OK, here's one for ya.
For the last week or 10 days the 32" Sharp TV up front has had issues with turning off. I figured it was from excess heat in the upper front cap, and the weather here in Nebraska has been around 90 degrees regularly. You'd turn the TV off and 10 seconds later it would come back on all by itself. Finally, since the plug for it is hard to access, I just flipped off the breaker on the inverter (30 amp) box in the toilet room cabinet. That also affects other outlets down the dinette and unfortunately the icemaker in the fridge, but it worked for overnight. When cool enough, the TV seems to shut off okay.
Now for the real ringer: yesterday I wanted to move the coach (we've been parked in the city park for 5 days on 30 amps) to a position I could reach a park faucet from with my water hoses, to fill up our tank. The coach wouldn't start. In 90 degree heat I marched back and forth between bays and the inside, pulling my hair out trying to figure why only the "Wait to Travel" light came on on the dash when the key was turned to "On". Normally the guages move, the tranny monitor lights, a bunch of dash lamps come on, and clicking noises abound for several seconds, then when the Air Dryer lamp goes out, I turn the ignition to crank. None of that happened; only the red "Wait to Travel" lamp worked.
I called BCS in Bend for help, but they had no clue beyond low chassis batteries (they were fine) or the tranny not in neutral (it was). Racking my brain for what had been haywire recently that might affect starting, it occurred to me that there is a configuration in place that shuts down the front TV if the ignition is on. You never know, so I went in the bath and flipped off the A/V breaker. Sure enough, when the ignition was keyed to "On", the pre-start routine began as normal! I didn't crank it, but went back and turned the breaker on again. This time the pre-start lamps and clicking noises didn't work. I turned off the breaker, called BCS to tell them the culprit, started the coach, got my tank full, and washed the Colorado and Nebraska bugs off the front end while I was at it, fully cooking myself in the process.
I've since discovered that there is no consistency to the scenario, because occasionally the pre-start won't work even if the A/V Dash/Dinette breaker is off. Fortunately it usually works eventually, so in theory we'll not be stranded. I've thoroughly examined my book of Wiring Diagrams, but can't find the means by which Monaco cuts out the TV power when the ignition is On, as it seems pretty obvious that device, whatever and wherever it is, is the cause of both the TV not shutting down when commanded (by either remote or TV's switch on top) and the ignition not activating. The TV is mounted in the overhead in such a way that it is hard to see what all is behind it, though I followed the power cord as best I could to its outlet, that is shared by some sort of surge multi-outlet where other components plug in. If there's some sort of ignition-controlled cut-out device up there, I can't see it. Conceivably it could be that multi-outlet that looks like a simple cream-colored 4-6 plug surge unit you'd buy at a hardware store; Monaco wrapped it in foam tape for whatever reason. But the TV isn't plugged into the mult-outlet surge unit directly, only into the same standard double wall outlet as the "surge" unit.
If you've been there, done that, I'd sure appreciate your input, and ditto if you've a clue what's really going on. Sounds like BCS hasn't run into it either, and could always use such info lest I'm not the only victim of this odd gremlin. Been away from WiFi for awhile, but finally found a connection at the local library, so will check back when I can.
Thanks Guys,
Joel and Lee
Tekamah, NE for a few more days
