July 28, 2008

Flying fuse, Part 2

Finally did some research looking for information on the Magnetek 6409 power converter installed in the camper. Magnetek has been bought out by Parallax, their site had some minimal information on this unit, but a schematic was included. Not much info, but it's a simple design, so my planned fixes shouldn't present any problems.

Parallax's Technical Documents page is priceless, the picture of the 6400 series unit in the lower left highlights well my fuse issue, their product image actually shows masking tape holding the fuse in place. Too funny!

Plans at this point are to install a screw cap fuse holder, and two LEDs, one a 12v indicator, the other a 120v indicator. Too many times I've been left wondering during setup if I had the fuse in, if we had a good power pole, or if the lights had burnt out. A few status lights will answer those questions. My only concern is if I can find something to fill the hole left by the old fuse holder.

July 20, 2008

AC cover screws

Came across a forum thread that is relevant to my AC issue: Experiences with Carrier Air V installation? - Airstream Forums

I had tried tightening the mounting bolts to compress the gasket further, but that didn't seem to help before I pulled everything apart. I noticed that when tightening the bolts that the control panel was getting rather snug against the roof, and when I put the cover back on, only one screw would tighten. Apparently the stock screws are on the short side, looks like when I'm ready to reinstall everything I'll need to pick up new screws, which is just as well since the heads on two of them were a bit stripped anyway.

Roof height adjustment

Finally fixed an annoying issue, the roof wasn't raising evenly, even when fully up one corner was sagging slightly. Some checking through the manual indicated that there were pulleys at each corner that could be moved to provide some adjustment. I found these on the underside of the trailer near the legs:

Quick fix, raise the top about a foot, pull out each bed about a foot, lower the roof back down to create slack in the cables. Pull the pin out of the pulley, and move the pulley out a notch to take up some of the cable slack, insert the pin, raise the roof and verify height. In my case, moving one pulley a single notch fixed things right up.

Gasket issue

Confirmed that the gasket isn't being compressed properly, snapped a pic. The left side shows good compression, the gasket bulging in to fill the opening, but the back side isn't showing much compression at all.


The center seam for the roof also looks like it might be an issue, the way it is bulging doesn't look like it would seal properly without some help.


After some work, I was able to remove the unit to get at the roof, apparently the original install wasn't centered properly, and the hole could have been slightly larger. Now I just need to figure out how best to fix things up.

July 19, 2008

AC Gasket

AC unit is a Carrier AirV, installation manual indicates that the gasket must be compressed to 60% for a proper seal. I've removed the control panel from the inside to inspect the gasket, doesn't appear to be compressed fully all the way around... Strong suspicion that this is the cause of our leaks.

July 8, 2008

Leaking AC

Observed the leaking issue firsthand on our current trip, several times... Web search indicates that if the unit isn't tightened down enough to compress the gasket, water will leak in.

June 21, 2008

The flying fuse...

The fuse for the 12v circuit has developed an annoying tendency to want to pop out of the holder. No time to fix this before our next trip, will have to look at replacing this later.

June 20, 2008

Caulking

Redid some of the caulking around the back end of the camper prior to our next trip. Despite being covered, we had some water on the inside. I'm convinced this is coming from the AC unit (how could water have gotten under the tarp?) and was trapped there from when we packed it up last, but I've been ordered to caulk anyway... :)