If you have an Aqua Hot, when Zone 1 (the living room) calls for heat the blower in the dash comes on as well as the other heat exchanger fans in the zone. The Dash Blower is somewhat noisy and can be bothersome if you watching the front TV or any other activity.
This simple switch prevent the blower from coming on when the AH Zone 1 is calling for heat.
Open up your dash. On '01 and later models carefully pry up the curved forward part and pull forward and up. It will come out. Then pry/pull up the flace center section. This is attached with velcro.
The relay that controls the fan for the Aqua Hot function is located on the back driver' side of the fan box. The upper wire is the control wire. Pull it off the relay, run that end to a switch and a wire from the other side of the switch back to the relay.
I put the switch on the curved underside of the dash above the go pedal.
Switch on -- the fan is on. Switch off -- the fan is off.
With the front fan off the other blowers add heat on the living room and it takes a bit longer for the thermostat to say enough. In general it seems like the living room is more uniformly warm unless you are sitting in the front passenger's seat. If you are dry camping, turning the front blower fan off saves much more power than the two AquaHot heat exchanger fans use.
This is a simple and useful change.
While you are in here add a USB port for phones and tablets.
Roger
Nice Roger -
I like this mod.
Had you thought about putting some sort of a variable speed control as opposed to an Off/On switch?
Do I need a particular switch type or can I use a generic 12 volt switch?
Thanks, Scott,
I think any 12v switch will do. I bought bags of red, green, yellow and blue switches rated for 120v 20 amps at my favorite electronics surplus store for 85¢ each. A 3/4" hole and you are good to go. I got black rocker switches for 50¢. It is not a high power circuit based on the wire size of the original connection.
I was thinking about adding a variable speed controller to the front blower but I was told that that particular motor wouldn't work right with a pulse width modulated, PWM, speed controller. Maybe on other years it might.
I am experimenting with PWM speed controllers on the two AH heat exchanger fans in the living room. Easy to do on one so now I waiting for a flexible moment to crawl into the basement and wire up both fans to a single controller. Same concept, fans run slower for a longer time to put the same amount of heat into the room. More even heat, even quieter. Because the pump runs longer this may not be the minimum 12v power solution. It requires math to figure that out. I'll wait for a rainy day on that.
Roger
Thanks Roger -
Sounds like a mod we will do when we get to Casa Grande mid Feb.
Will be interested in how the mod. works out for the other exchangers too. Looking forward to your report. ;D
Roger,
I did what you have suggested though I added a remote controlled relay (on Ebay from China - quite inexpensive that way) to allow me to choose on/off from my chair or sofa.
Jim
Jim - you are my Idol. ;D
Jim, nice. I have a couple of remote control LED light controllers. I will try the to see if they will control the AH heat exchanger fans. They are pretty low watts.
Roger
Roger and hopefully... Susan,
Why...thank you! And that's a first for me
Jim
I love this idea. Thanks for sharing it.
Hey Roger -
How does the plywood come off under the dash? I dropped a credit card case back there - slid off the center drawer at the back. Now my dash vents have defaulted to the dash vents. New style vacuum generator.
Thanks.
I am having trouble finding this relay. In my 98 under the dash it is a bit of a mess anyway, but if someone could point me the right direction that has the same year coach it would be appreciated
Just revisiting this post and my question to see if anyone located the relay under the dash of a 98?
If so, can you please advise where it is located as this is a valuable mod .
Peter
I have no blower to dash when Aquahot comes on. Ordered new relay switch will get tomorrow. Can anyone verify/ advise the wiring location on pins. 4 wires 5 pins- white shows hot when AH comes on, red/wh is constant hot, red/wh 1 splits into 2(assume it goes to 2 blower motors) and black (ground). Blowers work on dash panel defrost but not AH. White wire shows voltage when AH fires. 1 red shows constant power and 1 into 2 red shows hot when AH fires but not when off. Are my wires crossed? Not sure relay switch is bad
Is there a +12v bus bar hiding in the mess behind the instrument cluster? Where did you steal the +12 v for the USB?
The accessory socket (lighter socket) has 12v constantly.
Put in new relay switch. Still no AH to dash
The 2001 aquahot coaches were unfortunately equipped with Javelina controllers to manage all the dash HVAC. Your Javelina controller is fried and not repairable. Javelina is history, and Foretravel is not interested in helping find a solution. Here's a work around I did a couple years ago in desperation, and it works perfectly. No soldering required, just access to the board behind the dash cubby, a couple of crimp on connectors and some wire.
Will be a month or 2 before I'm back at coach. Wife is in it on Hilton Head Island being a snowbird, 75* expected Thursday. Will get back into it when I go down. Thanks for the hack. If you dont mind, I will shoot you a message if I need additional help. Gotta love the Foreforum.