Knocking from the front...what could it be

[tamberlin]

Hi there,

We recently purchased a 2014 Forester 22ft RV and it was the best decision we ever made. We got it about 3 months ago and we have been out of town every weekend since purchasing it.

Every thing is so new to us and we are gradually figuring out how everything works. I have come to this forum a few times looking things up and finally figured out how to join the group.

Quick question...last night my husband woke me up because he heard "knocking" coming from our RV - sure enough, when I went outside, you could clearly hear a knocking - but the RV was not plugged in or anything, just sitting in our drive. My husband went inside the RV and started it up and then the knocking stopped. This morning, the knocking started again...what on earth could it be??? Any advise would be appreciated.

[tamberlin]

We recently purchased 2014 Forester RV (22ft) and all has been AMAZING. We are completely new the RV world, but so far we are truly LOVING it.

However last night my husband woke me up saying he could hear "knocking" coming from the RV. We went outside and sure enough there was a consistent knocking from the front of the RV. When we opened up the RV, the "knocking" was coming from the radio??? We did not have the radio on, the RV has been parked in our driveway all week and is NOT plugged in. My husband turned it off and the "knocking" stopped. Then at 6am this morning as I was getting ready for work, I heard the knocking again...my husband went outside to the RV and same thing, the radio was making the "knocking" sound. So my husband played around with the radio, started up the RV just to be sure the battery was okay and then all was good again.

Do you know why our radio is turning itself on and why we are hearing this "knocking" sound...it's kinda crazy.

Thanks for any advise you may have.

[tmmar]

Not sure if your radio is like mine. Ours has the NOAC system (for weather alerts) as part of the radio. That system alerts you to any severe weather in the area. It will come on and override the music if you are playing the radio, a cd or if you have your Ipod hooked up. I may even turn the radio on when it is off. I haven't noticed that happening but I have seen where it over rides anything on the radio. When that happens you need to turn the radio off, as you stated. If you don't want that feature activated, you can go into the menu and turn it off.
Tom

[tamberlin]

I am reading around and maybe I need to turn off the "RV" battery (excuse my verbiage, as I am new and probably using all the wrong words, LOL) - because I have to believe that the only way the radio is able to turn itself on is because of battery still being "on"??? I honestly don't have a clue. I am going to check about the NOAC system, but I don't think we have that. It has done it 4 more times this morning...we simply can't figure it out I don't even know how to turn our "RV" battery off...NEWBIE here.

Okay, my husband just called because the knocking started again..I had him check our battery button/system monitor and it was on E - so he then went and plugged the RV into the house and the "knocking" stopped - could the knocking be a warning that the battery was dying? We are so perplexed.

[tmmar]

Tamberlin-
Sorry- I should have done this in my first reply.

Welcome to the Forums and congrats on you new camper!! I see that you said you are really enjoying it. I hope that you have many fun, safe, trouble free and memorable trips with it!

Now to your second post. Not sure if there is a battery shut off switch on a class C coach such as yours. There should be a round switch in the battery compartment that will turn the coach batteries off or there may be a switch inside (possible by the step well) that will turn the coach batteries off. Don't think that you want to do that though because it will turn off all 12v power to the coach area. As for the radio, it may be wired so that you can listen to it even if the ignition is turned off.
Just a thought. Since your coach is new, did Forest River give you 1 year of CoachNet with your coach? If so, give them a call. They have technicians that know quite a bit about different RV's and may be able walk you through some things to check.
Good luck and hope you can solve your issue and let us know when you get it resolved.
Tom

[Forbes]

My audio system, radio, TV, DVD etc. has an alarm clock built in, you might check and see if the "alarm clock" is set. When ours goes off it sounds like someone is knocking at the front door, drives the dog crazy, lol. In that it starts early in the morning it may have reverted to the fault setting of 4:00am like mine does if power has been removed or backup battery is weak. Also agree on the weather radio setting, they often test there systems at strange times.

[tamberlin]

Okay, since my husband plugged the RV in, it has stopped "knocking". When I get home I will play around with the radio and see if it has any weird settings. I'm still trying to learn the radio as it is quite complex. I am going to check to see if we were given CoachNet, as that sounds like they might have an answer.

Thanks for all your suggestions, we are trying everything. Fingers are crossed that we work this out before we have to actually "store" the RV - we need to be sure we are doing everything right, and right now...we are not feeling very confident, LOL.

Tammi

[Campin Cajun]

Do you have hydraulic jacks on it? Were they deployed? If so, it could be those.

[asquared]

Another thought on the knocking could be critters in your MH. I agree with the possible alarm clock setting on your radio, I have seen that be an issue many times before.