More P-W Plateau Woes

VanGoGirl

Advanced Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
45
Location
Texas/Colorado
Last night our one-night camping trip was cut short by house battery problems. We had been on the road four or five hours, so the battery should have been fully charged. We ran the generator long enough to nuke a couple of frozen dinners (10 min. tops). Then the house battery failed. We had no lights, water pump, heat (biggest problem). Fortunately the sofa/bed mechanism worked, which seems peculiar because nothing else worked.

We couldn't get the stovetop burners going (the electric starter which I presume we have wouldn't work because of the battery, we had no matches, our barbecue lighter wouldn't light possibly due to the high altitude, and the cigarette lighter wouldn't get a paper "torch" lit), so no tea to warm us up. Moot point maybe, since the water pump wasn't working so we had no water.

We had no sleeping bags, and sheets and lightweight blankets were simply not enough. We were high in the Rockies. Halfway through the night we were frozen to death and left the campground for home.

After the problem we had with the fridge (see old thread), we had hoped our problems with our four-month-old brand-new Pleasure-Way Plateau would be over. Dh has no idea why the battery failed. And the monitor wasn't working, so we don't know if we're out of propane or not...but I wouldn't think we should be because we haven't used very much.

Another little problem: we can't seem to make the dash heat come from the floor area. No matter how we set the dial, hot air blows from the dash onto our faces. We were so cold it didn't matter, but...shouldn't the heat when on the road come from the floor? Four settings: 12 o'clock should be just AC, 3 o'clock both AC and floor, 6 o'clock floor only, and 9 o'clock I'm not sure. Some of you Sprinter owners, how does your dash heat work?

Things we've learned: have a box of kitchen matches onboard, don't camp out in cold weather without sleeping bags, have some bottled water available. :problem:
 
You'll get all this sorted out soon.
Pleasure-Way came through with owner manuals. I sent one to your email address.
I'll look through it also for answers to the power problems.

A Sprinter owner will have to help with the dash / floor heating question.
 
Did the house battery cut off right after you shut the generator off?

If so the exact same thing happened to me in Acadia. There's a battery reset button and you push that and you are back in business.

In my 2011 Plateau (I think you have the same RV? Or close to it?) the button is right by the battery shut off switch - in one of the more awkward places in the RV, down by the floor and hard to see. There are metal things that the wires anchor into and the button is on the side - it's labeled. It did take my dad a few minutes to find it, even with the help of the manual.

Here's my post on what happened to me and some great info from markopolo! viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2255

The reason the propane stuff wouldn't work is also because with no DC power the propane detector won't work so it shuts off the propane supply. We figured that out when it happened to me and I attempted to start the generator in order to charge the battery and even the generator wouldn't work.
 
teachergal said:
Did the house battery cut off right after you shut the generator off?

If so the exact same thing happened to me in Acadia. There's a battery reset button and you push that and you are back in business.

That's gotta be it. The sofa has it's own breaker.

Definitely could be those manual reset breakers again.



The 2009 owner manual lists a 45 amp converter. It seems like the converter tries to output 45 amps and the 40 amp manual reset breaker trips.

I don't understand why the converter would put out the max current on a fully charged coach battery though. If the manual reset breaker has tripped then I'd call PW direct and explain it to their tech people.

The 2009 manual states that the coach (house) battery is under the hood. The chassis (van) battery is located under the driver floor board. I'd check the house battery connections to make sure they are clean and tight.
 

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Thanks to both Mark and Teachergal for your responses. My husband found we have 4 (not 2 or 3) reset buttons, pushed the one that was tripped, and we're back in business. Wish we'd known that last night when we were freezing to death! :(

I had mentioned that the sofa bed mechanism still worked. The fridge also was operating.

Some days I wish I had my old Sportsmobile back. So much more straightforward. :)
 

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