RE: Curbside Kitchen. Will I be sorry.
Lots of input with varying opinions, interesting perspectives and great pictures. I am less uptight about it after reading all this, but wish I had more experience to fall back on. Thank you folks for your feedback. Stuart
RE: Curbside Kitchen. Will I be sorry.
Are you going to tow the Sundancer behind the 5th wheel? :)
If you knew me, you'd know that I would try if I thought I could get away with it. :B
RE: Curbside Kitchen. Will I be sorry.
I find the street side slide a problem because it blocks your view when sitting outside.
I don't understand. Don't you sit out on the curb side???
Ps. I see you joined 11 days after I did back in 2003. Wow!
Curbside Kitchen. Will I be sorry.
We bought a Sea Ray Sundancer which at 17,000# with the trailer demanded we purchase a 1 ton dually to tow it. Seemed crazy to stay with our Country Coach motorhome when we now have a perfectly good towing machine, so we sold that and are now looking for a 5'er.
Don’t know a lot about the fifth wheelers yet, but came across a nice 2008 Forest River Cedar Creek Silverback 30LSTS with 3 slides. My concern is the kitchen slideout is curbside with only a little window. The view will only be street side and out the back (which we have never had in a motorhome). Will we likely be dissatisfied with this arrangement?
RE: Help with Dying Generator - It's not a fuel filter problem.
Okay, it looks like I am drilling down on the problem. After cutting and mending several signal paths in the coach that control the stop circuit for the generator, I was stuck as to how to proceed. I had eliminated the SilverLeaf VMS-200 engine monitor earlier because when I unplugged it, the problem was still there. But now I was becoming suspicious of it again.
I decided to call SilverLeaf in Albany, Oregon to see if they had anything to offer, and low and behold, they directed me to the bathroom wall behind the circuit breaker panel and systems controls (tank monitors, HVAC, etc.). Somewhere there should be a black box that is the hidden element for the SilverLeaf display. It turned out to be under the floor of the cabinet under the sink. Apparently this generator dying is a known problem and the box needs a software update.
What was fooling me during the hunt was the start and stop commands made from the SilverLeaf display on the dash are sent to the black box, which in turn communicates the commands to the Xantrex RC7-RS remote, and the remote talks to the inverter which sends the appropriate signal to the generator. That is why I was unable to trace a stop signal wire directly to the SilverLeaf display.
RE: Help with Dying Generator - It's not a fuel filter problem.
have you tried turning off/disconnecting the converter/inverter ?
it has power from the generator and is tied to the house 12v system
just a thought, looking for things wired to the 12v system that could cause a transient spike
did you install any LED lights, anything that might come on automatically after starting the engine, charge relays, air compressors ?
what is the state of charge of the house batteries ?
At the inverter (RV3012), I disconnected the stop wire to the genset. Still died so the inverter eliminated.
I will give more thought to other items you mention that I might have installed, but nothing is coming to mind at the moment. This has been happening for sometime now so I'll have to really think back.
House batteries are current fully charged as I am plugged in. On the road a couple weeks ago, variable levels of charge made no difference. It always happens within a few minutes after starting the engine. I am going to the coach in a few minutes to try and get it to happen with just the key turned on but not the engine started. I have seen it do that in the past and that would eliminate a lot of possibilities by excluding the engine when running.
Joe, the relays in the inverter have been eliminated. The SilverLeaf is electronic, the rocker switch is manual. I know of no other relays involved. Am I missing something?
Help with Dying Generator - It's not a fuel filter problem.
I have a HDKAK 8kw Onan generator in my 2005 Country Coach that is dying when the engine is started. It may take 10 seconds or 5 minutes, but it always dies. I disconnected the Xantrex RC7-GS remote, then the SilverLeaf engine monitor, and finally the manual rocker start switch which eliminated all three as potential causes (they all have generator start/stop control). When I disconnect the control harness at the genset itself, however, the problem disappeared.
Here is where it gets heavy. The start and stop function is controlled by applying ground to either the start or the stop circuit. It does this by using a SPDT relay (or rocker switch) to switch the common (gnd) to either the start or the stop control wire. The start and stop contacts are normally 12 volts, taking them to ground potential is the signal used to start or stop the genset. Sorry if I am over-explaining this. The only reasonable conclusion for my problem is that when the engine started, there is a gremlin conditioning that stop wire with a false ground. Here is another twist. On a few occasions, just turning the key on without starting the engine has caused the genset to die. That probably eliminates engine vibrations.
I monitored the genset stop wire with a digital volt meter. With the genset off, there was 12 volt on the wire. When I started the generator, the voltage dropped to 9.5 volts, probably because it is a sensing circuit, not a 12 volt supply circuit. Then I started the engine. Less than a minute later there was a negative spike (dropped to 4.5 volts) for less than half a second, and the generator died. I have not been able to catch the spike with just the key on at this point.
Does anyone have a clue where that split second spike might be coming from? I doubt it is a short because it looks like a spike, not a wavering fluxuation of voltage like a bad ground or frame short would generally present. I am at a loss as to where go next.
