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Porch Light

June 27, 2010, 09:52:39 pm

In our 1997 U295, none of the exterior porch/entry lights worked when we bought the coach. I replaced some bulbs and exercised the local switch on the fixture over the door. The lamp in the grab handle and the fluorescent fixture both work on demand from the switch in the step well.

The porch/entry lamps come on sometimes for no apparent reason. It usually happens when I am opening the door and entering the coach. It happened a couple of times when I was washing or rinsing the side of the coach near the handle. This evening, everything was very dry when the light came on. It seemed to be related to my grabbing the handle. Is this a bug or a feature? The behavior is not reliably reproducible, but has happened several times. I don't know whether I have a "courtesy" feature that is not consistent, or a circuit that is being energized improperly.

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Re: Porch Light

Reply #1 – June 27, 2010, 09:58:59 pm

Feature.

There's a module that controls this.  Basically, if you "ground" the bottom of the grab handle by touching it, the module causes the porch light to come on.

Caveats - try not to get too much water into the lower part of the door handle - it can cause the module to short out.  Also, if you accidentally discharge static electricity when you touch the door handle, you can cause the module to short out (happened to us thanks to our "van de graaff generator" Honda CR-V seat fabric...)

The module (in our '03) is in the wooden interior "box" next to the buddy chair.  There are a few hundred (ok, I exaggerate... a little) square drive screws you have to remove to get to the module if you need to replace it.

Michelle

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Re: Porch Light

Reply #2 – June 27, 2010, 10:11:48 pm

Cool!

The coach is in the driveway. Our adult son is spending the night there while in town on business. (Mama moved the bedroom furniture out of the "guest room." It is now a sewing room, and the "guest room" has wheels.)

I just ran out the door of the stick house and touched the lower metal mount of the grab handle. The lights came on, remained on for a while, then went off. It is a feature indeed!

Thanks to you who have "been there, done that."

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Re: Porch Light

Reply #3 – June 28, 2010, 09:22:44 am

Be carefulbas steve said about water. Make sure there is silicone around the metal and the lexan handle where it goes into the bottom. If you shrt ot the lite you have to replace it.

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Reply #4 – June 29, 2010, 11:11:48 pm

While we are on this topic, is the handle itself suppose to light up?  If it is, what kind of bulb?  and where is the socket for the bulb?

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Re: Porch Light

Reply #5 – June 29, 2010, 11:52:22 pm

I found that I could replace the bulb by removing the top bracket. The socket was empty on my coach. I went to the local auto supply and bought a bulb with a mini-bayonet base. I took a picture of it with a ruler across it for scale. I was able to get a bulb that worked on the first trip. I went back later and got the biggest bulb I could get with the mini-bayonet base. I think maybe it is a 2W bulb. Unfortunately I don't know the designated name/number of the bulb. With the new bulb, the handle does light up. It is not bright, but it does light up.

The bottom bracket has a connector for the touch sensitive circuit that turns on the porch light and handle light for about a minute in response to a touch of the bracket. People with experience say you should allow no water into that bracket because of the hazard of ruining the sensing module.

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