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Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Yahoo Message Number: 84546
Happy Holidays to all!

I was looking at a 2008 Magna Rembrandt when I noticed a startling difference. The coach was listed at 17,XXX miles, which is what the Silverleaf display showed, but when I turned on the engine, it showed 28,XXX. I'm not concerned with how many miles it has on it (both are low, in my opinion and I'd actually prefer a coach that's been well broken in), but how/why would the two systems indicate such different total miles driven? (And yes, I was looking at the total miles on the Siverleaf, not the trip portion).
Second question. We're looking at this as a "four season" coach and was happy to find this one had three different heating systems; aqua hot, radient floor throughout and the heatpump from the 3 ac systems. What I was surprised by was the statement by the salesman that the raident floors were "a top problem" for all CC and were not very reliable. As this was probably going to be my primary system for heat, I'm curious what your experiences have been.

Here's to a white Christmas!
Mark

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84548
Mark, in my experience the radiant floor has not been a problem at all, just be sure to keep rubber backed throw rugs off of it so as not to build up hot spots. I doubt the floor is going to give you enough heat to keep the coach toasty, unless you are in a very mild climate. IMHO you will use the Aquahot and/or heat pumps.

--

Lee (leozbrowski@...) 2007 Country Coach Intrigue 12153
CAT C-13

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84549
I have had no issues with mine, But I do know there were some initial problems when the system was introduced into new models, with wire dressing and placement practices of the sensor for the thermostat. I think this would be a non issue for you in this case. TWI 21004 Intrigue 11731

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84551
Mark,

We had huge problems with the one on our 2004 Intrigue. In fact it had to be shipped back to the factory for repair and then a redo at Reeves Custom Coach. Tiles were completely destroyed and them replace after the rewiring was done. It took months.
We have had no problems with our 2006 Affinity. You will not be using your floor heat to heat the coach. All it really does is heat your tiles so walking around in the coach is more comfortable.

Martin

2006 Affinity
#6543

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84552
One time when my Aqua hot flame sensor failed. I had to use the floor heat and the and the heat pumps when in Flagstaff, AZ. The temp was in the high 20's which made the heat pumps in operative, so the floor set at 104 deg F was the soul source of heat for about 5 hours. I put a work light with a 150 lamp in the plumbing bay. I don't plan on making a habit of the practice, one night was enough.
TWI 2004 Intrigue 11731

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84553
Mark,

We are still on the fence about our radiant floor heating. My DW like to put rugs down, so if we think we are going to use it, we must remove all the rugs. Probably the biggest thing about it, is getting it turned on and the temp we want (we have not been able to do this yet). The 2 thermostats that control the front and back, to us are competely useless. the manual is a nightmare to understand. All we really want is a thermostat that turns it on/off and u can set the temp and UR done. These thermostats have nite or day, hours of nite & day to be on and for us, it's either no heat or extreme heat, where U can't stand on that portion of the floor in bare feet or socks and it's directly in front of the bathroom sink.
Dave

07 Country Coach Allure 430 #31495 12 Jeep GC Toad Mountains of So Cal
Dave & Jodi
2007 CC Allure 40’ Tag #31495
2012 Jeep GC
Big Bear Lake, Ca & Henderson, Nev

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84555
In our experience rugs without a rubber back are fine. We use lighter weight loose woven natural fabrics and all is well after 4 years.

Lee

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84556
Mark,

As Lee said check to see if it is kilometers . Also the silverleaf can be easily cleared and reset so I would say the odometer reading is accurate . As for the floor heat we rely on our heated floor for our no 1 source of heat. It is silent and not only heats the coach but also keeps my golf clubs warm and dry down below. We keep the floor at 82 on a chilly day an bump it up to 90 at night. We do turn the aqua hot on for 30 min. to an hour in the morning sometimes to get it toasty in the morning if it is close to freezing outside. The three heat pumps are noisy and I find that if it is too cold for the floor to keep up they are ineffective at that temp anyway. Aqua hot can keep us warm in any temp but is a little noisy after you get used to just the floors on. I do tell people that if we ever switched coaches the radiant floor is something we would have to have. After full timing in our fourth year ours has been trouble free an can also be programmed to come on automatically which is nice for Arizona where the days are hot but the bites are chilly.
Marc 05 affinity #6429

