Whirlwind Trip, the Good, Bad, and the Awesome!

Before we left on our quick trip to Atlanta we got a few more things done.  We replaced he air cleaner on the motorhome, and a slide lock that had broken and was covered under warranty.  We had only one installed for this complete season, the warranty replacement was shipped to friends in Atlanta, which we picked up in the fall when we went through. 

A very talented and innovative guy on the Monacoers forum came up with a HiDef camera kit to replace the head banger side cameras on our coach.  He made his kit completely plug n play at very reasonable cost.  

The original camera

And the small replacement camera

It was a fairly easy job, the only challenge was running the wire out far enough to get to the connector then pushing it all back in the arm.  On the driver's side it was cake but we had to remove the passenger side to get the wire to go in, no big deal.

All finished

Before we left on a gorgeous cool day, we went to a great sushi lunch in Sarasota, thank you Jason!

No she isn't mad, the camera man caught her badly:-)

Yummy!

Off to Atlanta, for the first hundred miles or so the weather was beautiful, the cameras worked well.

Then for the next 300 miles it rained the whole time, actually it was a pleasant with not a lot of traffic to our normal stop south of Atlanta at Twin Oaks, an excellent stopping off spot with long pull throughs.  After a quiet evening we left for Atlanta, now when I say we are going to Atlanta that is just a rough destination, we actually stay northwest of the city near Acworth, GA, so we have to negotiate the city of Atlanta, now this was a Sunday, mid day, so we weren't expecting any issue, that is until our brand new alternator with maybe 2000 miles on it started to quit!  We got the generator running as we had before, but it was coming on and off line and it was hard to make sure power was steady to the engine and transmission.  So with the normal aggravation of Atlanta traffic we had the added pleasure of wondering if the engine would quit!!!  Very stressful to say the least.  We did manage to get to our campground okay.

We knew the alternator we bought in November that came from somewhere in North Carolina had a 1 year warranty, and after checking found the company was in Franklin, NC, a mere 165 miles away from our campground.  But first of all Monday morning Jan had to go see her oral surgeon, after a quick fix on her implant we came back and called the alternator place, he said sure come on up and I'll take a look.  So Jan and I went out and removed the errant alternator for the second time, jumped in the truck and drove almost 3 hours to the alternator place, consolation prize was it was a gorgeous clear day and the views were awesome.

I put this picture in specifically for Sandy to show that I did clean off the batteries:-)

A little snow in them thar hills

When I carried in our alternator the shop owner said he'd need about 45 minutes to look it over, so we took off for early coffee.  When I came back there was a brand new alternator ready to go, and he explained that yes, our alternator was bad, it had blown out 3 diodes and even took the stator out, could there be something wrong in your coach?  WHAT?!?  He said sometimes a slipping belt can cause it, but no sign of that on the pulley and I explained that was the first thing we checked, then he said sometimes a loose connection on the positive connection can cause it, but there was no indication of arcing, so could there be anything else going wrong with your coach?  I explained that nothing had changed on our coach, and the original alternator went 12 years and 160,000 miles, so I couldn't imagine what could be wrong.  Anyway, back 3 hours and 165 miles, and Jan and I raced sunset to get the new new alternator installed and checked out.

The new new alternator

Jan and I discussed the fact he had planted a seed that something might be wrong with coach, and that was really weighing on me.  I racked my brain to try to come up with something.  I thought things through and was probably reaching, but when the second alternator quit I pressed the battery boost switch by my seat which should attach both the chassis batteries and house batteries together, with the generator providing charge to the house batteries, connecting the banks should also provide charge to the chassis batteries, but it did not?  Hmm.  So onto the various forums I go.  Our coach has a Big Boy solenoid system that is used for battery management.  Its function is when the engine is running and providing charge to the chassis batteries, when the voltage exceeds 13.3 volts it closes and allows the house batteries to be charged as well, when the generator or shore power is hooked up and charging the house batteries, at the same 13.3 volts on the house it will then connect the chassis batteries so they charge as well, and the last function is when you press the battery boost switch it manually connects both banks of batteries which it did not do.  Hmm.

Enough of that because I had my dentist appointment early the next day and ended up with a temporary crown.  Back from the dentist and troubleshooting, turns out our 3+ year old chassis batteries are about dead, so I try to get batteries while in Atlanta, but they have to be ordered, okay we can certainly get back to Florida and get new ones there.  Jan decided to make some stew we had learned about from nephew Jordan, brazilian fish stew, or Maqueca.  Fabulous!  She made it with cod, scallops, and shrimp, it has tomatoes and coconut milk in it, delicious.

Try it, you'll love it!

The next morning we leave early in the motorhome, yes the alternator seems fine, but we are definitely on pins and needles with me watching the voltmeter like a hawk, to get prima donna Bert our cat to the vet.  Yes we have to take him in the motorhome unless we want to clean the truck for a solid week if we took him in that, truly.  So here we are driving the 75 miles from the campground to the vet in morning time traffic, with me staring at the voltmeter like an idiot when my phone gets a text.  It's from the Sarasota County Department of Health which I figure is an announcement of another round of vaccines arriving, but my eye catches the word appointment, so Jan grabs it and sure enough we have worked our way up to a point where we have an actual first vaccine appointment, hallelujah, and unbelievably it is in Venice, we don't even have to go anywhere far, and it is a drive through venue!  Wow.

So Bert gets a good to go and a rabies shot and off we go back to Twin Oaks for the night.  Alternator steady as a rock, but the possibility of something wrong is still niggling in my brain.  

We leave early for our last 400 mile day and although the alternator is steady, in my recent reading I have seen numerous reports that running the engine and the generator at the same time with each charging the battery bank is harmful.  Running the generator going down the road is how we are able to operate our roof top air conditioners to keep the coach cool.  So as the temperature rises as we go south, Jan and I are sitting there sweating as the dash air is nowhere near able to keep the coach cool, but by now I don't want to take a chance, even though I have been doing this for years.  We get back uneventfully although hot, and more research ensues.

I find an article where a very respected member of several forums has replaced his Big Boy system with a Blue Sea component that does basically the same thing, but has the ability to tell you what mode it is in, batteries connected or not, needs no power to hold whichever connection it is using, and also allows you to manually connect or manually disconnect, so if you are running the generator for ac, you can separate the battery banks so there is no cross charging, and it is slightly cheaper than just replacing the Big Boy solenoid, and it has a lifetime warranty.

This is the original system with the Big Boy solenoid in the center 

This is with the Blue Sea ML-ACR installed

And this shows the red switch that replaces the battery boost
switch with the on, off, and auto options

After a lot of consideration, I am almost completely committed to this replacement.  Info to follow.

Then after a quick overnight back in Florida, it's off to the vaccine appointment.  It was so organized, pleasant, professional, and we never had to get out of the truck, so now Jan and I have received vaccine number one and already have an appointment for the second shot in 3 weeks.

Initial check in

In the queue

All jabbed!!!!!!