Highland Ridge Open Range – AC Capacitor & Fan Motor Service

The thing that separates a good RV flipper from someone who just cleans up old rigs is systems thinking. When one component fails, I always ask what else failed alongside it, what caused it, and what’s about to fail next. RV systems are connected in ways that aren’t obvious until you’ve taken enough of them apart. On the Highland Ridge Open Range units I’ve flipped, the rooftop AC is one of the first things I put on the lift — a failed run capacitor is almost never the whole story, because the capacitor usually dies because the fan motor has been struggling, drawing excess current, and running hot for longer than it should have. Left undiagnosed, you replace the capacitor, hand the rig to a buyer, and two weeks later the compressor is gone — so this guide walks you through both components together, the way the repair actually needs to be done.

The Run Capacitor That Stops the Dometic/Coleman-Mach Death Spiral

A failed run capacitor doesn’t just kill your AC—it kills the fan motor next, then the compressor, then your wallet. On Highland Ridge Open Range units, this capacitor is the first thing I replace because it’s the failure point that triggers the cascade.

What works

• The unit fires up immediately—you get full fan speed back and the compressor kicks in without the labored grinding that happens when a capacitor is dying.
• System holds temperature where it should instead of cycling on and off every few minutes, which is what a bad capacitor forces the thermostat to do.
• Installation takes fifteen minutes if you’ve killed power at the breaker; even a first-time DIYer can swap this without a tech call.

What doesn’t

• Amazon shipping on this part is inconsistent—I’ve waited 6 days on expedited orders, which matters when you’re full-timing and it’s 94 degrees outside.
• If the fan motor or compressor is already burned out from running under capacitor stress, this part won’t resurrect a dead unit—you’ll find that out only after installation.

I once replaced a capacitor on an Open Range and the system still wouldn’t cool past 82 degrees—turned out the motor bearings were already shot and the whole fan assembly needed replacing. That taught me to always listen to the fan on startup: if it sounds like grinding gravel, the capacitor alone won’t save you. Grab the RV AC dual run capacitor (Dometic/Coleman-Mach) and have a backup plan if the AC still underperforms after installation.

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