Sometimes, You Just Feel Like Hitting Yourself OVER YOUR HEAD!

The Intellitec Battery Disconnect Switch came in today.  In anticipation of putting it in tomorrow (Tuesday) I decided to do a little Google Search on troubleshooting this part just in case it was not the part that gave us the problem.

Of course, intelligent people would have done this search BEFORE they ordered a part...but when watching Arny use the Circuit Tester, it was obvious that power was not getting to one side of the Intellitec Battery Disconnect Switch (which, at the time, I did not even know that was what it was called).

Anyway, my google search finds a site that seems relevant to our problem, and as I read the following:

"Problem with relay I think or Panel. I have the Intellitec 01-00066-003 BD3 switch panel and the Intellitec 01-00055-000 Battery disconnect relay.

Problem: switch will not turn chassis off coach works turns battery relay on and off but chassis does not..."

I am thinking...hmmm, we have the relay (the part I ordered), but we don't have a manual switch.  In the back by the bathroom sink there is a light panel and from there I can see if the batteries are being charged up or not...but....OH NO!   WHAT ABOUT THAT SWITCH BY THE DOOR WHICH SAYS "Use" and "Store"...

The light above the use/store switch was glowing red...I push it up to the "use" position (this rocker switch moves up and down but returns to the middle position so the only way you know it is on is the red light) and nothing happens inside (since we are plugged into a 30 amp outlet, we have power inside).  I push it to store fully expecting the lights to go out...they don't.  I push it back up to use, go outside and disconnect us from the 30 amp outlet...we still have lights!

If you have followed the blog long enough you know that this is NOT the first stupid thing we (I) have done.  I talked about the time dad and I went to a junkyard to buy a spare tire for the HHR just to find out that there is a hidden compartment in the HHRs, and sure enough, there was a tire in mine after all.  Oh, the list goes on and on...I think it started with the time when I was around 8 years old, my older brother Jim was being his normal obnoxious young teenage self, and in my frustration, I kicked him...but he moved...and I hit the wall with my foot real hard.  Went crying to mom and dad and said, "Jim hurt me!"  Of course, when they found out HOW I got hurt, it was one of those funny stories that have told over and over and over through the years...through the decades.

 

In my defense, I always thought that if the disconnect button was pushed to "STORE", that it turned everything off,  Apparently when you are connected to shore power, that is not the case.  HOW it got turned off is anyone's guess.  Had I turned the disconnect switch to "USE" while we were at Sam's Club last Tuesday, we would be home or near home right now.  Instead, we will be "HOME" for Christmas this year...our second home here in my sister's backyard.  On Thursday morning we will start out to our real home in Florida.  

Had dad lived just a month longer, he would have laughed and laughed at this latest episode.  I think he would have laughed so hard that it would have killed him.  Oh, how I miss not being able to tell him my funny little stories anymore...

Electrical Fix, Next Trip Is…

I have showed this picture above before…it is the heart of my electrical problems…this is he place where the Florida Rat had made a nest, but the rat is unrelated to our problem.

    

To recap what I previously posted, this gizmo to the left is the Intellitec Battery Disconnect Relay, while the one on the right is a 12 Volt Continuous Duty Solenoid, which allows for the interaction between the house batteries and the engine battery.

I replaced the solenoid today with this Cole Hersee 12V Insulated SPST Continuous Duty Solenoid that Amazon delivered Thursday.  Temps were still over 100 on Friday, but a comfortable mid-80’s today…so today was a much better day to do the work in.  Here are my steps:

1)  Disconnect Engine Battery.  Got a voltage meter read on it before and after the disconnect, and after.  Battery was reading 12.6 either way.

2)  Disconnect House Batteries.  Got a voltage reading on them combined and separated…one at 12.86, the other at 12.91.  Combined they were at 12.89.

3)  Did a reading of the Solenoid and there was no juice coming to it.  So I disconnected the wires, making a mental note of what goes where…knowing I ALREADY had a picture just in case…and then removed the old Solenoid.

4)  Installed the new Solenoid, hooked up wires, made sure all wires were tight.   Then hooked up the house batteries.  Then hooked up the engine batteries.  Then tested…..AND…..

Ever have one of those days….everything just seems to be going along just fine, and CRASH!   Well, that’s how my day felt when I tested it…and it still did not work.  Engine running, no charge on house batteries.  Engine off, electricty plugged in, no charge to engine battery.  Time to bring in the big guns….HEY ARNY!!!!!

To make a long story shorter….Arny wants me to look for connection problems, ground wires especially.  While I look, I decide to wiggle the various fuses along the right side.  See those ones in the middle of this fuse bank…the ones which look metallic?  Well, I wiggle the one on top and I hear the Solenoid engage with a very loud CLICK  CLICK  CLICK.  I push it in further, it clicks, and run my tests….all works.

So I run over to the nearest Napa store, and I pick up two, a 5 amp and a 10 amp, Circuit Breaker Fuse.  WHY 2?  Because what I take out is a 10 amp, but it calls for a 5 amp.  The one right below it is a 20 amp, but it calls for a 10 amp. 

If you look at the picture above, along the bottom it says 15A Max, and it has a blue fuse in it, which is a 15 amp fuse.  The next one is a bit hidden, but it says 10A Max, but the gold metallic thing says 20A when I take it out.  The Silver one is hidden, but it says 5A Max, and it had a 10 amp in it…it was the loose one, the one which I needed to replace.

