Seneca is home; I have questions!

[McGintys924]

We finally picked up our Seneca in Orlando this weekend and made the 13 hour drive to NC. Now that it's in the driveway I realize that I have several questions I know you all will shed some insight on.

1. Seneca is parked on the slight incline in the picture. Is it safe to run the gen on this incline or will the oil be at a place in the oil pan it might not be picked up?

2. Is it safe to attempt to level the unit on this incline or could it lift rear wheels off the ground and send Seneca rolling back into my garage?

3. Plugged into 15 amp service at the house on Sunday night which I believed would keep fridge cold and batteries charged. This morning the gen is off and microwave on and fridge on, yet fridge is warm inside. Set to LP to check and make sure fridge is not faulty. Anything obvious you all think I am missing?

4. Drives awesome, but need to bring tire pressure down to what you all are recommending (85); how do you access those valve stems??

5. What does the lowest button on the left of the wheel ("inc/dec") do. I know this is not cruise control.

6. How do you warm up your diesel? When I was a kid I did maintenance on diesels but that was when you let the idle for 20 min. Now they say not to idle as engine is cool and lets fuel slip past rings and dilute oil. Gentleman who did the orientation said to start up then place into fast idle unit at normal temp. Looking for recommendations on this one.

Than you all for the posts over the last year as I know this truly prepared me for my drive home. Left steers to 90 psi at dealership and put tape over mirror screws before pulling out of Orlando RV parking lot. Looking forward to all your input.
Ryan

[Doug]

Did you light stove before attempting to light refrigerator? Imprtant to get gas flowing as close to frig as possible.

Good luck with your new rig.

Doug

[javamon]

Inc/Dec controls the brightness of your dash lights. Did u forget to post the picture?

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by McGintys924

We finally picked up our Seneca in Orlando this weekend and made the 13 hour drive to NC. Now that it's in the driveway I realize that I have several questions I know you all will shed some insight on.

1. Seneca is parked on the slight incline in the picture. Is it safe to run the gen on this incline or will the oil be at a place in the oil pan it might not be picked up?
If oil pick up is not right geny will shut down

2. Is it safe to attempt to level the unit on this incline or could it lift rear wheels off the ground and send Seneca rolling back into my garage?
Never raise the rear wheels off the ground, use blocks under the tires if needed
3. Plugged into 15 amp service at the house on Sunday night which I believed would keep fridge cold and batteries charged. This morning the gen is off and microwave on and fridge on, yet fridge is warm inside. Set to LP to check and make sure fridge is not faulty. Anything obvious you all think I am missing?
If too far off level fridge won't cool
4. Drives awesome, but need to bring tire pressure down to what you all are recommending (85); how do you access those valve stems??

5. What does the lowest button on the left of the wheel ("inc/dec") do. I know this is not cruise control.

6. How do you warm up your diesel? When I was a kid I did maintenance on diesels but that was when you let the idle for 20 min. Now they say not to idle as engine is cool and lets fuel slip past rings and dilute oil. Gentleman who did the orientation said to start up then place into fast idle unit at normal temp. Looking for recommendations on this one.
No need to idle newer diesels
Than you all for the posts over the last year as I know this truly prepared me for my drive home. Left steers to 90 psi at dealership and put tape over mirror screws before pulling out of Orlando RV parking lot. Looking forward to all your input.
Ryan

Enjoy

[javamon]

Ditto on what Doug said. Make sure your gas is on and then light the gas stove. I just filled my LP tank and had to leave the stove burner on for about 15 sec before it would lights. Once your stove lights, set the fridge to LP and see if it works. If successful, you will get the green light on the control panel. turn your gen on. It will take while for it to run its self check before providing AC power to the RV. You will know because you will hear the transfer box switch over from shore to generator. Generator always takes precedence over shore power. Once you have gen power, set the fridge from LP to Auto. The control panel will flash AUTO/AC for awhile then go steady to AC. Your fridge on now on gen AC. Once your satisfied everything is working correctly to this point, turn off your gen. You will now be on your 15 amp shore power. See what the fridge does. It should stay on AC if the 15 amp circuit is sufficient. When you switch to shore from Gen, it's a very quick change over.

[Robbbyr]

When my Seneca is home for maintenance or loading/unloading I back it into my drive and the nose is lower. Have run generator many times without incident. Grumpy is correct, if no oil pressure it will shut itself down to protect the engine.

Absorption refrigerators are sensitive to level and the cooling unit can actually be permanently damaged if operated too far off level. So I don't operate it in my drive, it is moved out to the street and leveled up overnight before we leave on our adventures to give the fridge time to cool. And they take hours or even overnight to cool, they are not like residential units.

Your unit absolutely will roll on a grade if you lift the rear wheels off the ground since the parking brake acts only on your rear brakes. The weight of a Seneca is enough to cause the jacks to slide if the incline is steep enough, possibly even damaging them if the lateral forces on the cylinders is too great. They are meant to bear weight placed on them, not side forces.

Enjoy, and ask away any questions. Lots of helpful folks here!

