Let the Games Begin! Buying 2014 Meridian 34B

[wahoonc]

Got a call from our RV dealer that they should have our new-to-us 2014 Itasca Meridian 34B ready for pickup near the end of next week.

Once we get it home the real fun begins.

A couple of quick questions, the rest I will be cheerfully distributing throughout the forum.

What is your favorite portable ladder, I need one rated for 250# or close to it.

How long will a residential fridge run on the 6 Group 31 AGM batteries before we need to kick the generator or shore power on? Looking for a general idea.

Aaron

[tim myers]

I like this ladder, https://www.amazon.com/Telescoping-L...8QAvD_BwE&th=1

mine is the 14 ft version, as for the fridge, we need to know how many amps or watts your fridge draws, then factor in loss from inverter inefficiency then assume a % of run time. Also need to know your combined voltage and ah rating of your battery bank. Its really all about the math.

[tim myers]

actually this is the one I have https://www.amazon.com/Telescoping-A...YQAvD_BwE&th=1

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by tim myers

I like this ladder, https://www.amazon.com/Telescoping-L...8QAvD_BwE&th=1

mine is the 14 ft version, as for the fridge, we need to know how many amps or watts your fridge draws, then factor in loss from inverter inefficiency then assume a % of run time. Also need to know your combined voltage and ah rating of your battery bank. Its really all about the math.

Thanks for the ladder link. That looks like it might do the trick.

I was hoping someone had a similar fridge set up and we could ballpark it.
I haven't been able to get any numbers off the current batteries, all I know is that they are NAPA Group 31 AGM, I believe it said deep cycle on them. I am guessing 105 amp hours so roughly 300 ah usable. No clue what the beast of the fridge draws. We would have rather had an LP/Electric or 12-volt. But we gotta run what was bring.

Aaron

[creativepart]

The NAPA Commercial (Part #: BAT 9831DT) batteries are 12v 100-amp hours each. They are wired in parallel so if you have 6 then you have 600 amp hours, total. However, it is possible that you have 4-house batteries and 2-chassis batteries. In that case, you'd have 400 amp hours of HOUSE battery power. They are good batteries and made by Eastern Penn. NAPA sells them for nearly $400 each, but you can buy them for closer to $300 for the same battery by other companies.

With your residential fridge running on 110v power from your inverter you should expect about 12 hours only on battery power. IF you start with fully charged batteries at the beginning of the night. So, overnight is easy. What gets dicey is when you run the fridge and the furnace at night. It should still work if you don't set your thermostat too high. But it will be close.

We had a similar setup and we always ran the generator 1.5 hours first thing in the morning while making breakfast. And then 2+ hours in the evening when making dinner and watching a little TV. We added solar panels (300w) and switched to 400-amp hours of LiFePo4 batteries and this requires less generator run time.

You can program the Onan generator to come on when the batteries are at low voltage using the EC-30 controller in the RV. You may have to do some experimenting to get the settings to do exactly as you wish.

The inverter also has a low voltage cut off setting and if your batteries get too low in the night the inverter will just shunt down to protect your batteries. You can adjust this setting to suit you - don't set it very high or it will cut out all the time.

Buying a 9-year old motorhome the two things of immediate concern are the tires and the batteries. If both are original then both must be replaced. So, you'll need to try to strong arm the selling dealer into changing those out. I'll assume that they have both been replaced at least once. Which can still mean that you need to take a hard look at the tires and the batteries. Finding out when they were replaced... and what with.

Tires are commonly replaced at 5-7 years of the DOT dates on the sidewall of the tires. This is done regardless of wear or mileage. So, ask for, or look at, the DOT dates on each tire.

AGM batteries are not as cut and dried. Super well maintained AGM batteries can last 9-years, but poorly maintained batteries are worn at 3 or 4 years. With AGMs the "maintenance" isn't adding water but not discharging them repeatedly and not recharging them quickly and fully.

Ask us, and the selling dealer A LOT OF QUESTIONS we can help make this a game you're be sure to win!

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by wahoonc

We would have rather had an LP/Electric or 12-volt. But we gotta run what was bring.

We have a similar residential fridge in our motorhome and LOVE it. Yes, it uses a lot of battery power on inverter to run which can mean plenty of generator time if you like to camp off-grid. But as a fridge it's vastly better at everything.

If you do like to camp without hookups then the answer is to add plenty of solar panels to the roof and change out the house batteries to Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries.

They are much more capable, can be more deeply discharged, at higher rates and they recharge 2-3 times as fast as other batteries. Plus they weigh less than half as much.

We don't do a lot of off-grid camping and have 300w of solar and 400aH of LFP batteries and we can easily accommodate 3-days of off grid camping with limited generator run times.

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by creativepart

The NAPA Commercial (Part #: BAT 9831DT) batteries are 12v 100-amp hours each. They are wired in parallel so if you have 6 then you have 600 amp hours, total. However, it is possible that you have 4-house batteries and 2-chassis batteries. In that case, you'd have 400 amp hours of HOUSE battery power. They are good batteries and made by Eastern Penn. NAPA sells them for nearly $400 each, but you can buy them for closer to $300 for the same battery by other companies.

With your residential fridge running on 110v power from your inverter you should expect about 12 hours only on battery power. IF you start with fully charged batteries at the beginning of the night. So, overnight is easy. What gets dicey is when you run the fridge and the furnace at night. It should still work if you don't set your thermostat too high. But it will be close.

We had a similar setup and we always ran the generator 1.5 hours first thing in the morning while making breakfast. And then 2+ hours in the evening when making dinner and watching a little TV. We added solar panels (300w) and switched to 400-amp hours of LiFePo4 batteries and this requires less generator run time.

