Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a few (Read 1081 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a few

Yahoo Message Number: 55207
My wife and I are on our maiden trip in the 2002 42' Affinity we bought last month. We previously had a much smaller gas powered class A. We really like the Affinity. It has a beautiful south west interior with greenish antique type cabinets, stained glass, piped leather. And so on. I drove it home 450 miles and have done a bit of sorting out and learning the systems. We drove 150 miles out to the desert for a week in Borrego Springs CA. I have read through all the manuals I have and here are a few things I cannot find.

1. Where is the on / off switch for the electric hot water heater. It is supposed to be in the cabinet over the washer in the galley to the left of the exhaust fan controls. It is not there. And it is not working. We have aqua hot so we have been using that, but would like to switch on the electric water heater.

2. This is an all electric coach. Even with turning the house batteries off in a couple days the batteries go down enough so the gen will not start. I am planning to install solar, but have not yet. So what settings do you set the auto gen start to, to keep batteries charged up. There is are these settings autocharger start volts? I figured about 11.8volts is that right? Run time ? 20 minutes? Topoff volts? run time? What should those settings be? Also, is it a good idea to have the autogenerator start do what I want to do? I am a little concerned about leaving it auto start at the storage lot I keep it at, any opinions?
3. What should I inflate the tires to? The label to the left of the drivers chair says 130 cold front, 110 back, 100 tag. Manual says 130 front, 100 back, 110 tag. My RV repair guys came up with 110 front, 110 back, 100 tag. I have Michelin tires. 130 seems like such a lot of pressure. I thought Alcoa wheels were only good to 120. Comments please?
4. Where is the house water filter?
5. When you dump the fresh water tank where does the water go? Into the gray tank or on the ground?
6. Where is the surge protector? I want to make sure it is on.

7. There seems to be a leak in the drain in the galley. When the slide is out it goes out the bottom on the slide. Any comments?
8. I have aqua hot and heat pumps. If you leave the aqua hot on when you go to sleep it makes lots of noise. Do you normally leave on heat pumps, or we have a small electric heater we just plug in. Not that cold here, but you need a little heat at night.

9. What is the normal procedure to descend big long hills with jacob brake. My old gas coach you just took your foot off the brake and when you got going 60 you pulled down a gear. The motor is a Cat and not supposed to go over 2100. That means you should be going 55-60 and no more if engine brake is used. So is that what you do, go slow. When I went down I-8 going east the other day in the steepest parts I had to use quite a bit of service brake to keep the speed down. I did not down shift, but the tansmission went into 4th on its own. Should I shift down manually?

10. How often do you have to add coolant? When you buy coolant do you just ask for the stuff good for Cat motors?
Thank you in advance. I spent several hours today going over my books and some comments would really help.

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55210
I have a 2000 affinity and this is how it applies to mine. Mine is not an all electric though.

1.electric element in water heater is switched in breaker panel in bedroom. The switch your missing sounds like the propane switch for the refig. and water heater. mine does electric, propane and hurricane heat.
2. I believe you can remove the auto start panel and change the voltages it tries to start on by changing the jumpers on the back. Haven't done it and so not sure.
3. Weigh your coach and figure out how much weight is on ea. tire. Use manufactures pressure recommendations for that weight. I believe that figure or pressure is considered to be at 68 degrees.
4. behind a panel in the plumbing bay. Mine is on pass. side next to propane tank.
5.dumps on the ground. should be next to house filter, mine is.
6. Mid coach bay, next to shore power cord, drivers side behind panel.
7.just look for it or call a plumber???
8.heat pump are basically an air conditioner in reverse. would you leave your a/c on? I find the heat pumps noise louder than the hurricane at least on the inside of the coach. Yes leave the heat pumps on.
9. I have feared the same thing. I've been told not to worry about it just use it. They've programmed the tranny to downshift knowing what rpm's they would encounter. I scares me but it's never blown up,... yet.
10. When it's low.

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55214
I have a 2001 42' B&B that is also all electric. So, our coaches should be quite similar.

1. My HW swtich is located in the 110V circuit panel box which is located under the TV in the bedroom....... your box might be in a different location....but it is controlled via the circuit breaker.
2. The solar panels are a good idea. I put two large ones on my roof. My coach has almost always been plugged in or we were dry camping with it. So I have little experience with leaving unplugged for an extended period of time. I would guess that it might be best to disconnect the house batteries totally from the coach and run your solar panel wires directly to the battery posts for both the house and chassie batts. I would hope that the solar panels would be able to keep up with the little parasitic draw that is on the chassie batts. I sent my gen to auto start when the house batts are down to 12.05 or 12.15 volts. I just don't want them to go down that far. I also run for one hour.

