Spare 12volt fuse location #6

[Magnatudes]

In the Isata 3 RWM I have an unused fuse location in slot #6. I figured it was not used but I traced it to a red 14AWG in the wire bundle behind the charger/fuse/breaker panel. I plugged in a fuse out of curiosity & then heard something motorized run. Turns out, it is running the T4 Satellite antenna like if it were running to seek it's home position. I have not used the coach yet and it's been stored in a barn since delivery so I have not had a chance to install and setup the Satellite receiver.

There is a Sat on/off switch up front mounted next to the Jensen stereo. It does not seem to be doing anything. I have not pulled it out to test yet. But I have to wonder why this spare/unused fuse location energizes the Sat dish. Can someone explain how the power to the Sat is wired?

[Magnatudes]

Today I unmounted the Sat switch to look & test wiring. There is a coach red wire spliced to small gauge red lead in a black jacketed cable that also has a small gauge black lead. I am assuming that these are the Sat power leads. There is also a white coach wire which connects to one side of the switch. The small black lead from the cable is on the other side of the switch. (switching ground ?) I suspect that the Sat dish itself is grounded somewhere which would explain why when #6 fuse is inserted, the Sat does it's initiating dance seeking home position, whether or not the Sat switch is in the off or on position.
Seems like I may be experiencing a quality control issue with Sat option not tested for basic operation. I'm an ole bowler so I'll call it a "spare".


Can I get some input from Dynamax verifying that we should be changing the switch over to the red coach switching red lead in cable & tie the black lead to the white coach that is now on the switch?

[Magnatudes]

I guess I am talking to myself again. As mentioned once before, Dynamax has a QA problem in the electrical area. Sloppy. The Sat switch was wired to switch ground to an already grounded wire. Ingenius! The 12 volt lead was wired to supply 12 volts to the Sat permanently. Since the fuse in the #6 slot was missing & marked "spare", I am assuming that the electrical folks either never tested the Sat. Flipping this switch on and off obviously did nothing. Plugging in a fuse is slot #6 energized the Sat initiating the homing cycle. I changed this to switch 12 volts as it should have been done in the first place.

Also, the powered antenna 12 volt lead for the XITE was wired to the battery power so it was energized continuously, whether the ignition was on or off.

The VIM910 was also wired to the same battery power so it was energized continuously.

The grounds for all the devices installed inside the dash are a crimping nightmare with all sorts of wire gauge changes. Grounds should all be terminated in one place.

Jensen power antenna was just shoved in behind the radio.

Wiring added under the driver seat was a spider's nest.

The 2AWG battery lead from the coach batteries to the chassis battery breaker under the seat was nearly touching the frame due to a poorly mounted breaker. This breaker has a plastic-like housing & was mounted with one tiny screw. The cable ends have crimped-on copper lugs that that had some electrical tape unfurling on them that instead should have been covered with a thick shrink tube.

The wiring above the passenger behind the TV inside the cabinet is a spider's nest.

The wiring under the rear of the coach, especially the tapping into the Mercedes trailer tow receptacle, with spliced-in taillight LED load resistors & fuse, was just hanging there and taped up with electrical tape, all susceptible to corrosion from weather exposure.

And this is a $100K+ investment! C'mon man! As is many manufacturing industries, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) can go a long way in the QA department.

[bclemens]

Sorry, I was on vacation. So while I have read most of the threads, I tried to hit emergency stuff first and anything that needed a little more input would have to wait until I got back. I'll see what I can find out.

[Magnatudes]

Brian, all understandable. Hope your vacation was relaxing. I was thinking that someone else would address my question about the Sat wiring but it was too obvious it was wired wrong. Minor issue. I resolved it myself. But, my message to Dynamax is like I stated earlier. I think it would be beneficial for Dynamax to review their QA SOPs that are in place in the area of 12volt electrical/electronic work.

Yesterday I crawled under the rear of the coach and made some more changes, hopefully for the better. I added a Valterra A04-5094BK Adjustable EZ Hose Carrier using 5" muffler clamps bolted to some existing holes on the black frame extension up in front of the stabilizers. It tucked right in there nicely. I drilled a single mounting hole in each muffler clamp and using muffler clamps provided the ability to tighten up against the hose carrier. This will keep the nasty hose out of the storage compartments.

This addition caused me to move the wad of relay, fuse, load resistors, etc. further back and I stashed them up inside the black frame extension near the rear bumper. This location will protect these even more from the elements and places these parts in a location that is easier to reach for us old farts, especially the fuse & relay.
I also relocated the trailer tow receptacle to a higher location with a new mounting bracket. The existing location exposed the wire bundle as low as the drag bars & I think it would take a few steep driveways before these wires would be scraped off by the pavement. I'll die grind off the original bracket & paint the exposed cut.

Welcome back!

[bclemens]

1. We have found a way to incorporate the EZ hose carrier on most floor plans now. The only one we have any issue with the is the FW.

2. I have had a few issue on the sat stuff, that we thought was corrected, but I have passed this information on to engineer and production to review all the installs and make sure we have the proper diagram and that it is part of the testing procedures.

We are in the process of harnessing the 3 series which should clean all the wiring up. We just lost an electrical engineer. The CB is done. We moving to the FW and RW shortly.

[Magnatudes]

Pics of adjustable EZ Hose Carrier under Isata 3 RW.