Just bought first pop-up w/ a few questions

[lennie74kjv]

Hey there everyone, just wanted to stop by and say hey. I just bought a 1993 Jayco 1206 pop-up. It is a nice little pop-up for my son and I. He loves camping and I dont want to do the tent scene anymore (or should I say my back doesnt want to). The pop-up needs a little work so I got it for a great price. The previous owner never camped in it and he said he could get roof mount a/c fan to work. So we got him down a couple more hundred because of that. Well we took the cover off and the fan was unplugged. We plugged that back in and it works. Only thing is the heat doesnt get very warm. You can feel the air coming out has a tiny bit of heat to it but nothing to warm anything up. When we tried it the first time without the fan working the filiment heated up and was orange for about 5 seconds then went back to normal color. Now that the fan is working the filiment isnt getting hot. Any ideas? Also when i plug it in to house power (i havent put an external battery on it yet) the converter hums rather loud. It doesnt sound like its gonna blow up but it gets pretty annoying. The converter is a Carson Model CP20 FKCR-2. Any ideas on this also? Thanks for any input on this and I look forward to camping with this trailer and looking to this site for information and interaction.

Kevin

[jnewkirk77]

Welcome and congrats on the new pop-up!! You guys will really enjoy it.

I'm not well-versed in the heating and air arts, but I remember hearing from someone who is that the heat strip in the roof air units does not put out a whole lot of heat to begin with. It's more supplemental than a primary source of heating. But even with that being said, I would think it should put out more heat than what you say it's giving you.

I also have a Carson converter in my '96, and it's quite the hummer too. As I understand it, there is a relay in there which can be replaced to quiet it down, but most are suggesting that we replace the entire works with a more modern unit. And, since Carson isn't in the business of making converters (or parts!) any longer, that may be a wise idea. I just haven't done it yet and probably won't this year unless it breaks.

Hope this helps -- Happy camping!!!

[RoyBraddy]

Kevin - It sort of depends on what you think you will be doing camping wise. If you are going to be camping off the power grid any you will probably want to have a few of the 120VAC and 12VDC items along with you and will need the batteries upgraded to increase the AH capacity to handle this load for a one day/one night camping run off your batteries. Most folks like to have around 220AHs battery capacity on board.

To make this work successfully you will need to have a good smart-mode converter/charger unit and a 2KW Honda type generator. The idea here is to re-charge your batteries every morning by running your generator for just three hours which will recharge your battery bank back up to 90% charge state and then you can do this all over again for the next day/night camping run.

Your older CARSON is out of business like said above and is a simple single stage charger which produces 13.6VDC voltage. This will not re-charge your battery in a very short time of three hours. It will be more like 12 hours to get the batteries back to 90% charge state.

I would replace this unit for a PD9245 or similar smart mode technology converter/charger unit that also has a regular Power Management Panel which has slots for multiple 120VAC circuit breakers and 12VDC fuse positions. This brings you up to the modern world haha...

We camp all the time off the power grid in our OFF-ROAD POPUP and run all of the 120VAC and 12VDC toys except air conditioner or high wattage microwave. This includes the HDTV, DVD player, all of the internal and external lights, electric blanket, NOAH WX alert radio, mood lamps, etc... When we go to bed and power down for sleep the trailer will continue powering up all of the sensors, maybe a night light, etc until the next morning. Then during breakfast we will connect the 30AMP shore power cable directly to the 2K Honda Generator and run the generator for three hours when allowed to do so by the camp ground and now we are good to do all of this all over again for the next day/night camping run from the batteries.

The squirrles like to watch alittle NCIS-CSI in full HDTV mode too...

Our camping setup looks like this back in the woods somewhere camping off the power grid... This is us at Wichita Mountains WildLife Refuge in Medicine Park, OKLA... Lovely camping spot amoung the wildlife including Buffalo, Cougars, and lots of Deer and Raccons hehe... You have to watch where you step after dark - might be mushy...

If we need a fan running around the picnic table to keep the mosquitoes off of us we just run a drop cord from the trailer and plug it in...

You can be successful doing this as well with just alittle planning and some modern mods to the internal lights, converter charger, and more batteries.

Roy Ken

[tlhdoc]

Congratulations on your PU. The converter will hum when converting 120 electric to 12 volt. You will hear many negative things about heat strips, but most people that complain about them have not had one. I have had them for over 14 years and they do work. The heat strip in the AC produces as much heat as a small electric heater, about 1500 btus. The reason it does not fell very warm is that the fan is blowing a large amount of air through the AC unit. If you run the AC heat and leave the camper for 20 minutes, then go back inside you will know that it does heat the camper. It is also nice to circulate the heat through the PU and into the bunkends. Now for it not turning red anymore...not sure but my guess is that it overheated since the air was not blowing on it. I would contact the maker of the AC unit and ask them about the coil not getting red. Good luck and happy camping.

[lennie74kjv]

Hey there, thanks for the replies I really appriciate them.

jnewkirk77 - Yea, just typing Carson converter into google search brings up alot of people who have this type of humming complaint. I dont mind the noise I guess, as long as its not going to break because of it, and as long as other campers cannot hear it. I havent shut the door to the camper and walked out to see how loud it is outside.

RoyBraddy - thanks for your input I enjoyed reading it. You have a very nice camper, and that looks like a gorgeous spot to camp, escpecially with all the wildlife unless like you said you start stepping in mush after dark haha. My parents always had a camper and we camped quite a bit growing up. This is my first camper and I probably wont do much if any camping off the power grid. It looks like it would be great to actually get away like that but Im not that experienced just yet. If im not planning on doing any camping off the power grid would you still suggest the PD 9245 converter or a different one. Thanks again for your information.

tlhdoc - The next time I pop it up I will run the heater and see if the heat strip gets warmer and i will close it up and let it run for a bit and come back later. We were standing right in front of the heater so its hard to gauge something when u are staring at it lol. If that heat strip gets warmer then I can imagine that it would def warm the camper up nicely.

Again thanks for the replies. I will keep checking in and let you all know how things are going
Kevin

[Mrs.N]

Originally Posted by jnewkirk77

Welcome and congrats on the new pop-up!! You guys will really enjoy it.

I'm not well-versed in the heating and air arts, but I remember hearing from someone who is that the heat strip in the roof air units does not put out a whole lot of heat to begin with. It's more supplemental than a primary source of heating. But even with that being said, I would think it should put out more heat than what you say it's giving you.

I also have a Carson converter in my '96, and it's quite the hummer too. As I understand it, there is a relay in there which can be replaced to quiet it down, but most are suggesting that we replace the entire works with a more modern unit. And, since Carson isn't in the business of making converters (or parts!) any longer, that may be a wise idea. I just haven't done it yet and probably won't this year unless it breaks.

Hope this helps -- Happy camping!!!

Hey did you ever end up replacing your power converter?! We just bought a '96 Jayco 1207 (our first ever!) And it needs a new power converter. Since Carson no longer is available,v what would we replace it with?