Rolling Mobile Grooming BomB?!

[Dog Charm]

Long story short I bought a grooming van from a small conversion company in Penn. 6 hours away from me , groomed 4 dogs and had problems with the inverter not working so I took it to a local R.V. repair place . They took one look at my set up and said I was driving a rolling bomb and offered to remove the unsafe batteries and inverter and install a generator or 19,000.
They also said I should take the people I bought it from to court and offered to put it in a written report if I needed it for the judge . Well after spending 25,000. on the van I have no money left for a lawyer let alone them to fix it , I am so fustrated what can I do I NEED to start making $$ not spending more. Please I need some help figuring it out!!

[amberstarr]

first of all I am so sorry to hear of this and as far as a lawyer can you look into a court appointed lawyer or one who is willing to take the case for free or low cost as practice/exposure? My husband knows more about this as he is in school for criminal justica.... I will talk to him and pm you with any more info and of course Im sure it varies from state to state but any info I get I will pass to you.

Take a deep breath and try to see past right now as this will get better and all work out... in the first year of my mobile it was in an accident that totalled the payed for truck that pulled it and crushed a lot of the trailer for us to find out we had the wrong insurance and had to buy a new truck which was an added expense ontop of fixing the trailer.... the second year same month my invertor batteries started a fire inside the mobile while we were in the grocery store... we survived it all and we are goin strong so hang in there.

[mylady]

I think Azoci had a similar situation, I may be wrong, in that the RV place didn't think her inverter was safe. Maybe it was someone else on the board, but I got the definate impression that the RV place just didn't know what they were talking about. From what I've read it seems most of the RV places don't even really understand how the inverters are set up, but I don't have an inverter and am not an expert. Can you contact the company you bought it from and tell them what the RV place said and see what they say? I only know what I've read here, you may want to scan the boards and see what you can find. I wouldn't assume that the RV place is right or wrong at this point, I think you need more info.

[Dog Charm]

Thanks for the help . I don't think this is going to be a quick fix. I just hope I can figure out how to make this work so I can start working!! Also the people that sold me the unit currently have 7 grooming vans for sale on pet groomer . I just hope no one makes the same mistake.

[Smart-n-Pretty]

Let me know how it turns out as I am considering taking the seller of my van to court after spending another $700+ to get it out of the shop yesterday.

[Doc]

I think MyLady gave you the best advice - contact the company you bought it from and ask them about it. See what they say. Also, since you bought it from them I'm assuming it has some sort of warranty?

[Starshan]

I'd love to know the details on why they thought it was a problem? I have a home made inverter system & I know Azoci does too along with alot of others on this board.

Shannon
The Soapy Puppy

[kats_melody]

Hubby puts in his two cents

How could an inverter system be a rolling time bomb? Here are some things to look for:

Batteries not being in a separate, isolated, ventilated compartment. When batteries are charged, they generate hydrogen gas. Remember the Hindenberg?

Undersized wiring that can get hot, melt, short, and cause a fire. There may be a small amount of voltage, but the amperage of the battery is what counts.

Inadequate, poorly designed inverter system. If the inverter is a cheap overseas model, it may be undersized for the job. Will it run on an overload condition? Yes. Will it run LONG under an overload condition? No, and for the same reasons that I mentioned for wiring.

If the RV place is quoting you five figures for a generator, you are being hosed unless you are putting in a diesel unit and having the entire van rewired. Even then it shouldn't cost over $10K.

Just my two cents...now back to my lovely spouse.

Good luck. Get with the people who built your van for an assessment. If your van is under warranty, take advantage of it.

[Jenneversage64]

Maybe those guys just want to scare you into buying from them.

I was told years ago my first rig an E 150 was not safe and needed to be at least an E250. Well, I sold it, and the girl never had any problems and had a good business. Eventually she bought I think a WGNTails rig. Don't believe everything you hear unless the person has no way to make money from the advice they offer you.

