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Old 07-16-2015, 04:19 PM   #1
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Advice Needed. 100 Degrees and AC Just Quit

Lin and I got our 2001 Winnebago Journey 1 month ago and finally got enough little things done to her that we felt comfortable taking her on the first "shake down" trip. Got to the site and hooked up 50 amp shore power with a surge protector in line. Was careful to have no load when power was turned on. Everything worked just great for 3-4 hours. Then Lin felt it was too cold and turned the thermostat up from 72 to 74 degrees. The AC will not come on now and it's getting toasty in the coach. Have checked the circuit breakers in the coach and disconnected the 50 Amp shore power and started the generator with no improvement. Turned generator off and hooked back to 50 Amp shore power being sure to check that surge protector was working normally. The fridge, microwave, hair dryer, etc all still work fine but NO AC. We have a Powerline Energy Management System which seems to be working as the manual suggest it should. The AC unit is a True Air Residential Central Heating and Air Conditioning - Coleman Mach. The thermostat on the True Air panel still shows the temperature in the coach and you can select a temperature but unit won't come on.
I have a sinking feeling that we are in for a fairly expensive refit but would really appreciate any advice that may help get the AC working again. It was Sooooo nice before it abruptly quit
Thanks.
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Old 07-16-2015, 04:27 PM   #2
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Need more info.
Type of AC unit. (some have are re-setable)
I assume the theromstat is working?
Is your 12V on? This can cause AC issues.
Any other appliances misbehaving?
Try to run it on generator with 50A disconnected.
Does it do nothing, fan start, make any nosies? Etc? Does it hum?
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Old 07-16-2015, 04:36 PM   #3
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Make sure no 12 volt breakers or fuses are bad. The tstat operates on 12 volts and if not there won't kick the ac on
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Old 07-16-2015, 04:37 PM   #4
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Have you checked the fan only on the thermostat? Will it run? Also Will the Heater come on? If no It may be your thermostat. Here is a link that has a basic wiring diagram for some basic troubleshooting.


Coleman Digital Wall Thermostat Black True Air 6535-3442
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Old 07-16-2015, 05:16 PM   #5
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After you check all the 12 volt breakers, turn off your 12 volt at the switch near the door. Leave the switch off for a few minutes and turn it back on and try the air conditioner again. This resets the thermostat.
I hope it works for you.
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Old 07-16-2015, 05:34 PM   #6
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I had a problem this past weekend with power. Called a tech who thought it was the energy management system. Tapped on it and suddenly I had power. My problem was a loose connection behind the "one place" panel.

Remove the panel with all the switches, etc. in place. Check for any loose connections to the thermostat. Turn power off before you do this. After you have assured that the connections are all tight, turn the power back on and see if that helps.
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Old 07-16-2015, 05:35 PM   #7
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ChasA, you suggest we check the 12 volt switch at the door. Which door ? I don't know which switch you're referring to . All the breakers are good.

h20ski, I put the fan mode to " on " from " auto" and nothing happens, but when I switched the thermostat from cool to electric heat , fan blows from floor vents.

Thanks to all trying to help us
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Old 07-16-2015, 06:42 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron and Lin View Post
ChasA, you suggest we check the 12 volt switch at the door. Which door ? I don't know which switch you're referring to . All the breakers are good.

h20ski, I put the fan mode to " on " from " auto" and nothing happens, but when I switched the thermostat from cool to electric heat , fan blows from floor vents.

Thanks to all trying to help us
On my Journey the fan blowing from the floor vents is the propane heater, not the basement air/heater. Basement air heat comes through the ceiling vents. Can you pull the 120 circuit board and test to make sure it is getting power and that power goes through the circuit breaker? My 120 volt circuit panel is at the foot of the bed. If power is getting to and through the circuit breaker then the next step is to pull the cover off the (on mine) the upper left corner of the basement air. Check to confirm 120 volt power is getting to the board in the basement air conditioner. On my Journey the basement air is accessible by removing two screws at the base of the side panel and lifting it up. The panel lifts the same as the basement compartments. One lifted you can see the basement air and get access to the panel covering the incoming wiring. I don't remember if there are any fuses in there but someone else might remember.