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84557
On my 09 Magna , we use the electric floor heat as the base for keeping the coach warm. It seems that some are confused about the thermostat for the floor heat. The temperature you set on the floor heat is NOT room temperature , but rather floor temperature. It has NOTHING to do with the temperature in the coach. If you want the floor at 80, it keeps the floor at 80 !! It is independent of room temperature. The floor controller would have been better to be marked in , say 1 to 10, rather than a number that is like , room temperature. The colder it gets, the more we raise the temperature of the floor. Since the floor electric heat , heats the floor , it is also the biggest heater of the basement. The heat radiates up and down. I would say that we heat the coach , solely , with the electric floor heat to about 40F. It is obviously quiet and the RV park pays for the heat. Our Aquahot is the newer variety , with 2-1650 watt elements in the tank. Between the electric floor and the Aquahot heating elements, we heat the coach to temps as low as 30F, as long as the wind isn't blowing too hard , and adding to the heat loss. In the 4 years we have had the coach, we have NEVER used the roof heat pumps, as we get adequate heat from the floor and the heating elements. The heat pumps are also noisy ! Note that if your coach has the HydroHot units, the water reservoir in the unit is so small , that the single electric element has a hard time keeping up with the on/off cycles. The single element Aquahot, when used in conjunction with the electric floor seems to get to a lower outside temperature due to the 11 gallon reservoir. In summary , the electric floor heat requires a bit of manual adjustment and guessing how cold it will get, so that you set it at the right temperature over night. The reason why the floor heat is not controlled by the room temperature, is that it would likely be at quite high temperature and burn your feet if you used it as the only source of heat. It is designed to be an ancillary , or secondary heating. We would not own a coach that does not have floor heat !

Ron Baran 09 Magna 7025

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84558
It is worth to repeat, at this time, that the Silverleaf only takes available data from the ECM and other devices and reports back to you , in the form you request. If you want miles /gallon versus Instant MPG , it takes the info from the ECM and gives you the answer. You can set the readout to be Kilometers or miles. Kilometers times .6208 gives you miles.

Ron Baran 09 Magna 7025

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84559
Mark,

When I replaced the Silverleaf in my Allure it did not show the mileage accumulated before it was installed. After that the coach odometer was always about 40,000 higher than the Silverleaf.
I am surprised to hear that anyone has had a problem with the heated floor. My Allure had 8 years and 120,000 miles and the floor was still perfect. So good that Jan would not even discuss a different coach unless it had heated floors at a minimum.
My current Magna has the heated floor and it works perfectly. I have never heard of anyone having the floor fail though I'm sure it does happen.

Good luck

George in Birmingham
'03 Magna 6298
George in Birmingham
2003 Magna 6298

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84560
Dave,

The thermostat can be a bit of a nightmare until you get it figured out. Let me tell you the simple way I use mine and it may lead you to an understanding of the system.
First, I figured out how to disable the clock. It is a setting and the manual will lead you there if you have the patience. I disable the clock because I really don't want temperature changes automated.

That leave three separate temperature settings.

Night I have set to 93 degrees and is only used in cold weather.
Day is set to 83 degrees and is used as desired in cool weather.
Vacation is set to 72 degrees and is my usual, default setting.
And to not use it at all I turn the breaker off.

To turn on night temperature push the moon button.
To get to day temperature push the sun button.
To get to vacation setting push moon and sun together.
I know this isn't much but I hope it will help. If you can figure it out you will no longer be on the fence.

Good luck.

George in Birmingham
'03 Magna 6298
George in Birmingham
2003 Magna 6298

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84561
Good catch, Z-Man!

Re the radiant floor issue, this is the single best feature in our coach. Wouldn't be without one.

