NeverEasy

Mine lasted 11 years. I keep the truck on a Progressive Dynamics PD6240 Converter whenever I can. The 40 amp converter came in handy when my alternator failed in South Dakota. Fired up the generator and used the converter to keep things going. Had to run on it two days until I could get a replacement alternator. Day time driving only.

Used mine twice. Once just two days ago to fish some wires through my RV. Digital Inspection Endoscope. Has a very long lead. Works good enough. Comes with a 7 inch display.

Awesome pics! Thanks! Looking forward to more. 😃

Thanks! Photos appreciated. We miss going to the National. Health is keeping us housebound. Chet

Do a search on the web on "white smoke on diesel startup". I have found that white smoke comes from unburned diesel. Could be an injector problem.

Got to this address. Follow instructions. Copy link. Paste in "Other Media" button at the bottom right at the "Insert image from URL". The delete all stuff before the https and after the .jpg. http://photoposting.is-great.net/?i=1

That is a monster. Is it an Econoline? Two years ago Deb and I stripped one to bare metal, moved the jack forward, built in a storage box, added spare tire holder, painted with some two part epoxy and then topped with full two-inch white oak. Mine is only a tandem axle.

Following as I need a reminder to check mine out. At least 5 years old. I have the Silverleaf system in a box in my storage container. I hooked it to a small touch screen computer and it worked ok but I never used it much. I will have to break it out and see if it works. Chet

You did not say what you did to diagnose the problem as specifically, the fan. The latest schematic I have is for a 2007 so I can't give you fuse and relay numbers. I believe you need to look at a couple of things. First, I think you need to look at electrical supply. It would be best to pull off the connector near the air/electric solenoid and check for resistance on the solenoid. My guess would be something like 10-20 ohms. If it seems good, find a couple of jumper wires jump one side to ground and the other with a 12 volt source (use the DC wire at the alternator. Start the truck. It should not matter which pin you use for ground as it is just a solenoid. However, if one of the wires is white, hook the ground wire to it. If the fan kicks in then it is an electrical issue. Start looking for a blown fuse or a bad relay. Second you want to look at air supply. You might be able to bypass the solenoid and feed air directly to the fan. Good luck, Chet

Thanks! They have an 800 watt unit that is shorter. Going to do a test and see what opening a slide would do to the load on the inverter. Would be nice to be able to run the slides or feet off the inverter when dry camping. From past testing, 1/2 of the power comes from the trailer batteries and the other half from the converter.

I performed the test of using my truck inverter to power the frig and converter. 1. Test one: feed directly into the receptacle for the trailer inverter that feeds the frig (bypassed the trailer inverter). 2. Test two: Feeding the trailer shore power input with all breakers off except the frig. Trailer inverter on. This test did nothing as the trailer inverter went to bypass mode. Pretty much the same as above. 3. Test three: Turn only the frig breaker and converter breaker + the 50-amp main. Still feeding the shore power input. Summary: All the setups powered the frig. The frig got down to 34 degrees and the freezer to -2 degrees in 1.5 hours from a dead start with ambient temps at 87 outside (hotter inside). The best setup would to be to feed truck inverter AC to the trailer converter and inverter. The battery will stay charged and the inverter will be in bypass mode unless the AC input from the truck failed and then the inverter would revert to converting DC to AC (thus discharging the batteries). The truck inverter maximum AC current/voltage (1.87 amps/122 volts) results in 228.14 Watts. My truck inverter was showing one bar load. That means a 500-watt inverter full-sine wave inverter should be sufficient. Now, finding a reliable one. Safety is still a concern. The installer must insure that either the converter or the inverter cannot be powered by shore power and the truck inverter at the same time. On my trailer, the inverter is on the basement wall and plugged into a receptacle that is fed from the trailer load center. I have not traced out that circuit to see how power gets through the inverter to the frig. Might be as simple as putting a receptacle next to the wall receptacle so the cord can be moved to the other receptacle. The converter is easy. It is behind the basement wall so I will mount an on/off/on switch to select either power source. Can anyone recommend a 500-750 watt inverter? I would not want to add this load to my already installed truck inverter as it has enough to do.

This is what my 2001 key looks like. I found blanks but no one would cut it.

Same with my 2001. Dealer.

The path for ground then must have come from the trailer/truck hitch connection. The white wire ground on the trailer to truck plug in would have too much resistance so an easier path would likely be the frame to frame through the hitch. That would not be a safe connection point. The only other patch would be via your trailer/truck plug. That white wire might get hot. This might be a better ground for your system. At the truck, near the high amp truck/trailer connector, cut the 3/0 ground wire. Attach it directly to the frame with a star washer on both sides of the frame bolt. In these cases, I use brass or stainless hardware. Carb could be "vapor locking" but the problem is likely vapor lock prior to the carb. Here is an interesting article relative to that: https://www.carparts.com/blog/vapor-lock-symptoms-causes-and-solutions/

Thanks, I will look into that. Shielded should not matter at 60 HZ. It only matters at very high frequencies like that in Cat 6 Ethernet. In the meantime, I think I will run a functional test without running a cable through the frame. Also, please note that I had to edit yesterday's post on the calculation of the inverter wattage.