When I select the fan mode it seems to take a few minutes before the fan comes on.
Hope this helps a bit.
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Old 07-16-2015, 06:46 PM   #9
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I'm referring to the battery switch by the entrance door. It might say aux or house. And I mean turn it off, don't just look at it. It turns off almost all the 12 volt for the house.
If you can't find the switch, disconnect the NEGATIVE battery cable from the house batteries for a minute or two.
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Old 07-16-2015, 07:01 PM   #10
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I think the switch ChasA is referring to is on the dash in your unit.

A simple thing to try - those thermostats are notorious for not making good contact on the slide switch. When you push it over to "cool", push it again a little harder.

If you open the rearmost panel on the passenger side as 1ciderdog suggested, you will also be able to check the start capacitors - if one is bad, it will usually be obviously burned.
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Old 07-16-2015, 07:10 PM   #11
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From your description it sounds like the tstat is the problem. On the Coleman-Mack tstat the slide switch that you can slide to select A/C, Electric heat or gas heat can get corroded internally. If you work the slide switch rapidly from one extreme to the other you may get it to make contact. Suggest you have A/C breakers off when attempting this. If you can read temps on the tstat you're getting 12v to the tstat.
An earlier post advised how to access the unit control board at the outside A/C unit. There is two 120vac connections inside so be careful. Check ALL connections.....particularly the spade connectors.
There will be a service manual online at Airxel look here Airxcel | RV Products | Tech Info AS long as you're looking at basement units the specific model number is not inportant for troubleshooting. Hope this helps
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Old 07-16-2015, 07:25 PM   #12
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When we had our 2004 36G Journey had a similar problem over a holiday weekend, ours turned out be a bad thermostat. A couple of things to try, move the switch back and forth from the cool setting, try to center the switch over cool. I think there were some problems with the contacts or something in the thermostat. The switch "by the door" someone mentioned was located on the dash to the right of the steering wheel on ours, it was a rocker switch for the 12v batteries. We did a search online and found a troubleshooting guide that showed how to use a jumper on the thermostat to bypass the switch in the thermostat. That got ours going so we could enjoy the weekend, replaced the thermostat and everything was fine. Hope it helps.
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Old 07-17-2015, 01:52 AM   #13
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when you plug in to a power post, the post breaker switch must be off to prevent damage.
clean the thermostat slide switch with contact cleaner.
open the external Ac cover door. another poster mentions how to do this. on the aft upper part take off the cover for the electrical components.
there are 2 separate Ac systems. each has a relay with a jumper wire that commonly burns through. the relay must be replaced, not just the jumper wire.
there are 2 start capacitors that commonly fail and will look burned when failed.
there are trouble shooting led lights on this panel.
after you visually check this panel, turn off both #1 and #2 circuit breakers inside your coach.
the capacitors store enough power to hurt you.
the system is designed to start #1 first and #2 will start later if and when called for by the thermostat.
if there is a problem with #1 system, neither will run.
the components in #1 and #2 system are side by side. I moved the wires so that the #2 components operated as the #1 system with the thermostat when I was in las Vegas with 105 temps a couple of years ago. this way I had some Ac working while I searched for parts.
my DW and cats appreciated the ac very much.
when you replace the parts, you should operate #1 from #1 components because the #2 system does not have freeze protection.
you can find info about the led lights by googling.
sent from my tablet from memory. if my laptop was working I could post links.
I eventually replaced my thermostat because the slide switch became problematic.
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Old 07-17-2015, 03:16 AM   #14
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Yes check the panel inside the unit as the lights will tell a story. On a 2001 it is quite possible that the hard start units on top of the compressor starting capacitors have overheated from brownouts. A Hughes AutoFormer is probably one of the best investments you can make to protect your AC unit from giving up the ghost due to brownout damage.

The replacement set of capacitors with the hard start units runs about $50 and can be installed in about 15 minutes.
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Old 07-17-2015, 09:26 AM   #15
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Again, thanks to all for the help. I have the coach home now and will start checking the systems you have suggested. Must admit though, I'm intimidated by capacitors, breakers, etc. :-)
Really appreciate the advice.
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