Day 1

We arrived Colfax in the Sierra Foothills

Day 2

Was a long day’s drive to Elko Nevada

Day 3

We drove to Twin Falls, Idaho thinking we would drop in on Jeff and Beth, close friends of Chanda and Kirsten, Ellen’s daughters.  Our (my?) mistake.  Jeff and Beth live west of Boise, Idaho.  Should we backtrack to visit or just push on?  We hadn’t seen them in years; it felt like a decade.  We turned west and arrived before in Middleton before sunset.

One surprise on arrival: our refrigerator would not switch to its propane input.  With no 110 connection and and not running the diesel, the fridge had no power.  “No problem, we’ll keep it closed and deal with the problem tomorrow morning”, I thought as Beth came out to welcome us.   With greetings all around we took a tour of their 7,400 square foot home!  It has a dedicated party room complete with a disco ball, a movie room with a large screen and two rows of overstuffed chairs, I don’t know how many bedrooms and baths, two kitchens on on the bottom floor that opens out to the swimming pool, and one on the main (upstairs) floor.  There are three floors in total  Beth mentioned that the paint scheme was a disgusting chocolate brown and beige throughout the entire house.  They have repainted most of the house and are remodeling the master bathroom.  Jeff has a ton of projects on  his to do list.  What they have done this far looks great!

We went to Sully’s Pub & Grill in Middleton for dinner.  Beth recommended the calamari appetizer and the halibut.  We were nowhere near the ocean and at a pub to boot and Beth was recommending fish?   I thought, “Ok, I’ll try it”, and without high expectations.  The pub has a massive outside seating area and it was busy.  It took a while for the calamari to arrive and it was unusually good.  I love calamari and it was as good as I’ve had.  I couldn’t wait for the halibut and it too was excellent!  What a surprise.

Day 4

Yesterday started out with phone calls to local RV shops to locate a control board for the refrigerator.  It had had a 12V failure a while ago.  I fixed it by replacing a 12v 20 amp fuse on the control board.  When the old fuse blew, the heat generated was enough to scar the PCL on both sides.  Convinced this was the problem I tried to track down a replacement part locally.  After an hour on the phone to various shops without even identifying the PCB’s part number I reluctantly called Camping World.   Talking with service we had a few go-rounds with me saying I just want a PCB replacement part and the service guy insisting that they had to diagnose the problem. 

Frustrated I headed out to the RV and tapped around the fridge’s solenoid switch.  After a few taps, the refrigerator started working.  Great.  I went indoors to announce that the problem was fixed.  Some time later I rechecked the fridge and it had failed again. I verified that the stove top would light so the propane source was working.  Clearly this was a refrigerator problem. 

Around noon, I finally relented and drove the 17 miles to Camping World.  I was starving (no breakfast) and with a mild hangover (beer and wine the night before).  I was in no mood to deal with service.

I pulled up in the parking lot and chose to check the fridge’s operation just one more time.  Surprise: it was working on propane!  What the Hell?  I called Ellen to tell her the good news and headed into “WallyWorld”  (what we call both Walmart and CampingWorld) for a propane fill.   With the RV’s propane and a BBQ canister filled I headed home. “Cool everything is working, we’re good for boondocking”, thought I.

Back at Jeff and Beth’s place, Jeff arrived back from a dump run as I parked.  I gave him two thumbs up as if to say everything’s working!  Then I checked the fridge.  Oh Noooooo, it was failing on its propane input again!

Here I made a mistake that cost me some time.  I did learn more about my RV’s appliances and connectivity.  It wasn’t a total waste.  What I did next was open up the outside refrigerator access and tap on the solenoid.  It had worked before, right?  Nope, fridge was still failing.  Next I shut off the master propane switch, removed the solenoid. The solenoid must be failing.  I called around to see if any RV shop had a replacement.  Again we couldn’t even find the part number for this solenoid.  What to do.  Let’s see if the solenoid is failing. I connected the solenoid (still removed) to power and ran the refrigerator’s propane.  Surprise, the solenoid clicked open, it was working 100%.  Was there no propane to the refrigerator?  Why.  By now Jeff was helping.  We tried to trace the propane line.  We had to remove the RV heater’s cover and a found that the fridge’s propane line ran along the top of the heater recess then disappeared into the chassis.  No way we could trace the line further.  Crap.

Then It occurred to me.  Does the stove top have propane?  I tried firing it up: no propane.  This is a good thing.  It must be that the master switch is off.  Perhaps it was turned off when we had the propane fill.  I re-attached the solenoid and toggled the master propane switch. This just have to be the solution.  Right?  Noooooo.  Still no propane at the stove top, the fridge, or the heater.  WTF?

I want back to the master switch a number of times toggling it in the hopes “things would change’.  Then I thought to reach behind the switch and found the connector dangling totally disconnected from the switch!  WTF?  I could not easily reconnect it and I removed the switch from the housing and connected it up. This Time For Sure, RIGHT?   Back at the stove I tried igniting it and could not get flame and could not hear or smell gas.

Here Jeff asked if it could be a blown fuse.  I thought, “No Way”, but went ahead and tested the breaker and fuses.  There at the bottom of the fuse bank a 5 amp fuse was blown.  That fuse runs the the RV propane sensor which warns against propane leaks. If the sensor is not working, no propane will flow.  I bought a vast array of fuses to fix the fridge’s 12 V problem.  Replacing the fuse was easy.

Stove top lights?  Check.  Heater runs on propane? Check. Refrigerator runs on Propane? Check.

 

Norcold 3150’s Control PCB

 

Norcold 3150 Propane Solenoid

The Snake River, Idaho

Day 5

The refrigerator ran through the night.  It still runs on 12 V.  Cool, but I am left with a few questions:

Q1: what disconnected the master propane switch?

Q2: What blew the propane sensor fuse?

Q3: What caused the fridge to fail in the first place?

Q1 and Q2 suspiciously happened immediately after having a propane fill at Camping World.  Could a local boy have decided to “have some fun” with a CA guy?  It’s possible.  It’s also possible that these events are purely coincidental.  Q3 may have been a sticky solenoid.  I’d think air in the propane line could do this as well, but that the stove top ran fine on propane with no flame variance.  The line was probably clear of air.

We packed up early this morning and followed Beth to Flying M, a coffee shop that makes their own pastry.  Beth raved about their almond croissants and she is right to do it.  Ellen and I each had one and they were perfect.  Crispy on the outside and flaky except where the almond past sat inside.  Their coffee was also delicious.  After coffee we drove through to Idaho Falls, with a stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods for some hiking socks, a stop at Costco for Bear Spray and some groceries.  Tomorrow we’ll visit “wallyworld” for collapsing storage bins.  That should be our last shopping stop aside from stops for food for a while.

Tomorrow we’re off to Jackson Montana and the Grand Tetons.  We thought it would be best to be fresh to drive through the mountains.   Today was a long day as it is.