Co / Propane alarm

[Blazer]

Hi all, We purchased a 1995 Sunline from a friend who was retiring. Quite a beauty considering he was a furniture maker and quite particular with the way things were kept.

Being that this TT does not have CO or Gas alarms in it I want to install them asap. I had considered using a dual monitor but it may be better to install 2 individual units, Gas alarm closer to the floor and Co at aprox shoulder height.

That's the easy part. What I'm not sure about is where to run the wires and tap the power for the units? I haven't really looked at the elec system yet to try and come up with a conclusion.

Thanks in advance for any input?

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by Blazer

Hi all, We purchased a 1995 Sunline from a friend who was retiring. Quite a beauty considering he was a furniture maker and quite particular with the way things were kept.

Being that this TT does not have CO or Gas alarms in it I want to install them asap. I had considered using a dual monitor but it may be better to install 2 individual units, Gas alarm closer to the floor and Co at aprox shoulder height.

That's the easy part. What I'm not sure about is where to run the wires and tap the power for the units? I haven't really looked at the elec system yet to try and come up with a conclusion.

You will save a bunch of money if you just pick up a battery operated CO alarm readily available at hardware stores everywhere. It's what you would install in your home. There's no need for a special "RV" CO alarm. Change the batteries annually when you change the smoke detector batteries. Mount it where the manufacturer recommends.

On my '99 Sunline, the propane alarm was mounted just to the left of the power center/fuse block and below the fridge. The propane alarm needs +12vdc and ground from the trailer, and it should have its own separate fused circuit. Since it was mounted so close to the power center/fuse block, routing wiring wasn't much of an issue. I suggest you do the same if your power center/fuseblock is down low near the floor. Your main fuse block should have extra slots available.

[JohnB]

I agree with Steve's post. I will add a little to it.

On the CO alarm, they also sell the battery operated ones that are a combo of CO and smoke alarm. We have that type. If the original smoke alarm is original, it is old enough it should be replaced anyway. The technology has changed a lot for the better on both the smoke alarms and CO monitors then years ago.

On the LP detector, also agree this should be wired on it's own fuse. Some accidentally blowing of a fuse on a normal circuit and your LP detector is no longer working. In our case, our LP detector is not close at all to where near the fuse panel is. Each floor plan has this different. Our LP detector in our T310SR is located near the stove and the furnace area, opposite them actually. If you are going to have a LP leak, odds somewhat higher they may occur where the LP fittings and gas valves are inside the camper such as the furnace and the worst one, the stove. I do not know that this is a mandate about the mounting location, but it makes sense and something to thing through when mounting.

The fridge and the HW heater that also use LP, have their gas connections and gas valves outside the camper main wall. They can still have an issue, but the odds are lower a gas leak to the inside since they have their gas connections near an outside vent cover.

Running a dedicated 12 Volt DC line, there are some creative ways on how to do this, but need to know more about your camper, what model number so we can look up a floor plan and where is the power converter in the camper so we can suggest some possible "how to's"?

Good for you to notice this and get some added protection.

This brings up a new question to Club members, what year did it start when LP detectors where mandatory to be in a camper? And what year did Sunline start putting them in? The first question may be hard to know, but the 2nd question folks on line here know if theirs has it or not. I would of thought 1995 would of had one, but it seems not.

Hope this helps

John

[Steve Collins]

The front half of the '95 T-1950 is pretty much identical to the front half of our '99 T-2453. The fridge is on the street side about in the middle of the trailer so I'd venture an educated guess that the power panel is mounted right under the fridge. This should look somewhat familiar to Blazer:

[Blazer]

Originally Posted by Steve Collins

The front half of the '95 T-1950 is pretty much identical to the front half of our '99 T-2453. The fridge is on the street side about in the middle of the trailer so I'd venture an educated guess that the power panel is mounted right under the fridge. This should look somewhat familiar to Blazer:

Wow, the only difference is my power panel is on the left hand side under the closet. Plenty of room to mount a 12vdc lp sniffer there.

