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Old 10-03-2018, 12:50 PM   #1
Junior Member
 
Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: 23U
State: Virginia
Posts: 27
THOR #9682
Another Stereo Wiring Mystery

After the first few trips with our new 23U replacing the Axxera radio went from a "someday" to a "right away" mod. I pulled out the Axxera and replaced it with a Pioneer, and also put in a dedicated monitor for the rear/side cameras at the same time.

The Axxera was powered by the coach battery, but I noticed it didn't keep the time when the battery disconnect switch was turned to store. Upon removing the Axxera I confirmed both the yellow "memory" wire and the red "switched power" wire both lost power when in store mode.

My original plan was to hook the yellow "memory" wire on the new Pioneer to a permanent chassis battery connection and keep the red "Switched" wire on the original connection from the coach battery. However I then realized that on the Pioneer head the main power draw is from the yellow wire and the red wire is essentially just a sense wire. This would have resulted in draining my chassis battery while listening to the radio in camp, so I just kept the original wiring for now.

I then tracked down the original yellow wire, which appears to have been connected (via an in-line fuse which is the small red colored wire in this picture) to the coach battery disconnect switch, except to the switched side instead of the battery side:


(Removing the in-line fuse confirmed that this wire did indeed provide power to the radio.)

Problem found! So I then switched this wire to the battery side of battery disconnect switch:


Easy fix... except it didn't fix anything. Turning the battery disconnect switch into store mode still causes the Pioneer radio to lose its time. Hmmm.

The obvious next step is to check the yellow "memory" wire in the back of the stereo to confirm its actually the same wire that I just switched. Pulling the dash trim out to access the radio is such a pain though it's going to be awhile.

I'm going to try and get electrical diagrams from Thor today to confirm the wiring.

Oh, and with the wire moved to the battery side of the disconnect switch I confirmed there is still no phantom load on the batteries when in store mode:

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Old 10-03-2018, 01:22 PM   #2
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Four Winds 31W
State: Michigan
Posts: 542
THOR #9522
Side question, does the BVM also show a negative current when the battery is charging?
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Pete and Carolynn Foss from Oxford, MI
2018 Four Winds 31W
1999 Aero Cub F-21 trailer
1977 Tioga 24 foot RV
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Old 10-03-2018, 01:46 PM   #3
Junior Member
 
Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: 23U
State: Virginia
Posts: 27
THOR #9682
Quote:
Originally Posted by petefoss View Post
Side question, does the BVM also show a negative current when the battery is charging?
When the battery is being charged via the Solar Charge Controller it shows a positive current in the BVM. I took that screen shot while my PV panel switch was turned off so that I could look at the battery while completely isolated.

I'm assuming it would also show a positive current when charging via the regular converter but hadn't specifically looked. I check that next time I have the RV plugged into shore power.
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Old 10-03-2018, 01:50 PM   #4
Junior Member
 
Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: 23U
State: Virginia
Posts: 27
THOR #9682
One other note- Most folks have been talking about the store/use switch as being a momentary switch that controls a relay. On mine it's a real battery disconnect switch (A nice quality one- Blue Sea.) . This is a 2019 so hopefully this is a change they are making across the board.

The red disconnect switch seen underneath the black battery disconnect switch is not factory. It's a dual pole disconnect for my PV panels.
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Old 03-22-2021, 02:02 AM   #5
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: Alabama
Posts: 19
THOR #22656
How did this turn out? I am installing a pioneer now and have similar issues. The battery disconnect doesn’t kill power to either the yellow or red radio coach wires. I bet they have the red wire landed in the wrong side of the isolation switch however it is a red wire and the coach radio wires travel to the radio coach plug as grey gr/bk
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Old 03-23-2021, 09:31 AM   #6
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: 23U
State: Virginia
Posts: 27
THOR #9682
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Originally Posted by Overtime View Post
How did this turn out? I am installing a pioneer now and have similar issues. The battery disconnect doesn’t kill power to either the yellow or red radio coach wires. I bet they have the red wire landed in the wrong side of the isolation switch however it is a red wire and the coach radio wires travel to the radio coach plug as grey gr/bk
I ended up putting a dedicated switch between the radio power wires and the coach batteries. Turns out the Pioneer radio has a pretty significant phantom load when ”off”. With the switch I can completely disconnect the radio while boondocking to reduce the draw on my batteries. This does mean that the clock always resets but I’m fine with that.
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