RV Expert Andy Dietz shares his 25 years of technical expertise as he tends to your questions.*

Q: While driving our ‘08 National Pacifica diesel pusher, the brake light and alarm come on and the air pressure drops to 0 instantly. The gauges don’t drop simultaneously; sometimes the left side gauge drops and other times the right. I haven’t detected a pattern and don’t notice anything when going over bumps or turning. I suspect because the brakes didn’t lock up there must be a short of some kind. Any help would be great!

A: We have had customers experience this before and have found that the light bar, which is the information center decoder for all of the dash gauges, was faulty. It is also possible that you have a bad connection somewhere. Without looking at the coach, it is hard to diagnose the exact cause of the problem. I suggest you contact Freightliner customer service for assistance with getting you into a nearby repair facility, or you can always bring your coach in to Lazydays.

Q: I live in Florida and store my coach indoors. I have noticed it gets very hot inside and question whether the converter/charger  exhaust fan is putting off heat. To eliminate this, can I install a timer so the charger only comes on at night? If so, would that be enough to maintain the battery?  

A: You can put a timer on your coach for night time charging and it would be sufficient, however the converter puts out minimal heat so it should not be contributing to the increased temperature inside. Keeping the coach tightly closed up so no air can move through it is more than likely what is causing your heat issue. By leaving a couple of roof vents cracked you will allow heat to escape and air to move about during storage.

Q: What is recommended for maintaining a charge on the starting battery when it is stored since it doesn’t seem to get a charge from the converter/charger?

A: If you do not periodically start the engine when your RV is stored, eventually the small draws on the battery from clocks and monitors will bring the engine battery down. The best way to alleviate this is to start the engine once a week and let it run for about 20 minutes. After a month or so you can try doing this every two weeks. If you can’t start it up periodically, fully charge the battery and then disconnect the ground battery cable while it is in storage. Of course be sure to reconnect before trying to start the coach again. Also if the battery is not a maintenance-free battery you will need to monitor the water level regularly to ensure it doesn’t dry up as this will ruin your battery.  

Q: I have a friend who has had a Dometic fridge (model RM 2652) for 8 years and it gets so cold in the food area that it freezes items and has even blown up soft drinks. He has had it in the shop three times and thinks they put in a new control box each time. After each repair, it worked for a week or two but then started freezing the food again. Now he uses a cooler because he is tired of fooling with it. Does this unit have an adjustable thermostat?

A: This refrigerator does not have a thermostat adjustment however it does have a thermistor which is mounted on the cooling fins in the rear of the refer box. Try moving the thermistor down to the lowest point of the fins and see if this helps. The fins are cooler at the lower end so doing this may trigger the unit to adjust to a lower setting more quickly. It could also be that the thermistor is not reading properly. If moving it doesn’t fix the problem, I recommend he have an RV technician look at it.

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Andy Dietz has commited the last 25 years of his professional life to Lazydays and to the RV industry. From morning to night, weekdays and weekends, you will find Andy hard at work making “customers for life” with every one that he meets.  He has worked in virtually all phases of RV service operations including delivery, wood working and chassis. Andy is a RVIA/RVDA Master Certified technician, but more importantly, he is a master problem solver. Known to many as a “go-to-guy”, Andy is especially relied upon for situations that aren’t clearly defined or documented.   

The views expressed herein are solely the opinions of the author. No information should be relied upon until it is verified by a manufacturer or a qualified technician. Neither Lazydays nor its employees or agents are liable for any claims of any kind arising from the use of this information.