Thanks

[Blazer]

All good replies. Thanks to all.
I'm going to go with a battery CO detector and wore in a 12vdc load sniffer.

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by Blazer

All good replies. Thanks to all.
I'm going to go with a battery CO detector and wore in a 12vdc load sniffer.

Plenty of open slots for the fuse for the LP alarm. Ground for 12vdc is right there too.

If you pull the brown front panel off the power center, you should be able to access the screws that hold the whole unit in place. Pull them and you can slide the power panel out just a bit to route your wires.

[JohnB]

See if this helps any.

In the 2004 T1950 model, Sunline mounted the LP detector in the lower part of the bed.


The power converter is on the non door side under the wardrobe cabinet


Looking up the 95 brochure, your layout should be close to this. Running a direct wire set to the bed area is not a straight shot, but not impossible.

There is room on the non door side (fridge side) of the camper and getting power to it there is not as complex.

There are 2 things to work around.

1. The wheel well. The wheel well starts in the bath room and runs almost to the couch. This "might" rule out mounting the LP detector under the sink area that looks wide open inside. You will need to investigate it further. I do not know how far up the wheel well goes or how deep it is. It might be right under the sink cabinet bottom leaving no room above the wheel well. But there may be a little room between the wheel well and the wood grain panel in the left to right direction of the camper. It all depends on how deep the LP detector is if it will fit. The power converter is in a jogged out area giving it some more depth.

You can see here, the front wheel well ends about at the end of the fridge vent and on mine, the rear end of the wheel well is in the bathroom.


There is room above the power converter and there is room below the fridge above the heat duct. But, it leads me to the next unknown. ( There is also room in the little cabinet below the fridge, but that may not be the ideal place to put it. Sunline targeted that location for a trash can on ours. )

2. Does mounting a LP detector above a power converter or a heat duct have an issue with rising heat to affect the LP detector?

I myself do not know the answer to that. There will be for sure heat coming out of the power converter top area if the converter is drawing high power, like charging a low battery and using many lights inside. And the heat duct will convect off heat when the furnace is running.

If you plan to put the LP detector above those heat sources, read the instructions well on what operating temps they work under or call the manufacture. I could see rising heat of 110 to maybe pushing 120F coming off of either heat source very close to the source. One foot away it will be a lot less, but a few inches above, maybe not a lot less.

Again, I do not know if heat will affect the LP system, just a heads up to check it out. In the 3 Sunlines I have had and the PopUp, the LP detector just never ended up above a heat source. Maybe a member in the club has one that is above a heat source and can post. This might be a mute point or not.

Hope this helps

John

[johnnybgood]

My 1996 doesn't have an LP alarm.

So they don't make a detector that runs off batteries?

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by johnnybgood

My 1996 doesn't have an LP alarm.

So they don't make a detector that runs off batteries?

I've not heard of one. But that does not mean they aren't out there. Perhaps you could do a Google or Yahoo search and find out?

[Thomascine]

Okay, curiosity got the best of me. It appears that they do not make a battery operated LP detector but they do make a plug in. I am glad this came up as there is no sign of one in our Sunline.

https://www.amazon.com/Kidde-KN-COEG...e+gas+detector

Thanks,
Tommie

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by johnnybgood

My 1996 doesn't have an LP alarm.

Thanks for responding John. I think we are starting to narrow down the dates.

1996 does not have an LP detector from the factory.

1999 does have one as Steve's camper had it.

Now need a few folks from 1997 and 1998 to weigh in.

Boy, I would of thought they would of had this by the mid 90's. Guess not.

Thanks

John

[JohnB]

Blazer,

To add one thing to this, the LP detectors are wired live so they are on all the time. This is the safety feature. However, when to store the camper waiting for the next camping trip, you will need to unhook the negative terminal from the camper battery so it unhooks the live power. If not, in a week or two your battery will be drained dead.

