Forum Discussion

LongWeekends's avatar
LongWeekends
Explorer
May 17, 2016

AC shuts off after only running a few minutes

I have a 2009 Monaco Camelot DSQ. It is the 42' model with 3 AC's on the roof. When I turn them on they only run a few minutes and then shut off. The thermostat goes blank. After 5 minutes or so they kick back on, the thermostat's screen comes back and all is normal. Then they shut off, etc.

What I know - it happens with both 50amp service and gen power.
Nothing else in the coach seems to be affected.
The EMS recognizes 50amp or gen power and shows uninterrupted power to the AC(and everything else) even when the AC units shut down.
All three units shut down and fire back up at the same time
We replaced the thermostat and the problem remained exactly the same.

EDIT FOR MORE INFO -
Rear AC and middle AC run perfectly when they are running solo or together.
Front AC cuts out running solo and/or kills everything when running with the other units.

So...the problem is the front AC unit.

Where do I look next?

Thanks in advance!
  • Your Tstat should be controlled by the front AC control board. There are 2 power 12 volt wires to that control board. Make sure you have 12 volts positive and negative on the RED and BLACK wire feeding the front control board. This power wire set controls ALL functions of all 3 control boards. The 2nd AC control board is connected to the front and the 3rd control board to the Middle(2nd) by a phone type communication cable. So, your problem is either the Front AC control board or the telephone type communication cable between the Wall Tstat and the front Control board. It is extremely rare for the control board to be at fault on these type problems. At the front AC, you have a harness that has 2 phone type connections on 2 pigtails. Those pigtails are black. The wires running to the middle AC and the wall tstat will either be white or gray. Check the connections on the phone type modular plugs, disconnect them and look for corrosion. Your year and brand should have lo profile Penguin models. These are susceptible to excess humidity where these wires are and cause corrosion. The fix if you find rust/corrosion on the modular plugs is to cut the modular plugs OFF and install new modular plugs. If there is NO corrosion then the problem will be a defective phone type cable from any off the AC units and the wall Tstat. ONE shorted cable in any of these cables can cause a problem. The usual test is to take the wall tstat up to the front AC Modular cable connections and plug it directly into the front AC board with the Middle supply cable disconnected at the front AC and see if the front functions. If it does, you then leave the 2nd cable disconnected and reconnect the wall cable at the front board and reconnect the tstat at the wall and see if it still functions correctly. If it DOES your problem is isolated to the 2 rear AC unit control cables. If it does NOT, then your problem is between the front AC and the wall tstat on that cable. Doug
  • Your thermostat is powered with 12v DC.
    Had the same type of problem on my country coach it was a bad connection in the wiring harness going to the thermostat. My thermostat would go blank just like yours when I had several lights in use connected to the same harness. It could be a loose ground wire. Mine turned out to be a harness running next to the refrigerator and the heat had caused the connection to fail.