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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Morrisville, VT, USA
    Posts
    2,399

    Default RV ruminations.

    Like I've mentioned, elsewhere, the Seneca is fairly lux, but. --- Though it has some pretty classy stuff, like a huge microwave/convection oven over the stove, and a piano hinged toilet door, with 11 SS screws on each side, making it the most solid door I've ever seen in an RV, that doesn't mean that poopieness can't occur. Like the micro wave falling down onto the counter on our maiden voyage! Or, like both pocket doors that separate the lav/shower room from the bedroom and the kitchen coming loose, waaay back in the pockets!

    Just dealt with the pocket door issue; the microwave having long-since been fixed. The pocket doors turned out to be accessible from inside the toilet, but it meant removing the cabinet over the flush, and cutting out two layers of wall behind it to do the BR side door, and cutting a section out of the wall on the kitchen side of the toilet wall. Wonder that the door track didn't fatigue and fracture inside the pocket on both doors. Got lots of experience, now, running a Ryobi 18V up-side-down.

    As with most RV's that I've had any kind of experience in, the Seneca is a wiring nightmare. Little rhyme, nor reason to it, and no kind of diagrams to help yuh. So far, I've by-passed the original main slide switch and doped out the wiring and used a momentary two-way toggle switch. I've given up on the outside radio, which I wouldn't use, anyway. It looks like the Jayco factory used a whole lot of suitcase connectors under the kick-panels in the cab, and under the switch plates for the interior lights by the front coach door. The main awning control is wired the same way, in that same mess. Don't know about you, but I hate suitcase connectors.

    Suppose I should consider myself lucky that I didn't burn the whole she-bang to a crisp within the first 2 weeks that we had it. Hadn't bought the Wells Cargo trailer for the Miata, yet, and was using a soft car cover. Went away, one day, and wadded up the cover and shoved it into the smallest basement cubby for the day. Came home and went to get the Miata cover. Smelled smoke and opened the door to find it billowing out the opening. Yanked the cover out and found a smoldering gap that proved to fit right over the driver's side windshield. Stamped out the glow and went back and checked the bin. The side-mounted 12V light fixture had a melted lens, and the bulb had blown when the plastic melted to it, but, apparently still glowed for a while. I disabled that fixture, and resolved to never stuff something into any of the bins. There's a light fixture in each of all 9 storage bins, plus one under the water-works/waste door. The switches are rockers, and easily turned on. The bulbs will get real hot if used too long, especially if you stuff a lot of insulation around them, like I did. Changing to all LED's when I can.

    The Seneca is proof that one has to plan on just as much attention to up-keep as you would a permanent dwelling. God help you if you don't have some tools and skills, if you're gonna do any RV'in.
    2008 Jaco Seneca 35' motor home (Kodiak 5500 chassis). Pulling 18' Wells Cargo enclosed trailer, with 2016 Miata in it.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Newberg Oregon
    Posts
    12,282

    Default

    Sorry to hear of the mess.

    Having done a bus conversion and been around a few factory high end bus builds I can tell ya that anything less than the high end stuff can be a nightmare as far as wiring goes.

    Hope ya get it all figured out....
    (1) 1995 Suburban 2500 4x4
    (1) 1997 Astro
    (1) 2005 Suburban (Papa Smurf)
    THIS IS BOW TIE COUNTRY

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Morrisville, VT, USA
    Posts
    2,399

    Default

    Not a great problem, really, Robyn. Just a matter of doping out 1 lead at a time as each issue occurs. Something like tracing any trailer wiring problem that all of us who have had to do with any trailer with lights. Huh; never will forget the U-Haul 2 wheel car dolly that I rented in Fa, many years back.The tech who checked me out insisted thst no ground wire was needed! No? Guess who had to buy a piece of wire and hard- wire my Blazer to the thing to get any lights for the trip to Vt? I still meet people who believe that a trailer ball will furnish a consistent ground.
    Reminds me of a little issue that my son and I had at home for a few years, back when he kept a few geese. Think a goose won't hurt your a$$ with it's beak? Dang birds'll strip wire faster than I can with the best tool I've ever owned!
    I'll bet you diagramed your wiring on that bus as you went forward with the project? So far, all I've ever seen with our rv's, will be manuals for each appliance, but nothing from the appliance to/from the source.
    Last edited by DickWells; 11-05-2018 at 08:14.
    2008 Jaco Seneca 35' motor home (Kodiak 5500 chassis). Pulling 18' Wells Cargo enclosed trailer, with 2016 Miata in it.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,248

    Talking

    Trailer lights have problems ? LOL. I tell the wife that the RV is our home when we're in it.
    So that means, if she does the house work then she fixes it. That would include changing flat tires !
    You know I'm kidding.
    I've bought brand new high end trailers and had to fix wiring problems on the first trip.
    One time was an intermittent bad ground. What a fun thing to trace. I had to run a new ground wire almost the length of the trailer. Couldn't get to the spot where it was faulty.
    So just ran the whole thing from the converter to the switches.
    Then one time in our brand new 48 foot living quarter horse trailer while on our first trip we made it five miles from our ranch and the now full 100 gallon fresh water tank fell down from under the front of the trailer onto the road.
    The factory only had 3 of the screws make it into the frame from the strapping holding the tank. They used self tapping screws. What a fun day that was.
    Yep if you're going to go RV ing you better have tools and skills.
    Happy New Year to everyone.
    0000000

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    CA
    Posts
    13,573

    Arrow

    Yep!
    Those who RV complain a LOT less about their automotive electrical problems. As bad as they are (all brands), they don't hold a candle to any brand of RV. If you're fortunate enough to find the wiring diagram, good luck actually making sense of it, or matching it to reality most of the time. At the very least, you'll expand your 4-letter vocabulary.
    1985 Blazer 6.2
    2001 GMC 2500HD D/A
    dmaxmaverick@thedieselpage.com

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,248

    Talking

    When we had the Mercedes, I had to learn German cuss words !
    0000000

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