In 2004 model years, Sunline started putting battery disconnect switches on most models. This made the unhooking very easy, just turn off the battery rather then dealing with the evil battery case straps... They do make aftermarket battery disconnect switches you can add yourself.

Mine looks like this


Made by Blue Sea


Also, the emergency break away switch to engage the trailer brakes in the event of a decoupling of the trailer, is wired in upstream of the switch. The switch never shuts off the emergency break away switch power from the battery. You can see the small 2 black wires going up into the bottom of the switch. One wire is the hot feed to the breakaway switch from the battery and the other just goes into my junction box to tie into the brake power feed wire.


Hope this helps

John

[johnnybgood]

Originally Posted by Steve Collins

I've not heard of one. But that does not mean they aren't out there. Perhaps you could do a Google or Yahoo search and find out?

I could do a Google or Yahoo search, but thought it would be more fun to converse. Sorry.

[Sunline Fan]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Thanks for responding John. I think we are starting to narrow down the dates.

1996 does not have an LP detector from the factory.

1999 does have one as Steve's camper had it.

Now need a few folks from 1997 and 1998 to weigh in.

Boy, I would of thought they would of had this by the mid 90's. Guess not.

Thanks

John

It was a new thing for 1997. Mine has it, on the front dinette booth. Already set it off with my shoe...

[Blazer]

That's all good info to think about and consider while I'm planning out the LP detector install. Once this rainy weather dries out I'm going to put a plan in action to get this done. Our grandkids are chomping at the bit to go camping.

[Thomascine]

Good evening,

Any ideas on how and where to install a LP detector in a 1987 T1550?

Thanks,
Tommie

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Thomascine

Any ideas on how and where to install a LP detector in a 1987 T1550?

Hi Tommie,

I do not know your floor plan well enough to see what is the easiest to create for the hook up. But I have some guidelines to help you go by to figure this out.

1. Most LP detectors I have seen in the newer Sunlines have (or other brands of campers) have them in the vicinity of the stove. This might be on the opposite side wall of the stove, in a dinette booth seat or even a wall on the side of the kitchen etc. What areas are available change with the floor plan. The need as I believe it to be, (not 100% positive) a gas leak is more likely to be from the stove. Burner knob accidentally hit and turned on, oven issues, leaking stove regulator, leaking gas fitting, etc. This gas appliance is right in the open area of the camper with no direct access to the outside to vent like the HW heater, the fridge or the furnace has.

2. The detector is mounted down low closer to the floor area as LP is heavier then air and migrates down towards the floor. I believe they do not mount it directly right at the stove level of the cooking surface to not get a false alarm. They are usually several feet away down low to the floor.

3. If you are having a hard wired one, this ideally is on it's own fuse so something simple blowing a fuse on that circuit does not affect this safety device. The detector should be wired hot (on all the time) when the battery or shore power are connected.

With those guidelines this seems to come down to, keeping in mind the 3 objectives above, where can I run the power wires to that meets the mounting location needs and I have a surface with enough depth to mount the detector in?

Getting the power to the detector might be the bigger hurdle.

Hope this helps

John

[Sunline Fan]

Originally Posted by Thomascine

Good evening,

Any ideas on how and where to install a LP detector in a 1987 T1550?

Thanks,
Tommie

I would say in one of the dinette booth bases. They weren't mounted in an outside wall, and since your fresh water tank is under the kitchen, that isn't really an option. Since you already pulled the 12v for your USB plugs, you can just run the wires down the rest of the way and along the dinette booth to hook it up. Otherwise, getting power would be your hardest part.

[Thomascine]

Good evening,

Thanks for the info. It would be a lot easier to install it on the base of the dinette. That would mean it would not be on its own fuse though. The converter and breaker box is in the back of the camper. The dinette is in the front but I don't think I have much of a choice since options are limited.

I am glad I asked because I probably would have installed it too high. I had considered a plugin but we only have three receptacles as it is.

Thanks,
Tommie