We will NEVER buy another Coachmen - Page 4

Jay2504 · 02-02-2019, 05:58 PM

Just a thought. Could that 20 second “pulse” be from a circuit breaker popping and then resetting? Jay

D. J. Schuler · 02-02-2019, 06:04 PM

There are several manufactures who do have real service people who know their products. We had faucet drips during warrante, service sent replacement and asked how profiant I was. My dealer recommended we stay over night the day we picked RV up on their property (electricity and water) and try/test everything, refrigerator door needed adj. We ran the slides, ac, and any thing else that moved many times.

**Mr. Dan** · 02-02-2019, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dianeotte

Yes. 2 40 amp fuses right next to all the 15 amp fuses on the converter. Neither were blown (according to DH)

OK, thanks.

5picker · 02-02-2019, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay2504

Just a thought. Could that 20 second “pulse” be from a circuit breaker popping and then resetting? Jay

That's what I'm thinking.
Direct short (now that the battery has some charge) and the reason the battery went dead so quickly.

CedarCreekWoody · 02-02-2019, 07:11 PM

Let the battery charge overnight. It takes awhile to fully recharge.

**Flybob** · 02-02-2019, 07:12 PM

When automatic battery chargers detect a charged battery, they shut off charge which can cause a drop in voltage and turn the charger back on. This will appear a pulsing in light intensity or fan speed. If you had a short, the battery charger should have indicated such.

Scrapper · 02-02-2019, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dianeotte

Attachment 196052 Attachment 1 here is the umbilical cord and the breakaway switch...no breaker/fuse between. So I’m stumped

Did you find the 3 or 4 inch square junction box attached to the trailer frame? The resetable fuse will be near thie junction box. You may have to lay on the ground and look up at the frame to see it.

ProfChuck · 02-02-2019, 08:37 PM

After listening to everyone and understanding your frustration, another thought came to mind. You may have a combination of problems - all mostly small - that, added together may have caused your battery to go bad. Yes it will charge, but, when you said your slide outs wouldn't go even on shore power, I recall somewhere someone had said that you still needed the battery in the circuit because the convertor couldn't handle the load alone. If the battery wasn't fully charged and putting too much load on the convertor then the slide outs may not work. Which brings us to the battery. In some cases the battery can go bad and give the indication that it is charged and working fine, when, in reality it is not (shows good on the meter but, won't last under load) and this can happen if it is totally discharged (may have happened at dealer) to a point where it won't take a real recharge. This would lead back to the slide outs not moving even under shore power. I have had this happen to my cars before, where the battery discharged and even though the charger said everything was fine it wouldn't sustain a load. Also, my conversations with personnel at a Batteries+ store, led to the person telling me that quite a few batteries stop working even when they are new or only a few months old (I think he said about 1/3rd - seems like a lot.) and maybe you got one of those. If you have access to another battery that you know is good and charged, you could put it in the circuit in place of your original battery and see if things work. Just remember to take the original battery out of the circuit or you may wreck the new one as well (don't jumper it for the test - remove it). If it is a fuse, the meter (you can get one at Harbor Freight for about $4.00) can help you track it down starting from the battery and working back to the convertor and then to each circuit if need be. I know it is frustrating, but, think of the camping story this is going to make a few years from now when you are comfy around the campfire and can talk about how you solved the problem! Good luck in tracking it down.

denlinsen · 02-03-2019, 11:11 PM

I find it hard to believe there are so many people on the forum saying that the dealership probably didn't plug in the rv while it was sitting on their lot for 3 weeks. How irresponsible is that?!! You bring your RV in for service and they don't bother to keep the batteries charged? No excuses

babock · 02-03-2019, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by denlinsen

I find it hard to believe there are so many people on the forum saying that the dealership probably didn't plug in the rv while it was sitting on their lot for 3 weeks. How irresponsible is that?!! You bring your RV in for service and they don't bother to keep the batteries charged? No excuses

I would be extremely surprised if I brought in my RV and they plugged it in. That's what battery disconnects are for, not that they would use them.

**bikendan** · 02-04-2019, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babock

I would be extremely surprised if I brought in my RV and they plugged it in. That's what battery disconnects are for, not that they would use them.