[Dog Charm]

The company I bought the unit from is a small father- daughter run business. The daughter is a groomer and the dad a handy type and he runs a repair shop for trucks and cars they do this on the side . They did not offer me any type warranty . I know, it was stupid of me to buy it . When I got it back to new york I was so exicted to try it out! I had other problems from the start the water pump would not work so I called them up . She said it was because I had to prime the pump by sucking on the hose wile the pump was running to get it started. So there I am sucking away on the hose for a while like an idiot my husband laughing at me ....no luck. So I tried it several more times my hubby even gave it a shot.... no luck. So I was determined to figure out what was wrong finaly I figured out they had put the pump in backwards the intake were the out take should be and vice versa . I fixed the problem and gave them a call and let them know they had screwed up. I didn't think too much of it , I thought well it's ok they are just a small family run business trying to make some money to make ends meet . But now with this problem and a serious safety issue I have had it! I don't trust the r.v people ..I think they are just ring to make a buck off me too.

[Dog Charm]

The guys at the r.v. place said the batteries and the way they were mounted under the tub were the danger they need to be in a vented area and away from any possible h20 .
The 19,000 would cover redoing about half of my set up and would include a generatior, heater and hot water heater . I need to figure out a way to fix this on my own because any legal actions take a lot of time and there is no shure thing I will win . With my luck it's an as is sale thing and I bought the conversion and all the problems that come with it . I am just glad me and my dogs didn't get electricuted or blown up!!

[petgroomaustralia]

If its a new product rather than used then I would imagine there is some legislated warranty period from the manufacturer.

[Button]

That doesn't sound good. Are the batts. dangerous just sitting there or only when being used? Can you plug in untill you get it figured out? Honda makes a good little gennie that isn't to heavy to put in and out of the van. I was looking at one at a lawnmower shop and it was around $1000 but if you have explosive vapors I wouldn't have any spark or ignition source.

[bubblesaway]

Do you photos of your set up? That will help... My batt's are under my tub and so are about 10 freinds I know.. However you can not get to them from the inside working area, thats sealed. We can get to them from the rear door.. Yes ours are vented for charging. Your system will not blow up.. But please tell us more about your system, we can help you more.

[azoci]

Wow! That's a chunck of change

for a fix that you may not need. However, the batteries should be vented, in any case.

Yep, when I was doing my first RV conversion, my LeSharo, the RV places said it couldn't be done! But taking heart from this board and Doug, and Curtis, we got it done. I found a great battery store owner that had the knowledge to set up my batteries to do what I needed.

When my first rig died, my back-up rig was up and ready in 72 hours. My son is a CAT Diesel mechanic with the training to do my batteries, took him and another one of my son's an afternoon to change over. My scond rig is a Chevy Chinook (yeah the big one) and I have a compartment under what would have been the bench /dining area, holds all 8 bats and vents easily with a marine in-line bildge/exhaust venting 12 volt motor. My propane tank is also in the same area, but 4 feet away from the bats, and I usually hit the vent switch before I turn on the electronic HW tank.

I have an Aims 5K/10K Inverter from donrowe.com, with an 80 amp charger. My system has also has huge wires all soldered ends, made to fit. When switching rigs we only had to make 1 new connection wire. My bats are Excide 110's, golf cart bats, water filled and they still have the original ThermOil in them, which helps extend their life. They are 4 years old and going strong.

The only isseu I've ever had with my system was a bad plug on the charge line, replace that, and in one of the houses we had, blew the fuses on the dang charger! heck, I didn't know the charger HAD fuses!

My rig now even runs the roof air with the inverter, which I really don't need but at the peak of the summer and then only for an hour or so. Most of the time, if I need a bit of air, I just turn on the fan and it pulls in cooler air and all is good. I can run my roof AC and my stand dryer on med (pulling 12 amps) for about 3 hours...and I really haven't a clue how much the roof ac pulls. I use amp-wise equipment, Kool Dry, Clipper vac tote, my lights pull milla-maps, etc. I do use a stand dryer, 9,12, and 14 amps on high. So far, I've been able to do as many as 11 Bichons in a day and still have power to spare (w/o the ac)...never really had an issue with low amps except the time I didn't know my system wasn't charging due to the fuses being blown, heck I went a week or so of 4-5 dogs a day...before I started having issues.

OOPs, sorry getting a bit long winded...do I like my system, YES. If I could choose between a Gene or my system? hands down...My system.