Instruction manuals

booster · 08-31-2014, 01:19 AM

Do you folks carry the owners manuals for all the various things in your Bs, or count on being able to find them on the Internet if needed? We didn't have mobile Internet until last year, so we tended to have a lot of paper manuals and some on the laptop, but the Roadtrek literature bag got very full and heavy and seemed like a waste of space. I figured just about the time I needed a manual, we wouldn't have an Internet connection, so I downloaded all of them that I could find and put them on the laptop. Took quite a while but now we are down to less than 1/4" of stuff in a ring binder. Even did the Chevy Express owners manual.

bikerbill · 08-31-2014, 02:25 AM

When we had our Country Coach Prevost bus there were 2 full portable file boxes for the Prevost chassis and then many items added to the construction by Country Coach along with the complete build deigns, wiring and plumbing diagrams. IF you needed them along the way, and we did over the 15 years of ownership, it was invaluable but it took up space and weight. No problem in the bus.

Last year when we got our Airstream Interstate it too came with a nice Airstream nylon briefcase. Over the 10 months of ownership I referred to it many times and even added some extra pages found on the internet. Always carried it in an overhead cabinet and needed several times on the road in the early days of ownership to refer to it. Yes its all on the internet and store on my main home computer and my iPad which we carried, but still preferred the paper copy in front of me to read and look at.

AK49er · 08-31-2014, 03:49 AM

Our Coach House came with a full 3 ring binder of manuals, it lists every component in the rig. Full wiring diagrams with plumbing locations of all pipes. To me it seems like a good list that I have used many times. We don't have the capability of internet to research things so I do like the way bikerbill states his preference for paper, something I can see and look at.

Davydd · 08-31-2014, 04:48 AM

We got a leather zippered binder from Great West Vans with all the owner's manuals and information. I go online and download any pertinent manual I can find in PDF format and install it on my iPad for reference. I have them in iBooks and Evernote for reading. Evernote is a great app. Anything I find that I want I save to it be it my own notes, web page articles, PDFs, photos, documents... The search is fantastic. When online and I do a Google search, the Google search will also tell me what I might have in my Evernote. If I search in Evernote it will find anything within anything I saved to Evernote. Also, Evernote works across platform between my laptop, iPhone and iPad through iCloud. So if I enter or find something with my iPhone it will be there on my iPad and laptop.

markopolo · 09-01-2014, 12:18 AM

Some good ideas here. I have carried digital and/or paper manuals in the past but haven't really put together anything for my current van. I probably already have most of the needed pdf's so just a matter of getting organized and making them accessible on the road.

obgraham · 09-02-2014, 04:16 PM

I get everything I can find online, and download it to pdf's. Then I go through the manufacturer's manual package and scan any that I could not locate online.

All those go on a jump drive, kept in the RV. Then I can access them regardless of which computer we have with us at the time.

Davydd · 09-02-2014, 04:43 PM

That's why I like Evernote. Once I place a document on my computer and open it in Evernote, through the cloud and wifi it shows up on my iPad and iPhone. As long as I don't have any nude photos I'm comfortable with the Cloud.

So I have the information multiple ways with an app that can also quickly find what I am looking for out of hundreds of individual PDFs, documents, notes, web URLs and photos. It is also vice versa, if I am out and about and find something using my iPhone I just save it to Evernote and it goes back to my computer and iPad. The info is always with me in one way or another. The problem with jump drives, and I have more than a few, is you can't tell what's on them until you plug them in and they seem easy to misplace amongst all my junk. They are kind of like that Robertson screw driver you never can find when you need it.

lawnvac · 10-17-2017, 04:20 PM

Hello,
Have been unable to google any circuit diagrams for Great West Van Sprinter.

Trying to understand the location and relationships of Shore power charging, Vehicle charging, Generator charging of batteries, I'm thinking when I drove 2K miles and stayed at shore powered campgrounds I over charged my NAPA AGM batteries. Which by the way NAPA site says there wet batteries.

Any help appreciated, for the confused.

Davydd · 10-17-2017, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawnvac

Hello,
Have been unable to google any circuit diagrams for Great West Van Sprinter.

Trying to understand the location and relationships of Shore power charging, Vehicle charging, Generator charging of batteries, I'm thinking when I drove 2K miles and stayed at shore powered campgrounds I over charged my NAPA AGM batteries. Which by the way NAPA site says there wet batteries.

Any help appreciated, for the confused.

I doubt you will get any. I never got one with my 2011 Great West Van Sprinter. They were sparse of information and the user manual was bare bones. Avanti has studied his Great West Van in detail and maybe he could fill in with what you need.

avanti · 10-17-2017, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawnvac

Hello,
Have been unable to google any circuit diagrams for Great West Van Sprinter.

Trying to understand the location and relationships of Shore power charging, Vehicle charging, Generator charging of batteries, I'm thinking when I drove 2K miles and stayed at shore powered campgrounds I over charged my NAPA AGM batteries. Which by the way NAPA site says there wet batteries.

Any help appreciated, for the confused.

I can help some, but the electrical system on my 2014 was heavily modified at the factory to my specification, so some of what I say will be inference.

As far as I can see, the standard GWV charging system was fairly old-school. The engine charging system simply connected the chassis charging system with the coach battery through a cheap isolator relay controlled via the "engine running" signal from the OEM EK1 connector under the driver's seat. The relay is located on the driver's side wall of the engine compartment, behind the Espar tank. (This is a stupid location left over from when the battery used to be in the engine compartment). So, whenever you are driving, the coach and chassis batteries are effectively connected in parallel. This is somewhat problematic on the Mercedes I4 engine, since it uses a "smart" charging system, which throttles back the charging during acceleration, thus slowing the charge process. But, I would tend to expect UNDER charging, not over charging due to this.

I am not sure, but I think that the standard setup used a separate "converter" (A/C charger) and inverter. This requires two transfer switches (one for the genset and one for the inverter). The transfer switches should be side-by-side on the driver's side wall in the rear (under the bed). There is also a carpeted box there, which just contains wiring to the shore-plug and water connections. The converter was apparently buried behind the control panel up front (either above the fridge, or immediately behind the driver's seat, up high). Don't know where they put the inverter.

On shore power, your battery charging would be via the converter, so if it were overcharged, that would be the culprit. With the genset running, one of the transfer switches would connect its output to the AC input to the converter, so the result should be the same.

Our batteries are NAPA 9833 Group 31, which are manufactured by DEKA. They appear to be Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid Gelled Electrolyte AGM. They are pretty good batteries.

Hope this helps.

P.S. -- I strongly recommend you get a real, shunt-based battery monitory. Without one, you are just guessing.

Cdstaley · 12-30-2017, 05:03 PM

You are the closest thing to someone sounding like the understand the system. I'm looking for a wiring diagram for my newly acquired 2006 GWV. The previous owner put a battery box and a switch that seemed to parallel the van power with the battery but again allow it to run as a power source when engine isn't running. I see the line voltage go up on the goofy battery when I run engine so it's in P. I have 0 info on what should be in the GWV as far as batteries. I see one in engine, have hear there is one under seat. Just need some info, schematic or block diagram would be great.
cds

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