Here is a thought out of the box! The problem with 12VDC is the number 12. It does not take much to eat it up. 120 Volt AC is much more forgiving. A 10% drop is no big deal. Why not use an inverter on the truck that will sustain a 30 amp output (overkill). (Power = voltage times amps or 120 x 20 = or 2400 watts (Error here, I used the DC voltage and AC amps yesterday). Therefore, the price of a 2400 watt inverter is a bit steep. Kind of throws a monkey-wrench in the whole idea of saving some $. 😞 I will run a test with my current rig using a 1000 Watt inverter which will pump out around 9 amps. A 1500 watt inverter would be better with an AC output of about 12 amps. Another edit: I did the math on my trailer 60 amp converter. The maximum AC input to provide that 60 amps of 12 VDC is only 6.5 amps. Thus, a 1000 watt inverter at the truck should be sufficient. Anyway, disconnect the trailer's converter from the trailers AC source and feed the truck inverter output to the existing converter. The converters will take an AC input as low as 105 volts. Run the whole trailer charging system while driving down the road. Safety would be a concern of course. Use 12 AWG heavily insulated extension cord. Three wire is a must. Wrap with extra insulation at all metal contacts. Fuse at the truck inverter at 15 amps. Use twist-lock connectors to connect truck to trailer. Add a simple on/off/on switch and land the original trailer converter AC wires to one side and the truck AC to the other thus insuring no other trailer AC systems can grab the trucks AC.

Just some info that might help you design your system. Assumptions: 1. You are running 3/0 AWG on the positive lead and the negative lead. 2. The one-way distance is about 50 feet making the two-way run 100 feet. 3. You are using some good, high amperage wire connectors between the truck and trailer like Orion Motor Tech 175-amp connectors. 4. You have great connections at the cable crimps and battery connection points. However, nothing is perfect. Say you have .1 ohms resistance in all those connectors and connections. Does not seem like much, does it. Given that the resistance of 3/0 is 0.630 ohms per thousand feet then the resistance of 100 feet is 1/10 of that or .0630 ohms. Adding that to the .1 ohms loss at cable/battery connections is .1630 ohms. Not knowing your load this is a table of voltage drop with resistance x amps (V=IxR) 10 amps. Drop of 1.63 volts. 20 amps Drop of 3.26 volts 30 amps drop of 4.8 volts 40 amps drop of 6.532 volts You get the idea. The more current you draw, the bigger the loss. Thoughts: Each time you plug truck to trailer, spray the contacts with DeoxIT spray cleaner. Then add a touch of DexoIT D1000L-2DB to the contacts. Both available on Amazon. Get a clamp-on DC ammeter to see what the real DC amp load is. Then load the system with trailer 12 VDC components to get something you can read. Then read the voltage at the trailer battery. If it is dropping, you are loosing the battle. When the trailer battery gets down to the voltage being provided by the truck, then you can do the math to see what the resistance loss is. Example: Current on 3/0 cable is 5 amps. Voltage at truck battery 13.8 volts. Voltage at trailer battery 12.6 volts. Difference of 1.2 volts. Resistance equals (R= V/I) or R=1.2/5 or .24 ohms. This means the system would need to be checked for loose or bad connections as it is greater than the .1630 ohms (above) on a very good system.

Carl was amazingly patient. Troubleshooting over the net is difficult at best. I think he learned a lot about reading schematics and using a Digital Voltmeter. In the end, he found the missing F52 on his own while doing some voltage and resistance checks. The schematic we used that seemed to fit his truck best was on the Resource Guide. I think the Gen 2 schematics were posted by Mark Bruss. Thanks Mark. That was schematic PV776-20175317_ElectricalSchematic_V2_0605. That schematic was for a build date (June 2004) but further down it said it was for a 2006 Volvo. Cheers! Chet