After I complained that the service guys failed to use the battery disconnect switch nor kept it plugged in, they said they would make sure the trailer was plugged into shore power.
When I arrived to pick it up, sure enough it was plugged in.
But the battery disconnect switch was engaged, so the battery wasn't being charged. It was dead.
The service foreman gave me a group 24 marine battery to get it home.

dianeotte · 02-04-2019, 02:14 PM

Gary (Coachman Customer Service manager) called me this morning. After speaking with him and some interesting revelations (and some smoke coming from an electrical connection) during our 'tear down' at the campground yesterday, I think we may have some idea of what is going on.

Here is a summary - we had the shore power disconnected and the 12V battery disconnected because of the weird clicking/pulsing every 20 seconds. So, we manually put in the slide, hooked up the truck, connected the 12V battery cables, connected the electrical wire to the truck and POOF! a small tendril of smoke came out right where the crank for the hitch is (we have a manual hitch). Then, the clicking at the 12V STOPPED!. So DH said - let's try something. Plugged in Shore power and YEP - slide moves in and out, all electrical appliances turn on, all 12v (lights, etc.) turn on with NO pulsing. So we put the slide in and out a couple of times and then resume 'packing up' to go home. But, a few rounds of the manual hitch and - battery clicking is back, pulsing is back. Go inside trailer and pulsing of 12V lights resumes. So it HAS to be some short/electrical connection up in the stem of the manually hitch. You can see a wire go up there but can't pull anything down.

Gary at Coachman confirmed there are two relays up there and are only accessible by removing the four large bolts on the hitch. He is thinking there is a short or a bad connection in one (or both ) of those relays. He also confirmed that the 'breaker/fuse' that is usually not far from the breakaway fuse on the inside of the hitch/frame is actually under the trailer in an enclosed panel that requires a special tool (6 sided star bolt???). So, not having the appropriate tools for that OR desire to take the top of the hitch off we are taking it in to have the professionals try their hand at it one more time. One thing is for sure, we are glad we didn't keep stuff plugged in while we went home to sleep. Seeing the poof of smoke go up might have been minimal but I just don't like to mess with electricity.

For those with comments about dealerships not keeping your battery charged - it seems only the really conscientious service departments care about this. We actually disconnected our battery when we left it the first time (because we KNOW about the trickle effect of all the stuff that drains it). So they connected it while they were working and testing the slide and left it that way. Therefore, we picked up a trailer with a dead battery. I guess they think you'll drive it around long enough for your truck alternator to charge it before you need to use it. The campground wasn't far enough away from the dealership to get much of a charge on our battery. But we are good now - have a great battery charger.

MR.M · 02-04-2019, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by denlinsen

I find it hard to believe there are so many people on the forum saying that the dealership probably didn't plug in the rv while it was sitting on their lot for 3 weeks. How irresponsible is that?!! You bring your RV in for service and they don't bother to keep the batteries charged? No excuses

How can a dealer keep everybody's batteries charged . most times they may have a 100 units in for repair sitting in there lot and are only able to work on maybe a dozen at a time for a big dealers . while in the bays they get plugged in but once moved to the lot not . they should use the battery disconnect to help prevent drains but they do what they can . unreasonable to expect them the keep all the units they stored plugged in

aceinspp · 02-04-2019, 02:29 PM

Thanks for providing the info on your issues. I,m sure this will come in handy to someone that may encounter what you did. Hope it gets fixed soon. Later RJD

**Mr. Dan** · 02-04-2019, 02:38 PM

dianeotte, when you mention “hitch”, you’re talking about your tongue jack, right? The hitch is something different.

CedarCreekWoody · 02-04-2019, 02:59 PM

Thanks for the update. Please let us know what the dealer finds when he repairs it.

Crabman · 02-04-2019, 03:10 PM

I have the same trailer, 283RKS but older it's a 2017. Mine must be set up different because I have a power tongue jack, which is standard on the
283RKS Legacy edition. It has one wire going to it with a fuse. I cannot locate any access panel under the trailer where the wires go in with star bolts or anything else lol, unless they mean the underbelly cover bolts. If there are fuses or relays buried under there somewhere it would be good to know where they are so please keep us updated and good luck.