Ricardo

04 Intrigue #11830

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #14 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84562
In really cold (below freezing) conditions you should not assume that the floor heat will keep your AquaHot for HydroHot from freezing up if they are off. You would be well served by turning on the electric elements for the HydroHot to assure that doesn't happen.
When my coach is in winter storage here in Branson (where it can get down to 10) I do not winterize at all, BUT do two things: (1) put a piece of insulation just inside the exterior refrigerator panel and (2) use the HydroHot electric element with the furnace on Gas to keep the interior of the coach at 50-55F. Never had a problem.

Lee

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #15 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84563
You folks are AWESOME!

Lee gets Christmas brownie points for figuring out the issue (which sounds correct...I just have to figure out how to change the dash gauge to read miles rather than kilometers).
You all have confirmed my suspicions about the radiant heat and use of Aqua-hot (we had heat pumps in our Florida stick house ~ pretty useless when it gets below freezing).
Thanks for all your collective knowledge! I'm sure I'll be tapping into it again shortly!

Wishing you all the best this season offers,

Mark

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #16 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84565
What Lee is saying is correct. I would add... Owing to the thermal inertia of the water stored in the tanks, you may get through a couple of colder nights without freezing any of your plumbing. A possible false sense of security as it were. As the tank water cools, heating will diminish over time and with repeated colder weather you'll lose that advantage. Sooner or later any radiated floor heat won't cover the heat required to keep your plumbing bay above freezing. All of this, however, depends on how severe the cold weather is.

In our bus, there is a thermostat located in the lower left bottom corner on the cold side of the plumbing bay. Above and behind the plumbing connections there is a heat exchanger that runs off the Hydro-Hot. It's purpose is to keep the plumbing bay above freezing.
It's triggered from the plumbing bay thermostat. I think the set point is 38F but not sure about that. You can change this. The Hydro-Hot's electric heater(s) should be fine for all this. Just make sure you have 12 VDC to run the circulating pumps and electronics.
I wouldn't trust relying only on floor heat to keep the plumbing bay above freezing.

Temperature gradients exist within the plumbing bay too. It's illogical to supply heat to a space from above owing to convection currents. This makes the bottom right above the plastic floor pan (where sewer and water hoses enter/exit) the coldest spot. At least in our bus. To help avoid drafts I stuffed fiberglass insulation in the spaces around the hose openings. To locate "freeze zones", I placed plastic bottles of drinking water where I thought the coldest spot(s) would be. Monitor regularly and look for freezing. The goal is to avoid hard bursting freeze ups before they happen. Superficial skin ice won't do damage.
Freezing will happen first in the cold spots so know where they are.
Consider how your tank waters play into all this.

In really cold weather you will most certainly have freeze issues.
Hydro-Hot or not. We hit temps of -24F in Park City and I needed to install a small electric heater on the cold side of the plumbing bay as a supplemental heating source. Using a thermocube you can make the addition of extra heat automatic and on an "as needed" basis. Several hundred watts of heat is all you'll need. Stay warm!

PS: I'm on a new email program so I hope this all posts properly.

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #17 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84573
On the floor heat, my mine is still working perfectly. Nuheat.
On mine the silverleaf gets its mileage data from the engine ECM. It does not show more than one total mileage or hours.

Rich 2002 Magna

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #18 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84576
I have never heard of anyone having a problem with the radiant floor heat. It is the best thing about the coach especially in the cold climate zones.

Dan 2006 Allure 31348

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #19 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84579
After a long cold bike ride , I sit down on the nice hot floor to warm up. Next best thing to the hot tub.
Marc # 6429 05 affinity

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #20 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84583
My floor heat works beautifully - I LOVE it

From: Rich

To: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2012 7:33 PM Subject: [Country-Coach-Owners] Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

On the floor heat, my mine is still working perfectly. Nuheat.
On mine the silverleaf gets its mileage data from the engine ECM. It does not show more than one total mileage or hours.

Rich 2002 Magna
 

Re: Odometer vs. Silverleaf & Radient Floor Questions

Reply #21 –
Yahoo Message Number: 84644
My floor heat is great and no problems for over two years. As far as the difference between the dash speed odd and the silverleaf is that the dash reads miles in motion and the silverleaf reads the ECM that records all hours on the engine such as testing, idling and motion so there will be a difference.

Lonny

2006 Affinity
6641