Carl, Call me before you head out to your truck. Major change to my post last night if you read it. I got into the schematics that are on the Resource Guide. There are two that specifically say they are for a 2006. Do not attempt to replace the relay with a standard automotive relay. The one in your hand is wired internally different and externally connected nothing like a standard relay function. Note: Volvo uses sheet positions to locate components. The first digit is the horizontal number at the top or bottom. The second digit is the vertical letter at the left or right. The Wiring Diagrams are by alphabetical reference. Easiest way to find one is to use the FIND TEXT Tool and type in the Wiring Diagram listing. Ex: AA takes you to the very beginning of the 12VDC system. The schematic that Dan sent a link to is not like the 2006 schematics on the Resource Guide. One more thing: Testing the relay with 12 VDC is not a good idea at this point. You still need to go to the truck and check the voltage on the relay socket. This may prove that the schematic and relay are as I expect them to be. We can move forward if they agree. I believe that you will find that 12VDC is on Pin D (87) rather than the usual Pin 30. Do not attempt to jumper anything on the relay as discussed earlier!!! Here is what I have found so far: PV776-20043814_ElectricalSchematic_V2_1105.pdf Page 4 of this pdf says it is for 2006 Volvo PV776-20175317_ElectricalSchematic_V2_0605.pdf is also for a 2006 Volvo. The circuitry appears the same as in the above pdf. PV776-20047693_IllustrationIndex_V2_1105.pdf is the 2006 component location. Use the Find Text Search button in Acrobat to enter search criteria for F79 and F48 F79 CB Power Studs {AA 0 D} Fig. 1: AA page 7 {IF 3 A} Fig. 69: IF page 75 F48 Batt. Prot./Beacon LPS {AA 1 C} Fig. 1: AA page 7 {HB 1 A} Fig. 58: HB page 64 {GI 3 A} Fig. 54: GI page 60 Note that on Page 75 (Wiring Diagram IF), the CB studs via Fuse F79 are direct connect to the BATT bus. The BATT bus may be controlled by the "Power Relay Battery", RLY21. I have not found a tie from the bus to the battery. Note that on Page 64, F48 feeds the Battery Protection Relay (RLY44)and that relay shows both the ABCDE relay contacts as well as the 30,85,86,87,87A and the way it is wired and internally connected is far different from what the usual setup is. #1 BATT comes in on Pin D (87) of the relay. #2 Internally, there appears to be two coils that are interconnected such that 12 VDC is feed to both the coils. #3 Those coils are controlled by the Lighting Environment Control Module by putting a ground on Pins B or E. #4 Pin A (86) of Relay RLY44 is a ground trigger feed to pin 85 of RLY21, Power Relay Battery, on Wiring Diagram AA (page 7).

Carl, Start at the socket, not the relay. Pin 30 is 12 VDC supply on the socket. Try this with the key on and off. If 12 VDC is not there, it is a problem before the relay. I would think that the relay is there to only provide power when the key is on. Therefore, the normally closed contact (87A) is not used. If there is 12DC there, put a 10 amp fuse in-line with a piece of electrical wire. 16 AWG is good enough. With 12VDC on pin 30, touch pin 87 (the normally open contact) and see if your systems work. If not, touch to pin 87A (normally closed) and see if that works. This test does not rely on ground on the relay but to be sure the relay is good, test for 12vdc on either 85 or 86 with the ignition switch on and off. Ever which one has 12VDC is the trigger. The other pin has to have ground to provide a path for current to ground when the trigger is applied.

Cal, Check your email. Sent 3 pdf files. Will have to send the rest later. I don't spend much time in the Gen 2 arena so I am not sure which files to send. I have to run off to a truck repair shop to put my 2001 in for brakes and clutch. They are large. Might not make it through the mail servers Chet

Sent you a PM. Could not upload the pdf as it is too big.

No one else has jumped in here to assist so I thought I will try. I am not a tractor/trailer brake expert. What I think you are looking at is #16 "Manifold Tractor Protection Valve #16 (MPTV)" On the attached diagram, that is the valve at the very top. The Johnson Bar (hand brake # 15) provides braking to the trailer only. On this diagram, there is a gray line connecting the hand brake to the MPTV. If you can read the text to the left, it says in part, "All colors are as they appear on the tubing in the vehicle." Therefore, the gray line on the bottom of your attached picture is likely the output of the hand brake to the MPTV. Things I would be concerned about: 1. Assuming you are going to bypass the horns solenoid and direct connect to the horns input, The pressure provided at the output of the hand brake is proportional to the amount of pull. You may not get full tank pressure there even at full pull on the hand brake. 2. Since you are attempting to use the hand brake to sound your horns, I assume you are using a standard automotive brake controller not tied into your tractor air system. Most of us tie our brake controller (air over electric or electric/hydraulic) via a connection that uses the foot pedal for truck/trailer braking or the hand brake for trailer braking only. Would not want to use your modification.

Does it look like this? If so, it is the power steering reservoir. Could not find one for your year of truck. This one is for earlier models. Does not look like my reservoir on an '01 Volvo VNL 660.

Don't know if my '01 Volvo would complain while running. After I air up the hitch, I shut off a valve I added on the hitch and release the slider switch. I don't have a leveling valve on the TS hitch so constant air is not required.