98 Beaver motorcoach

[Randy Keaveny]

hello all...i am new here and have MANY questions about my 98 Beaver Patriot!!   
since i do not know where to begin...i will just list my issues

solar panels??  i have 2 sets on top....where is the controller located??
water leak behind the main valve compartment....i have taken all the knobs and screws off...but how do i access behind to find where the leak is??

Bose System...invisa ?  all the speakers are there...and i purchased what i thought was the right system to make it all work...but nothing..not a sound?   anyone else??

Thanks
Randy

[Keith Moffett]

Randy
Welcome to the club.
The Bose system is a pain.  The base speaker should be under the couch with the amp and wiring mainly in the first overhead cabinet on the passenger side.  You will need to remove the rear panel to see that.  On our 98 the Bose went back to the shop frequently.  Suggest replace with streaming or XM.
The white panel in the wet bay should come out after 4 or 6 screws.  Ours had enough extra hose on the inside to move it out of the way.  Look for bad connections on the water manifold.  Be sure the ‘leak’ isn’t an open low point drain.

[Carl Boger]

Randy,

I don't think you will find a controller unless someone added one.  The larger solar panels are only 40 or 50 amps depending on which source you believe and will generally not over charge the 4 house batteries. The Small panel is only 10 amps and will barely keep up with the parasitic draws from the chassis batteries. 

You may or may not have the optional echo charger.  It will charge the house batteries first and then the chassis battery if you are plugged in.  If you don't have one you may want to add one, or some other way to charge the chassis batteries.   

[Carl Boger]

As a side note I also took my Bose stereo system out, but kept the speakers.  I put in a cheap Plye AM/FM CD/DVD player with bluetooth.  The kind that was made for RV's or Travel Trailers.  I thinned out a bunch of the wires that the Bose system used and got rid of the troublesome Bose Amp, 5 CD player, and the VCR was already gone. 
Some people online indicated that the speakers would not preform well, but to my ear it sounds great, others ears also.  In less space and with simpler connections to a front Roku TV, I can play music through the Bose speakers, play a dvd to the TV, play the TV through surround sound to the Bose Speakers, or play a CD through everything.

I am sure the bose system was really nice, but it is old technology.  We rarely sit around in the RV and listen to music, but we will watch the TV in the evenings.  Being able to play a DVD is nice if we can not stream something, so we keep a couple stored away.

Hope this is somehow helpful.  Feel free to ask me questions since I also have a 98 Patriot and I have learned a lot from much help here. 

[Randy Keaveny]

Thanks folks...ya...kinda figured the Bose thing was going to be a chore...so prob just pull them out and figure something else out....we did change the old panasonic tvs out to flat screen...kinda small but they work....thats what i wanted to hook up to for more sound...my motorhome is currently stationary as a hunting camp on my property in Idaho...until the wife retires full time we are just using it as home base

as far as the water..i do know its not a drain valve or low point   whenever there is pressure on the system it slowly drips from inside somewhere..i just havent found it yet....i wish i had enough extra hose to pull it all the way out...then i could see where its dripping/leaking from...i will figure it out somehow

i cannot for the life of me find the controller for the solar panels..i did find some kinda controller in the engine compartment...under the bed....mounted to the frame...has a steady red light on each time i check...so i will check that out further

thanks for the help....i am sure i will be asking more!!!

[Eric Maclean]

Randy
If you lift the bed check the forward fire wall at the foot of the bed there you should find the blue battery isolator the two 200 amp fuses one for coach battery power and one for the chassis battery power . You should also see a large solenoid ( boost solenoid )
And down on the passenger side below the boost solenoid there should be the solenoid for coach power ( salesman switch)
The solar panels on your roof where originally two 40 watt panels for the coach batteries  and a 10 watt panel for the chassis battery
When Beaver built these they ran the wiring from the roof to the back of the coach and down behind the rear cap where it turns in a split loom and heads forward along the passenger side of the bed in closer in the engine compartment .they go forward to the front of the bed ( firewall ) where the coach battery panel lead in goes over to the driver side end of the firewall, there you should find a yellow charge controller and a fuse which connected to the coach battery side . The chassis panel is hooked directly to the chassis battery side via another fuse ( no charge controller)..

Hope this helps
Eric

[Randy Keaveny]

OMG Eric.....thank you so much...i did find that controller on the front of the engine compartment wall...cleaned it off and took a pic...but damned if i can find the pic now...lol...the controller had a red  light on...so i figured it might need reset...but...have not gotten back to it...yes..was so hoping that the panels would be charging both battery banks...house and starting...as i just had to replace both....i believe the ones i replaced were original...but  1000.00 later for house... and 1/2 that for starting is a bit costly....wondering what the red light is all about??  needs to be reset??   wondering where i would find these fuses....just down the line from the controller??   thank you so much for your  help
Randy

[Bill Lampkin]

The red light may mean the solar panels are working; is the rig parked in the sun? I wouldn't expect much from 2x40w panels, they are likely 25 years old by now and since solar panels degrade about .5% per year, they're output is more like 35 watts ea. now. You should hook up a regular battery charger on each set of batteries (chassis and house) and keep them on the chargers until you can verify that all the charging systems on your coach are working. If you don't keep your new batteries on a charger, they will go dead soon. Or charge them to 100% then disconnect the main battery cables. 

[Eric Maclean]

Randy
Unfortunately as Bill mentioned the original panels where more of a sales tactic than a real charging system they might at best keep the batteries toped up if the coach where in storage ( in full sun).

When my coach was built and likely yours two it had a separate panel for the chassis batteries that panel is a very small 10 watt panel and provides little or no effect on the chassis batteries .
In the later years they gave up on the chassis solar panel and instead I creased the size of the coach panels and installed a battery combiner ( echo charge) which would combine both battery banks to charge together once the coach batteries had reached a curtain voltage.
Our coaches didn't have that as a result you need to keep an eye on the state of charge of the chassis batteries as the Cat ECM has a small perasitic draw on the chassis batteries all the time and will kill them flat over a period of 6 to 10 weeks.
The way these older coach's where built the only time the chassis batteries got charged is from the very small solar panel or the engine alternator.
Many of us here have added battery combiner to our coaches son that the inverter charger can take care of the chassis batteries as well as the coach batteries.

The fuses for the solar panels are on the fire wall at the foot of the bed ,they are the small ATO type automotive fuses mounted in enclosed fuse holders ( black. Rubber with covers) there should be one right beside the yellow charge controller and another over beside the salesmen switch .

Hope this helps
Eric

[Eric Maclean]

Randy
If you are concerned about your new chassis batteries being killed while the coach is parked you can do what I did untill I installed a battery combiner.

Will the coach plugged into shore power and the inverter charger maintaining the coach batteries simply connect a set of booster cables from the chassis battery bank to the coach battery bank that will allow the inverter charger to charge all the batteries together .
Remember it it a temporary solution and should be disconnected before driving the coach but it will keep you from having dead and or damaged chassis batteries.

Just be careful of your polarities when connecting.

Eric