Two questions: fridge OOPS! and battery boost relay
Two questions on our 2007 Itasca Navion. I've asked these questions of Winnebago Friday, and will surely hear back next week, but I'll appreciate hearing from the brain trust here, too. Later edit: I talked with a Winnebago rep yesterday and got some good advice; and then learned some more by inspecting the RV. I'm posting what I learned here as a reply down below, for the use of future folks with these issues.
Fridge oops and testing: at the end of a camping trip recently, I accidentally left the fridge (Norcold NS series) on, running on propane (even left the propane valve open), while parking twice, for periods of 20 minutes or so each time, at front-to-back angles for the RV of more than two degrees - probably more like five, although I didn’t look. The manual calls for side-to-side tolerances for the fridge (and thus front-to-back for the RV) of two degrees. As soon as we realized the problem, we pulled over and turned off the fridge and propane.
The RV is now parked in its level parking spot. Can I safely test whether I fried the refrigerator by turning it on to run on propane for several days? Are there tests I can perform/components I can examine to determine whether I broke it?
Boost relay: This relay connects the house battery to the motor battery, to jump-start the RV if the motor battery’s gone flat. It hasn’t worked since we bought the RV used; I can hear it “hit” somewhere near the cab when I sit in the driver’s seat and toggle the dash switch, but I’m not clear that it’s connecting the two batteries.
I thought having one of those boost packs would make repairing this unnecessary; but the battery went bad recently (at home, yay!), and I found that Mercedes, and the battery manufacturer, make it almost impossible to get alligator clamps on the battery terminals. So fixing the boost relay is now on the “must do” list.
The parts manual, often helpful here, doesn’t call anything a boost relay, as best I can tell. There’s a part, #008188-01-000, that looks like it might be the part, from the drawing; but the manual doesn’t show the location.
So, to test it, I have to find it first; any ideas where it is?
I think I know how to test it for function: trace the cable from the house battery to the relay, then pull the battery-size cable from the other terminal and activate the relay; I should find voltage on the "out" terminal when it's engaged. If not, it's relay replacement time. If the relay's OK, I then trace the cable from the relay to the motor battery and run the same test, with the cable disconnected from the motor battery. If that's not showing voltage, the cable's bad. Yes?
Fridge oops and testing: at the end of a camping trip recently, I accidentally left the fridge (Norcold NS series) on, running on propane (even left the propane valve open), while parking twice, for periods of 20 minutes or so each time, at front-to-back angles for the RV of more than two degrees - probably more like five, although I didn’t look. The manual calls for side-to-side tolerances for the fridge (and thus front-to-back for the RV) of two degrees. As soon as we realized the problem, we pulled over and turned off the fridge and propane.
The RV is now parked in its level parking spot. Can I safely test whether I fried the refrigerator by turning it on to run on propane for several days? Are there tests I can perform/components I can examine to determine whether I broke it?
Boost relay: This relay connects the house battery to the motor battery, to jump-start the RV if the motor battery’s gone flat. It hasn’t worked since we bought the RV used; I can hear it “hit” somewhere near the cab when I sit in the driver’s seat and toggle the dash switch, but I’m not clear that it’s connecting the two batteries.
I thought having one of those boost packs would make repairing this unnecessary; but the battery went bad recently (at home, yay!), and I found that Mercedes, and the battery manufacturer, make it almost impossible to get alligator clamps on the battery terminals. So fixing the boost relay is now on the “must do” list.
The parts manual, often helpful here, doesn’t call anything a boost relay, as best I can tell. There’s a part, #008188-01-000, that looks like it might be the part, from the drawing; but the manual doesn’t show the location.
So, to test it, I have to find it first; any ideas where it is?
I think I know how to test it for function: trace the cable from the house battery to the relay, then pull the battery-size cable from the other terminal and activate the relay; I should find voltage on the "out" terminal when it's engaged. If not, it's relay replacement time. If the relay's OK, I then trace the cable from the relay to the motor battery and run the same test, with the cable disconnected from the motor battery. If that's not showing voltage, the cable's bad. Yes?
