Zach,
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While boon docking in 29 degree weather last weekend we went to bed with the diesel heater set to a toasty 66, but had several things charging (computer, cell phone, etc.). I don't think the coach batteries were fully charged either. I awoke to a 48 degree camper in the wee hours of the morning. The diesel heater apparently turned off when there was no longer enough battery power to run the fan. We started the generator so we could get the diesel heater fired up. The heater is fairly quiet. That is when I discovered the clicking sound.
Hi Dave -
I think there are three likeliest causes of the diesel heater shutting down:
1. You were very low on diesel fuel. The pickup point for diesel for the coach heater is not at the lowest point of the fuel tank - I don't remember off-hand exactly how much diesel is left in the tank when the heater stops running but the idea is to leave you with enough fuel to drive the Westy a reasonable distance to re-fill your tank. Do you know how full your diesel tank was?
2. Your coach batteries were low on juice. As Pang mentioned, if the draws against the batteries were too great in comparison to the health of the batteries the diesel heater might not be able to continue. How fresh are you coach batteries? Have they ever been replaced? How quickly do they lose their charge when you are using them?
3. Your diesel fired coach heater needs to be serviced / it is gummed up. Especially if the heater has not been used frequently enough (by the previous owner, perhaps), it is possible for it to become inoperable or poorly operating. You may want to have someone who is familiar with these heaters perform a general service and cleaning with an eye towards making certain that it is operating efficiently.
I have had my heater quit for no apparent reason also. Both before and after this flaky quit, the heater ran fine for long stretches. These heaters throw codes when there are problems and someone familiar with them who has the correct code reader could check for what that / those code(s) was / were. Could be just enough bad fuel caused the heater to burp just enough for it to shut down.
(BTW - The generator would not stay running until I ran the chassis engine for a few minutes. Was that just a coincidence that the gen stayed running after I had the chassis engine running or did the chassis engine/alternator provide some needed electrical power? The later doesn't seem logical or necessary.)
See #2 above.
I am going to look into replacing the mechanical hour meter with an electrical model (LCD). An LCD model should not make any noise. I need to confirm that the circuit to the hour meter has correct power to run an LCD meter. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks again, Dave
Give it a try. You may want to confirm that the LCD model does not include a clicking sound or that it's clicking sound can be turned off before you buy. In some installations you may be so far from / sound isolated from the generator that the clicking would help to keep you from leaving the generator running after you no longer needed it.
Before I bought a new panel I would take a close look at the existing one and try to modify it so it no longer clicked. It's a mechanical device and should not be that hard to modify. I find that when I need the generator there are always other noises that are louder than the clicking so I've never even thought about trying to remove the click!
Zach