Drew Callahan · March 30, 2026
Your Newmar Bay Star’s rooftop AC quits pushing cold air mid-July, and you’re already asking yourself: is this a capacitor, a motor, or am I looking at a five-figure compressor replacement? The answer, in most cases, is simpler than that — and it’s something you can fix yourself if you know what you’re looking at. … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 30, 2026
The holiday-weekend phone calls follow a predictable script: background noise of kids playing, a parent’s voice tight with worry, and me asking the same opening question every single time—how long has this been happening? The honest answer is never “since this morning.” With a Newmar Bay Star furnace, the warning signs usually stretch back weeks: … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 29, 2026
You’ll hear two very different stories about furnace work on a Tiffin Open Road Allegro. Walk into a dealer service bay, and they’ll tell you that igniter and control board failures need to be diagnosed by factory-trained techs, that the labor alone will run into the hundreds, and that you’re better off just letting them … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 29, 2026
The Forest River FR3’s rooftop AC unit carries a known weak spot: the Dometic run capacitor (part 3312195.000) fails faster on these rigs than on comparable Class C builds, and too many owners mistake a dead capacitor for a compressor that’s shot. I’ve pulled into campgrounds where someone’s already ordered a whole new rooftop unit—$3,000 … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 29, 2026
Tiffin’s Allegro coaches are solid builds, but there’s something the factory service bulletins and owner’s manuals gloss over: the Dometic rooftop AC units on these rigs have a lifespan that’s almost entirely dictated by one small, cheap component that nobody thinks about until it’s already gone bad. The run capacitor degrades quietly through heat cycles, … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 28, 2026
I was sitting in the cab one November morning, thermostat cranked to heat, when I heard it: that rapid metallic clicking, like something inside the furnace was trying to spark but couldn’t quite catch. A second later—nothing. Dead silence. I knew that sound. It meant the igniter was either burned out completely or the control … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 28, 2026
Most RV owners walk into an AC failure thinking the whole cooling system is shot—compressor’s dead, refrigerant’s gone, time to call a mobile tech. That assumption costs them money and time they don’t have. The truth is simpler: nine times out of ten when a Coachmen Mirada’s AC unit hums but pushes no cold air, … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 27, 2026
I’ve got my workbench set up in the shade behind bay two, and this is where I spend half my summer — sitting on a stool with a clamp and a multimeter, pulling dead capacitors out of Thor Freedom Travelers one after another. The pattern never changes: owner calls, says the AC hummed once and … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 27, 2026
Skip replacing a bad igniter in your Mirada and you’ll be shivering in an unheated rig before the week’s out — possibly stranded if temperatures drop fast. I’ve spent enough time under Mirada furnace panels to recognize the pattern: the Suburban 232286 igniter fails predictably in these units, and when it goes, it takes your … Read more
Drew Callahan · March 26, 2026
I’ve got a Dometic capacitor sitting on my bench right now—pulled from a Ventana last week—and the aluminum casing tells the whole story. It’s swollen on one end like it took a punch, the solder joints around the terminals are black and crusty, and if you listen close you can hear the dried electrolyte sloshing … Read more