Looking again at the replacements you can see that the metal attachment legs have three parts to it.  The “Universal” to them is that you break off the length to fit what you need.  On the one that we replaced, the person who “broke off the legs” was not careful, and it broke off below the mark…making it too short…so it wiggled (vibrated) out real easy.  Hopefully this will end our problem.  And just to be sure….I have a 5 amp and a 10 amp coming in from Amazon as spares, and I saved the 20 amp that I replaced with the 10 amp because there is a 20 amp in this fuse box at the very top…and it is in a 25 amp max location, so it is definitely good.  These Circuit Breaker Fuses act like a fuse in that they will break the circuit if to much of a load (amps) are put on them.  The difference is, with a fuse, you have to replace it.  With a Circuit Breaker Fuse, it will reset itself once it cools down and will allow for the circuit to connect again.

So now we are ready to test it out on our next little trip….which will be to the Santa Cruz, Pinnacles National Park, and PROBABLY Big Sur areas.  I have reservations at Sunset Beach for Monday-Thursday, September 21st-24th.  Then we will go to the less crowded Pinnacles National Park for the weekend, then PROBABLY go to Big Sur for the Monday-Thursday of the following week.  These popular State Parks are busy on the weekends, but you can get into them on the weekdays this time of year.  Pinnacles National Park is just not busy at all…being one of our new National Parks, they will struggle to get people there for awhile…but the plus is that they have ELECTRICITY at many of their RV sites for under $30 per night (half that for seniors with the senior card).  Another draw….they have California Condors there!   These rare birds nearly went extinct (down to around 20 birds), but now boast a population of nearly 500 birds.  As ugly as they might look, I want to get a picture of them.  Also, this time of year is good whale watching time…and we can’t pass up a visit to the Monterey Aquarium, which I have been to a number of times, but Marcia has never seen yet.  We also hope to find time to visit a cousin or two that live in the area.  And why “PROBABLY” with Big Sur?  Well, we might just want to go back to Sunset Beach again…or try one of the other beach camps in the area.

But first thing first…and on Monday, mom has her surgery.  Mucinous Carcinoma represents approximately 1% to 2% of all breast cancers. The main differentiating features are mucus production and cells that are poorly defined. It also has a favorable prognosis in most cases.  This is the type of Breast Cancer mom has.  So of all the breast cancers out there, she has the one which is the better one to have…not that anyone is standing in lines hoping to catch it.  All Breast Cancers are bad…all Cancers are bad…there are just some which are better to have than others.  This is the case with mom’s.  My next post will probably be “post surgery”, so prayers and precious thoughts for mom from here on out would be appreciated.

The Triple Whammy

Can you even imagine what it is like to be sitting along the beach, 72 degree weather…and two weeks later be sitting in the Sacramento Valley with temps up in the 100’s?  Well, that is our triple whammy…temps in the 3 digits.  But alas, things are looking better…

…two more hot days, then the possibility of tens days with temps under 90.

I mentioned that we had two small issues to fix…first, the lower part of tis mirror had become loose.  I took it off before the wind while driving blew it off.  That was an easy fix, Arny said he used a tape that would not come off.

Second, we had the electrical problem that we had before.  It worked fine until we left Port Angeles…then I noticed that we were not getting a charge from the engine when we were driving.  So today I did some research into these two gizmos, because one of them is most likely the culprit. 

    

The bottom one had the words “Ignition Proof Coach Chasis”, with a label which read, “01-00055-010 / 17704 /  BD Relay”. Quickly I found that this is part of the Intellitec Battery Disconnect Relay, which is what normally is called, “Storage Shut Off Switch” for when you want to kill the drain on the batteries when you go into storage. (Which gives you more time, but let’s face it, you store it for more than a few weeks and you batteries are going to be DEAD)

Which leaves this little thing….no writing on it, but a little research and found out that this is a “12 Volt Continuous Duty Solenoid”, which are easy to find, and found one on Amazon for under $20 which will be here Friday.  I am 90+% sure this is the culprit.  I figure that when we had loose wires eight weeks ago when this first went out, that the sparking and arching which took place as the loose wires did make contact just sore this thing out.  If I tap on it, it will make the recharge light flicker…so the solenoid is probably just wore out.

Yesterday I spent the day grooming the dogs. With this hot weather, I think they will both enjoy the loss of fur.  I can tell that Bubba is already feeling better, but so is Skruffy.

   

The hummingbird is still protecting “his” bird feeder…only letting his mate use it, chasing away all the others.

This blue Scrub Jay is a bit younger than the others.  The older ones are very mean, chasing away the doves, even going after the squirrels sometimes.  This younger one is also picked on…but that is how it will learn the trade I reckon.  Since Saturday we have seen two non-native birds which I have not gotten my camera lens on yet.  One is a Parakeet…the other looks like a small Parrot, perhaps a type of Love Bird. They don’t come around very often, and seem to hang out with the finches…but I hope to get a picture of them soon.

We have a number of birthdays in our family in August.  My brother Roger, Sisters Sandy and Patti, and brother-in-law Arny…the only Patti having celebrated hers already, and the other three take place in the next four days.  So HAPPY BIRTHDAY all of you!