[McGintys924]

Maybe this is too much of a hill. Fridge is running on both LP and AC but I have turned off until I level. Preferably I didn't damage anything.

[pconroy]

Our old coach had a Dometic and did just fine in our driveway, so I assumed the new Norcold would be OK. It wasn't and it was running a good day before I noticed the problem. Best I can tell - no damage.

I think you'll be OK.

[Mark S]

Originally Posted by McGintys924

Maybe this is too much of a hill. Fridge is running on both LP and AC but I have turned off until I level. Preferably I didn't damage anything.

More than the incline, I did be concerned about it being upside down. LOL. I don't know why photos get flipped around.

Congratulations on the new Seneca.

We do our first real trip in ours in 3 weeks for about 3 months.

[javamon]

For sure I know the refrigerator does not run upside down...haha...just kidding! Rotated your picture and I would say that looks like about a 12 degree grade. Try raising the back and see if it will level w/o the rear wheels leaving the ground. Have someone (DW) on the Equalizer control (manual mode) while you watch the rear wheel. You can get a close estimation from the outside by using a level on the trim just above the rear wheel. Won't know until you try. If it turns out you can't level while keeping the rear wheels on the ground, can you nose it in and raise the front?

[Grumpy]

Norcold needs to be no more than 3 degrees off side to side as you look at the fridge and 6 degrees front to back, inside to outside. Your pic looks like you may be exceeding that.

[javamon]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Norcold needs to be no more than 3 degrees off side to side as you look at the fridge and 6 degrees front to back, inside to outside. Your pic looks like you may be exceeding that.

No doubt those numbers are exceeded with his driveway. I think the main question is can he safely get it level in his driveway. If he can't, no fridge and no slides. Huge inconvenience.

[RVermont]

First off, welcome to the family. Looks like you stole my unit. The drive is pretty steep. I would suggest you get a level out and estimate the height of the front wheels vs the rear. I would think nose in might be better but either way block the tires.

How was the delivery? Only issues I have noted are cabinet closures popping off and had to be re secured. Also some nail pops in trim around bath door. Nothing I can say is big enough to take to dealer but still a items that need to cleaned up before damage occurred.

A couple of mods I have done. Added spring rods in pantry cabinet .


And cut the shroud around the water tank so I can see it when filling

Lots of little items to make it work the way you expect.

A nice air horn is on the list. The electric horn is worse then my daughters vw bug.

Congrats.



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[RVermont]

4. Drives awesome, but need to bring tire pressure down to what you all are recommending (85); how do you access those valve stems

Ryan[/QUOTE]


The rear outside can be unscrewed fairly easily just don't drop the cap. You will need a fill nozzle with a almost straight dual fill tip


Then for the inner tire get a piece of small tubing. I used 3/8 pex and cut it about a ft long. Pressed the tubing over the cap and unscrewed it. It was a little harder to put on so I pushed a wire down the tube to prevent the cap from getting shoved too far up the tubing. Then just screwed it back on. The long air chuck fits in and can adjust the air up or down. Good luck.




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[Mark S]

I found that my wife's smaller hands fit perfectly. I now have her remove the inner caps. Also if you lie on the ground you can go between the tires to reach the caps. Much easier to have wife do it, if she is willing.

I ordered the below air chuck and gauge from Amazon and they work well. I couldn't get the angled heads to go on the inner valve stems due to the position of the stems to the hole in the rims.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Mark S]

Good idea on the water tank view hole Paul.

[Crossingover]

I can't live without this nifty gem for R&Ring the valve stem caps (and the occasional tightening of a valve):

https://www.amazon.com/Ken-tool-KEN2...BFJ9PY5N8J8PS6

[rgolding]

I've not heard of the recommendation of running the tires at that low of pressure. I always have our's checked by Love's "TirePass" and set them at 105PSI. My goal is for them to always be between 100 PSI and 110PSI, when cold.

As far as leveling the unit and not using the leveling struts. I'd consider building a set of leveling ramps out of 2 x (?)'s nailed or screwed together to raise unit up on the level. You would never have to carry these with you, so weight shouldn't need to be an issue and you'd have a firm foundation when parking. If it works you could also dig some trenches and fill with rock. Just some thoughts.

[Mark S]

[QUOTE=rgolding;541152]I've not heard of the recommendation of running the tires at that low of pressure. I always have our's checked by Love's "TirePass" and set them at 105PSI. My goal is for them to always be between 100 PSI and 110PSI, when cold.


This is the tire pressure weight chart for our tires from Michelin. I found that following thier recommendations, based on the actual weight of my Seneca, greatly improved handling. For my actual weight from Cat scales I can run about 75psi but I added a safety factor and run 85 psi.


http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/at...3&d=1496017531

[memphis02]

Originally Posted by McGintys924

Maybe this is too much of a hill. Fridge is running on both LP and AC but I have turned off until I level. Preferably I didn't damage anything.

I would suggest getting a few 2x12s cut to where you can fit both duals on them and put your back tires on them to raise it up to where you need it.