of snow the morning we were leaving. Tried to get the snow off the slides but couldn't get it all. When I closed the bedroom water was everywhere....even dripping out of the ceiling outlets.

[mlh]

I woke up one morning on Union Pass 8200 feet up with 8 inches of snow on my roof. We got it off and headed down the mountain. The snow hadn’t stuck on the road. My friend in Dubois got a big chuckle out of that and said the show would be gone by tomorrow. It was.
Lynwood

[Foldbak]

So went to Bodega Bay Doran Beach last weekend. It was dry camping. 1st night topped off the batteries, shut off the inverter and went to bed. 4:30am low battery alarm. Got up disconnected the batteries, went back to bed and jump started the gen around 8am. Batteries charged and solar kept them full all day. 2nd night same thing. This time I used the inverter cut off switch, shut off the water heater and pump. Same thing. Dead. 3rd night. Monitored the batteries charging using the Victron app to confirm 100% charged. Shut off everything except the fridge. Same thing. I did notice that the app showed a 7 amp draw at the time I went to bed. Returned home today and batteries are full. shut off everything, no shore power and no fridge. Still showed a 2.5 amp draw. Going to assess tomorrow. I may have allowed the batteries to go below threshold too many times. I might be upgrading to lithium....
I would appreciate input from anyone that has substantial knowledge of the Victron shunt and solar app. Not 100% sure what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance!

[Lee-CI]

Ugh! Good luck Tony. Let us know how you come out.

[AZ Traveler]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

So went to Bodega Bay Doran Beach last weekend. It was dry camping. 1st night topped off the batteries, shut off the inverter and went to bed. 4:30am low battery alarm. Got up disconnected the batteries, went back to bed and jump started the gen around 8am. Batteries charged and solar kept them full all day. 2nd night same thing. This time I used the inverter cut off switch, shut off the water heater and pump. Same thing. Dead. 3rd night. Monitored the batteries charging using the Victron app to confirm 100% charged. Shut off everything except the fridge. Same thing. I did notice that the app showed a 7 amp draw at the time I went to bed. Returned home today and batteries are full. shut off everything, no shore power and no fridge. Still showed a 2.5 amp draw. Going to assess tomorrow. I may have allowed the batteries to go below threshold too many times. I might be upgrading to lithium....
I would appreciate input from anyone that has substantial knowledge of the Victron shunt and solar app. Not 100% sure what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance!

What is the size of your battery bank? Your draw with everything off seems a little high but not way out of line.

[Foldbak]

Battery was at 95% charge with everything off this morning. I'll turn on the fridge tonight and check tomorrow.



AZ I have 2 group 24 deep cycles.

[Lee-CI]

Tony maybe there is a marginal connection somewhere in the charge system that made better contact on the pull back home?

[AZ Traveler]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

Battery was at 95% charge with everything off this morning. I'll turn on the fridge tonight and check tomorrow.



AZ I have 2 group 24 deep cycles.

Tony,

Assuming they are 100 ah batteries that give you 200 ah of which 100 is useable. They should run for 10 hours at a 10 amp draw.

[Foldbak]

The rig has been off grid and sitting all day. Batteries at 98% charged in the rain. Less then an amp draw. Humm tomorrow I'll turn on the fridge and recheck.

[432bartman]

Sorry to hear about your battery gemlins Zack

[Foldbak]

This morning batteries dead! Nothing on....Connected to shore power and will load test them tonight. If I'm reading this correctly there was a missive current spike

[Foldbak]

Update:


After much thought I figured that no circuit, device or wire is going to handle an 18amp draw without blowing a fuse or melting a wire so it has to be a shorted cell in one of the batteries. I removed the batteries and did a load test and sure enough, one of them has a shorted cell. The weird thing is that it's intermittent. I've never seen that before. Anyway I'm hoping warranty will cover it delaying my need to shell out $1900 for Battleborn's.

[Foldbak]

Front right wheel started to make a grinding sound on the way home this weekend. I jacked up the wheel and it's hard to turn. I'll have to remove the drum and inspect. The other wheels turn freely. Ugh... It only has 3K miles on it. I know it has self adjusters. I wonder if it it's a hardware fail?

[beeje]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

Front right wheel started to make a grinding sound on the way home this weekend. I jacked up the wheel and it's hard to turn. I'll have to remove the drum and inspect. The other wheels turn freely. Ugh... It only has 3K miles on it. I know it has self adjusters. I wonder if it it's a hardware fail?

Could be something broken inside. Maybe the lining let loose from the shoe or a broken spring. But I suspect the bearing issue since the factories never put enough grease in there and have them set correctly. Do yourself a favor and repack all the bearings on all Wheels

[Foldbak]

I removed the wheel and found that the rear brake shoe had come un-bonded and was broken. The drum was trashed. I'll be replacing the both today.

[twindman]

Boy, Foldback, you are having a rough go!!!! Maybe you are over the bad luck. 2 summers ago we had 13 things go wrong in about 2 months. Microwave shot, Dish receiver bad, campground in Kalispell flooded us out of our 1 week stay and with only a week's notice no way to get another site. Bedroom A/C went about same time as microwave. And many things of lesser problem. I hope this summer is better too.

[Foldbak]

Yikes got me beat. I just finished replacing the brake assembly and the drum. The good shoe had about 80% lining. The bond just failed on the other. Took me an hour and a half and $300 in parts. Saved $300 by doing it myself. Wouldn't be so bad but that was after a full day at work and it's 90 deg out In 3 weeks it goes in for a complete brake inspection, bearing repack and repair 4 of the wet bolts not taking grease under warranty.