Jayhawker · 02-04-2019, 04:03 PM

We have camped in cold weather and use our electric heaters instead of propane when we have 120 volt power available. Here are two (Marinco brand) examples of how to get another source into your camper without running extension cords thru doors, windows or slide out seals. I used a 1 7/8" hole saw and made an opening in the slide out wall, fastened the inlet with the provided screws and sealed it. Ran 12/2 conductor romex from inlet to a junction box at the dinette and a 20amp receptacle. You do need a heavy duty 12 gauge extension cord from the power pedestal to the inlet. No more tripped breakers running two heaters at the same time. Hope this helps.

**Mr. Dan** · 02-04-2019, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MR.M

How can a dealer keep everybody's batteries charged . most times they may have a 100 units in for repair sitting in there lot and are only able to work on maybe a dozen at a time for a big dealers . while in the bays they get plugged in but once moved to the lot not . they should use the battery disconnect to help prevent drains but they do what they can . unreasonable to expect them the keep all the units they stored plugged in

Based on my experience, you might have over-generalized the statement I highlighted above. All this may be true for the service department where you work but it was not true for the two dealership service departments that worked on my unit.

In the case of my selling dealership, I took my unit back to them 3-4 times. In one particular case, I went to pick it up after a couple of weeks and the service manager told me this: "We had your unit here in a bay. To keep from dragging your power cord out of your trailer, we used one of ours. Well, one of our guys needed to use a power cord and he took the one we were using on your trailer. And, no (he said)... our guy didn't turn the battery disconnect switch to disconnect and, by the way, someone left a light on in the front storage bay. So we ruined your new battery. We installed a new one at no charge to you so you should be good to go."

Next example: I took my unit for what amounted to be a $2900+ job (needed an axle replaced for one thing). I asked the service desk guy where I should drop the trailer. He said drop on the driveway - right where it sits... said "we're gonna fetch it with our fork lift and take it right in the shop." A week later, I passed by the shop and my trailer was sitting in the back lot (understandable). I called the service number and said "I see my trailer in the back lot and not plugged up. Did you throw the battery disconnect switch to the Disconnect setting?" Him:
"No, we didn't we forgot. I'll run out there right now and do it." When I picked it up one of the hands said "I think your battery is bad. It wouldn't lift the front of the trailer when we parked it for you to pick it up." Two months later and 350 miles from home, I had the privilege of replacing that battery." I decided I couldn't watch all of the service technicians all of the time.

MR.M · 02-04-2019, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

Based on my experience, you might have over-generalized the statement I highlighted above. All this may be true for the service department where you work but it was not true for the two dealership service departments that worked on my unit.

In the case of my selling dealership, I took my unit back to them 3-4 times. In one particular case, I went to pick it up after a couple of weeks and the service manager told me this: "We had your unit here in a bay. To keep from dragging your power cord out of your trailer, we used one of ours. Well, one of our guys needed to use a power cord and he took the one we were using on your trailer. And, no (he said)... our guy didn't turn the battery disconnect switch to disconnect and, by the way, someone left a light on in the front storage bay. So we ruined your new battery. We installed a new one at no charge to you so you should be good to go."

Next example: I took my unit for what amounted to be a $2900+ job (needed an axle replaced for one thing). I asked the service desk guy where I should drop the trailer. He said drop on the driveway - right where it sits... said "we're gonna fetch it with our fork lift and take it right in the shop." A week later, I passed by the shop and my trailer was sitting in the back lot (understandable). I called the service number and said "I see my trailer in the back lot and not plugged up. Did you throw the battery disconnect switch to the Disconnect setting?" Him:
"No, we didn't we forgot. I'll run out there right now and do it." When I picked it up one of the hands said "I think your battery is bad. It wouldn't lift the front of the trailer when we parked it for you to pick it up." Two months later and 350 miles from home, I had the privilege of replacing that battery." I decided I couldn't watch all of the service technicians all of the time.

I don't work in a service dept , and your experience is sort of generalized also to your experience . many RV dealers are fairly large with not enough outlets to keep all rv batteries charged . I agree the dealers need to take steps when units are sitting for some time, like using the battery disconnect or taking the leads off the battery . And surly when they call for you to come get your unit it should be pulled out where they can have the batteries charging before you pick up . but we don't live in a perfect world and most dealers service depts are either to busy/don't give a rats patutie or just have poor business models or management . imo

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