You can program the Onan generator to come on when the batteries are at low voltage using the EC-30 controller in the RV. You may have to do some experimenting to get the settings to do exactly as you wish.

The inverter also has a low voltage cut off setting and if your batteries get too low in the night the inverter will just shunt down to protect your batteries. You can adjust this setting to suit you - don't set it very high or it will cut out all the time.

Buying a 9-year old motorhome the two things of immediate concern are the tires and the batteries. If both are original then both must be replaced. So, you'll need to try to strong arm the selling dealer into changing those out. I'll assume that they have both been replaced at least once. Which can still mean that you need to take a hard look at the tires and the batteries. Finding out when they were replaced... and what with.

Tires are commonly replaced at 5-7 years of the DOT dates on the sidewall of the tires. This is done regardless of wear or mileage. So, ask for, or look at, the DOT dates on each tire.

AGM batteries are not as cut and dried. Super well maintained AGM batteries can last 9-years, but poorly maintained batteries are worn at 3 or 4 years. With AGMs the "maintenance" isn't adding water but not discharging them repeatedly and not recharging them quickly and fully.

Ask us, and the selling dealer A LOT OF QUESTIONS we can help make this a game you're be sure to win!

Thanks for the input on the fridge run time. That is close to what I was coming up with based on some back-of-the-envelope math.

We have 6 coach batteries and 2 chassis batteries. Believe it or not, the tires that were on it were OEM with date codes from late 2013.

We did some heavy negotiations with the dealer over about a 60-day period.

They replaced all 6 tires, the chassis batteries, the alternator, and the slide mechanism on the big full wall slide. The 6 coach batteries are showing decent resting voltage as a bank, however, the age is unknown. Once we get the coach I will dig a little deeper on that issue.

One of the turn-offs for most people who looked at this coach was the poor floor condition. Apparently, there had been a leak of some sort in the kitchen area (supposedly a faucet and the water pump were left on). There are a couple of soft spots, they have been braced from underneath with steel plate and angle (that's a good thing). The previous owner used an LVP floor, it is gapped and loose (not a good idea in an RV) so we know that is on the list of items to be done.

The other big item was the lack of consistent documentation of maintenance. I have it scheduled in January to go to the Freightliner Mecca in Gaffney, SC. Fortunately, we are only about 3.5 hours drive from there.

We got the unit for ~ $40k under market value. They have had it on the lot for over 6 months, and it had been at a different location for another 3-4 months prior to that. They just wanted it gone. We drove the unit after the new tires were installed and it seemed to handle just fine. I got under it on my creeper and other than surface rust everything looked decent.

The roof edge sealant looks like it was done in the past year or so, that will remain a priority. The rest of the items all appear to be just detailing and sorting out some minor things.

We have a Coachmen Concord 300DS and are looking forward to the extra space on the larger DP, and hopefully a bit smoother ride.

Aaron

[creativepart]

Good deal on knowing about your coach.

About that kitchen floor... your Kitchen is on the full-wall slide. That can mean a lot of weight on that softened floor. So, be aware.

I took my Adventurer to the factory shortly after buying it to fix a few issues and one was a kind of balky full-wall slide. They put an extra roller under the kitchen section as a matter of course - they said they like to do that to all the motorhomes with kitchen on that big slide.

With 6-house batteries you should have 600aH and that can be a help. But if they are really that old they may be suspect. Even if 5 of them are in great shape and one is weak that will bring down the whole bank.

You'll love the Winnebago. The build quality of that time frame is really comforting. Also, Winnebago puts all sorts of info, manuals, diagrams, wiring, plumbing and parts online. Here's a link: https://www.winnebago.com/owners/owner-resources

I looked up the 2014 Meridian 34B and there are two sets of parts and other diagrams - depending on your coach's Serial Number (not Vin). This just means that during the model year they made some changes between early build and later build dates. When you get your motorhome there should be a list of installed components that has your Serial Number... again, not the VIN... so you can tell which one applies to your motorhome.

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Good deal on knowing about your coach.

About that kitchen floor... your Kitchen is on the full-wall slide. That can mean a lot of weight on that softened floor. So, be aware.

I took my Adventurer to the factory shortly after buying it to fix a few issues and one was a kind of balky full-wall slide. They put an extra roller under the kitchen section as a matter of course - they said they like to do that to all the motorhomes with kitchen on that big slide.

With 6-house batteries you should have 600aH and that can be a help. But if they are really that old they may be suspect. Even if 5 of them are in great shape and one is weak that will bring down the whole bank.

You'll love the Winnebago. The build quality of that time frame is really comforting. Also, Winnebago puts all sorts of info, manuals, diagrams, wiring, plumbing and parts online. Here's a link: https://www.winnebago.com/owners/owner-resources

I looked up the 2014 Meridian 34B and there are two sets of parts and other diagrams - depending on your coach's Serial Number (not Vin). This just means that during the model year they made some changes between early build and later build dates. When you get your motorhome there should be a list of installed components that has your Serial Number... again, not the VIN... so you can tell which one applies to your motorhome.

The build date was 01/14. The chassis build date was 12/13.

My current bride and I have had 4 RVs together, this will make #5. I have owned several prior and worked on a lot more with my buddies over the years.

This will be the first Winnebago product. We were looking at a Newmar Ventana, but the price was more than I was willing to spend, and it wouldn't have fit in the barn without some modifications to the barn. The Meridian will fit with about 20" to spare. Winnebago does seem to a good job on providing documentation, which is a huge plus compared to a lot of units out there.

Aaron