Forum Discussion

texan21's avatar
texan21
Explorer
Jun 28, 2013

Help I'm melting....

I have a 2012 Jayco Seneca... and I'm sweating to death.

For some reason my two compressors keep kicking OFF when we run the generator and run down the road. The fans stay on but the cooling shuts off.

I'll pull over, start the generator (if it is off). Then I go and turn on the main power. Next, I go to the first a/c and switch it to AUTO and COOL and then set the temp at about 80 or 78.

I do the same to the bedroom a/c also, same settings.

I'll get back on the road and after maybe 10 minutes the cooling quits and the fan continues to blow at the same speed (just hot air coming out).


Right now I'm typing this up doing a test. We just arrived at our destination (after all 5 people sitting within blowing distance of the cab a/c).

I have the generator going and the a/c's are back on. I left them off for about 3-5 minutes and then moved them back to auto and cool. So far, after being on about 5 minutes they are still cooling.


I've searched around but there doesn't seem to be one thing that is happening to make these suckers kick off. Only thing I saw was that the transfer switch was bad on someone's Winneabago.

Could it be a highway wind thing or a vibration/ bump thing? Something must be wrong then because it renders the motorhome useless as a "mobile house" because it's so hot.

Any ideas? It's 105 here in central texas and I don't really want to ride home like that.

Side note: The a/c's never have issues when plugged in to shore power. I have thrown a breaker on the generator one time when I failed to shut off the main power and the a/c units before starting the generator.


Also unrelated or maybe related, if running a generator can you go ahead and plug in to shore power before shutting down a generator and the main power or do you need to power down everything before plugging in to shore power and then power everything back up?

44 Replies

  • WAG! Could the condensers be "starved" for air while in motion? I'm thinking wind draft, etc.
  • Take it off of AUTO and place the fan on HIGH. Sounds like your A/Cs are icing up and as long as it stays on AUTO, you will have the problem.
  • I tried that also to see if it was too much load etc...

    Same thing, the compressor shut off on the first unit. Tried it with the other unit going, same result.


    I can maybe see that there would be some kind of switch on the compressor to make it not come on if jostled too much but in my opinion I haven't driven on any washboard road, just normal Texas highways and side roads.
  • I can't say that I know your problem, but I would try running with just one on and see what it does that way.