3. Have your coach weighted on all four corners and then go to the tire mfgr's. web site and look at the weight charts for you specific tires. I run my front tires at 112-114lbs and the drive and tags at 100lbs.

4. The house water filter is located in the pass. bay that is to the rear of house batts. You;ll have to take off the big fiberglass panel to gain access to it and the water heater. I installed an electric water hose reel in that bay and ran a plastic pipe across the width of the coach over to the plumbing bay. It works great.

5. The two tanks are located side-by-side in the same bay. They are located directly above the fresh water tank. When you open with valve, they tanks simply exit out the large drain hose. Sometimes, I dump the black tank completely while running the tank sprayer, then I lift up the large drain hose and open the gray tank valve. This forces a lot of gray water into the large black tank opening and stirs up any stuff that has settled on the bottom of the black tank. I then close the gray tank while there is still a lot of water in it and let the bank tank drain again. I close the black tank and completely drain the gray tank. We do not have any tank odor problems.

6. My surge protector is located in the drivers side bay that is towards the front, next to the plumbing bay. It is located behind a 1 foot square panel mounted on the rear wall of this bay. It is right next to electric cord reel motor and by the slide hydraulic pump.

7. If the leak is not found in the sink cabinet, Now the fun begin!!! When the slide is out, look up under the slide below the sink. You will see some flex tubing that is bound together with wire ties. This tubing goes into the area where the surge protector is located and onto the plumbing bay.

8. My Hurricane was also noisy. So I went to an auto parts store and bought a larger car muffler that was thin enough to fit in the same position as the original small one. Pipe sizes are critical!!! I also was able to buy a "jacket" for the unit. This wraps around all sides and helped to reduce the noise. Not the ultimate solution, but it makes it better.

9. RE Jake Brake. Mine also drops into 4th automatically. I try to keep the coach below 60-65 before starting down a big hill, so I haven't experienced high rev. problems....not sure what to advise.

10. I do add coolant every so often. I can't remember the specific type, but it should be noted in the engine manual.....I don't have access to the coolant, I'll have to get back to you on that.
Good luck and call me if you have any other questions. 919-933-1967

Den 2001 41" Affinity B&B # 5972.

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55248
#9 Going down steep hills---go down the hill the same speed you wnet up. Let the engine brake do its thing and you will be OK.

Egon

'99 Allure 30321

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55250
Quote from: txtravelingman"
.
>

> 1. Where is the on / off switch for the electric hot water heater. It is supposed to be in the cabinet over the washer in the galley to the left of the exhaust fan controls. It is not there. And it is not working. We have aqua hot so we have been using that, but would like to switch on the electric water heater.
>
Just curious, with the aqua hot do I have a hot water heater?( 2008 Allure 31604)

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55256
If by hot water heater you mean a separate one then the answer is no. The AquaHot provides the domestic hot water on demand. The AquaHot unit can be heated either with the diesel burner or the electric element submersed in the coolant tank. The electric element is intended for low demand usage but with a little common sense it can be quite effective at both heating the coach and providing hot water down to around 40 degrees outside temps. After that you usually will have to add the diesel burner. They can both be run together as a lot of people do myself included when I need the diesel burner

Don Seager

2004 Allure 31046

Quote
>Just curious, with the aqua hot do I have a hot water
heater?( 2008 Allure 31604)

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55273
Quote from: Don Seager"

> If by hot water heater you mean a separate one then the answer is no. The AquaHot provides the domestic hot water on demand. The AquaHot unit can be heated either with the diesel burner or the electric element submersed in the coolant tank. The electric element is intended for low demand usage but with a little common sense it can be quite effective at both heating the coach and providing hot water down to around 40 degrees outside temps. After that you usually will have to add the diesel burner. They can both be run together as a lot of people do myself included when I need the diesel burner >

Don Seager

2004 Allure 31046

> Thanks Don, could not find one to winterize. Really like my Allure but quite a change from my Meridian.
Bill 2008 Allure 31604
 

Re: 2002 Bed and Breakfast 42' new to us maiden voyage and I have a

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 55292
Quote from: Don Seager"

> If by hot water heater you mean a separate one then the answer is no. The AquaHot provides the domestic hot water on demand. The AquaHot unit can be heated either with the diesel burner or the electric element submersed in the coolant tank. The electric element is intended for low demand usage but with a little common sense it can be quite effective at both heating the coach and providing hot water down to around 40 degrees outside temps. After that you usually will have to add the diesel burner. They can both be run together as a lot of people do myself included when I need the diesel burner >

Don Seager

2004 Allure 31046

> >>>>>Just curious, with the aqua hot do I have a hot water heater?( 2008 Allure 31604) >
I am going to guess that my electric heating element is not working. The diesel heater works, but the electric part of it is providing no heat. My diesel heater though has developed a bit of a backfire at times. Don't know what that is all about.