ron.dittmer wrote:
Snowman9000 wrote:
...a two battery tray would not be hard for a welder to make and install. That's high on my list.
Our PC has an off-the-shelf 2 battery tray. I think you could easily order one, with or without drawer glides. If you want, I could get the manufactures name and maybe part number off mine which has latches and glides....a two battery tray would not be hard for a welder to make and install. That's high on my list.
The Trail Lite's battery is only removable from under the chassis. There is a teeny maintenance access door in the side wall, although IIRC some earliest models didn't even have that. It's poor.
The shelf is welded in place. Replacing it entails cutting it off and fabbing something bigger. Not too hard for a welder, but that's the only way to do it. If we keep this rig, and we just are not sure of that, I will have the local welder make a tray to hold at least two batteries, and will put AGMs under there.
Currently RV-less but not done yet.
2007 Phoenix Cruiser model 2350, with 2006 Jeep Liberty in-tow
After that, I never could get a FW reading. The wires ran under the dinette base and into that little angled, carpeted baseboard thing that is under the table. So I figured I'd take out the 8 or 10 screws that hold the dinette base to the floor and follow the wires. It turns out the wires went into that cavity, were wire-nutted to two other wires that went back into the dinette base before going underground to the back. Grrr. All I really had to do was get that one side of the dinette base loose and pull the wires into the work zone. But by that time I had the base completely removed and set aside.
![[image]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iKNw1YPda9I/UcXOHsnrGcI/AAAAAAAABOg/0OulY1BAFqU/s800/144.jpg)
I guess the red rubber thing houses a set of resistors. I discovered that the common wire (red) was pulled apart at the resistor thingy. I found a new resistor harness of this exact model for $6.29 with free shipping on ebay, and it's on the way.
![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/smile.gif "smile")
I've already put the dinette base back in place because now I will keep the wires within it. BTW, I still cannot see how that angled carpeted baseboard thing is attached. Cheeze, you got your ears on? You must have dealt with that thing in your project?
Disconnect the chassis battery.
Remove the radio. I can provide tips if you have the Blaupunkt.
I found a factory four wire flat plug hanging loose. Originally it contained red/white, brown, black, and white wires. TL had cut the brown off right at the plug, and connected that wire to the radio's main power wire (red). The brown is only hot when the key is at IGN.
But the red/white wire in that four wire plug is hot at all times. Cut it off at the plug just like was done with the brown.
Hook up a SPDT (single pole double throw) switch as follows:
Side 1----chassis brown wire
Center----red wire to radio
Side 2----chassis red/white wire
You will have to extend the wires a foot or so to get them to a good mounting place. Mount the switch on your dash. Reconnect the battery, reprogram your radio, and you're done. You now have a radio when camping! Just remember to turn the switch back to the IGN side when you are not using it. Otherwise the radio's display and such will be draining your chassis battery. That's a good point to make, this will be drawing from your chassis battery when you use it camping. If you want to run it from the house battery, you'll have to fish a wire from your house system up to the new switch, and use it instead of the red/white chassis wire. For me, using the chassis battery was a lot easier. We have the EM start switch if the chassis battery gets run down. Hope to not do that, however.
You can get a SPDT switch like this, which mounts easily in a hole you drill.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.........2062511&filterName=Type&filterValue=SPDT
![[image]](http://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pRS1C-2160420w345.jpg)
I had a different one on hand. It says 1/0 on it (on and off) which is sort of wrong technically. But for us ON means it can be used for camping, and OFF means it cannot.
![[image]](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z2ghE_GHMfM/UcXOidXmnOI/AAAAAAAABOs/8qamXMCZujI/s800/145.jpg)
Chas Morristown, NJ
Trail Lite
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So basically it would have to be yanked off the wall and floor?
I don't see a need to do it, but you never know.
Btw, on my 213 I could unbolt the battery frame from the coach base.
Good info. You may be the right person to figger out whether the TL 213 is wired so that whenever you are camping on shore power, EVERYTHING is ON.
and the coach batt charger is charging BOTH batts.
If so, your chassis batt will not go dead by radio at campground. I think the emergency start solenoid is redundant in this situation.
I wuld love to know if this is the case. I once replaced this ES solenoid with no discernable difference resulting.
* This post was edited 06/23/13 03:46am by burlmart *
2005 Trail Lite 213 B-Plus w/ 6.0 Chevy
Here is my post of the battery interconnection stuff.:
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseac........tid/157894/gotomsg/26380317.cfm#26380317
Only two things cause the house and chassis batteries to be connected.
1) engine running, OR
2) EM start switch
Well, OK, if there is mis-wiring, that could do it too. You can look at your wiring and compare it to what I posted.
Possibly your EM switch is on all the time. The way to test it would be, with the engine off, and the house battery switch on, check for 12v on the two small terminals of the upper relay (solenoid) in my photo/diagram. That relay is the one that connects the two batteries. If you have 12v on its small terminals with the engine off, the EM switch is sending it.
There is something that I'm missing in that diagram but I'm not sure what. I'll think about it some more. What I recall is that I'm not sure how, when you plug in to shore power and don't turn the battery switch on, charging power still gets to the battery. Or does it? Anyway, that's a separate issue.
PS: If you go look at my linked post, you'll see another right below it with links to your original threads on this. You already did the test I recommended and got voltage on there when there should not be. To me, that sure suggests a bad EM switch. One way to test that would be to disconnect a wire or two. I can provide detail if you want to proceed.
* This post was edited 06/23/13 07:48am by Snowman9000 *
I got so bummed doing all sorts of volyage tests with this or that system going that I just gave up. After eight years, the chassis battery is still going, so I interpret that as a good sign that maybe I should let it be? I looked at the water in the house batt and it was OK even after a year (maybe 2 or 3 y/o WM marine).
Next time I have to open that solenoid magic box, I will compare it to your pic.