Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Any ideas?

A couple of weeks ago, the Systems Monitor on my Forest River Convenience Center went out.  See it in the upper left corner of the photo below?

  
The Convenience Center has all the controls I check to see what's what with The Palms.  On/Off switches for Generator Start,  Generator Hours logged, Water Heater, Arctic Pac (heats the tanks in freezing weather), Living Room and Kitchen lights.  The two bottom switches have plugs in them, I don't have a Slide, and have no idea about the Driver Side Rear Light.

I use all of these things frequently, except the Arctic Pac switch. I've only used that twice in three years when the temps were going below freezing.  I probably didn't need it then, one night of 30 degree temps isn't going to freeze tanks overnight that have a bunch of liquid in them.
 
Anyway, I also use the Systems Monitor corner a lot to check on the grey, black and fresh water tank levels, the battery full level and propane tank level.  As you can see below, pressing on the propane button gives me an E - Empty.  All five give E's when pressed, and they are not empty.

 
I called Forest River Customer Service, and he said to check the fuses, which I had already done - they are all good.  Then he said the wires behind the wall plate might have become loose or burned, and I could check that.


Jeanne and I checked the wires behind the plate and there were no burned wires, and nothing appeared to be loose.  Thanks for helping me out with this, Jeanne.  I hate to be alone when I'm checking anything electrical. 


His next suggestion was to take The Palms to Camping World in Albuquerque (I was going to be driving through that area) since that's one of the repair places Forest River uses for warranty work.  This isn't under warranty, but this Camping World has the diagnostic equipment and the parts (and know-how I hope) to take care of warranty issues.

I called Camping World, and they charge $129 an hour, with a minimum of one hour.  I have no idea how long it would take them to run the diagnostics and then find and fix this problem.

One thing, though.  I can eyeball my fresh water tank under the couch, and the grey/black water tanks are emptied every other time I fill the fresh water thank.  As you can see by the labels on the face plate, my fresh water tank is only 25 gallons, and the grey and black are 27 gallons each.  I need to fill up twice to every dump.  So that takes care of the tanks.  The propane tank outside in it's compartment has a dial on it, so that's obvious, I can check how full it is.  And the battery readout - I have a better readout on my solar faceplate which gives me Amps in, Volts, and Battery percentage full.

So, the Systems Monitor truly IS a convenience, and I've done well without it for three weeks now.  It would be nice to have it working again, though; it's easier to push a button than lift the couch, or go outside to check the propane, or keep track of the water fills to track the grey/black tanks.

Any ideas?  The Forest River guy said something about connections in the battery area, but I didn't get exactly what he was saying.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)

PS - I double checked, and all the wires are connected, none are burned.  I checked the Forest River Forum and found a request similar to mine, and someone posted a link to the Wiring Chart and Troubleshooting Guide.  This is what the Troubleshooting Guide says,

PROBLEM:
DISPLAY INDICATES “E” ALL THE TIME.

TEST:
(1) VERIFY TANK IS NOT EMPTY.
(2) VERIFY WIRE FROM 90 OHM SENDING UNIT TO ORANGE WIRE ON BACK OF PANEL IS NOT SHORTED TO GROUND
(3) CHECK SENDING UNIT FOR DAMAGE OR STICKING.

DIAGNOSIS:
(1) ADD GAS TO TANK AND RETEST.
(2) RUN CONTINUITY TEST ON WIRE, END TO END AND TO SYSTEM GROUND (SHORT TEST).
(3) REPLACE SENDING UNIT IF FOUND DEFECTIVE.

What do you think - sounds easy, right?