ATF: Cyclone - AC 3 position switch

[pro668]

Could someone explain which AC's work at each position of the 3 position switch? Thanks.

 

[Dloebrich]

That switch toggles the power between the living room a/c and the bedroom a/c. The switch prevents you from using all three a/c units at the same time.
On our Cyclone the Garage is powered all the time and the switch let you choose the living room or the bed room.
Make sure all you thermostats are set to fan -auto until you everything figured out

 

[danemayer]

Hi pro668,

The 3 way Air Conditioning switch lets you run 2 of the 3 units at one time as already mentioned. But it may be difficult to say how yours is set up. Owners use the toy haulers in different ways and not everyone prefers the same wiring arrangement. I think Heartland may have used more than one wiring arrangement.

Assuming all 3 units are functioning correctly, the easiest way to figure it out is to try the switch in different positions.

 

[BLHFUN]

Could someone explain which AC's work at each position of the 3 position switch? Thanks.

It works like this. Kill power to the switch receptacle. Remove the cover from the switch. Remove the black and white wires from switch and twist all 3 whites wires and all three black wires together. Used red twist locks and tape well. Push the wires back and replace the switch and cover. Then use your Any two AC's you desire. If you want to take it one step further. Add a 20amp breaker and take 1 of three sets of wires to that breaker. Then you can use all 3 AC's when plugged into 50 amp. This comes in handy when it's 100 outside.

 

[pro668]

Where do you put the 20 amp breaker? Is there any room in the panel?

 

[BLHFUN]

Mine had one spare cover at the bottom. If you don't have a spare, you can remove one and replace it with a dual pole

 

[pro668]

So, you can leave your 3 way switch in just one location to work 2 AC's from their thermostat, and the third one can run off of its own thermostat, just off of a different breaker? I am so sorry to keep asking these questions, but you are helping me out so much, thanks.

 

[danemayer]

If you add a circuit breaker, you'll have to manage the loading.

You have 2 incoming power legs, each capable of 50 amps. If all 3 units are on the same leg, you'll be pulling a lot of the 50 amps. Other devices powered by that leg may put you over the limit and pop a breaker.

Also, your generator doesn't supply as much power as your shore power connection. There are 2 legs from the generator, each providing 30 amps, or on some units a 30 amp and a 20 amp. Anytime using the generator as power source, you may complicate power management.

But people have done it, so perhaps you can also.

 

[BLHFUN]

So, you can leave your 3 way switch in just one location to work 2 AC's from their thermostat, and the third one can run off of its own thermostat, just off of a different breaker? I am so sorry to keep asking these questions, but you are helping me out so much, thanks.

You are actually turning that switch into a dummy switch. That switch will do nothing when your done. The switch is there to protect the power source and operator from turning on all three units at the same time. Your generator and 30 amp service is not large enough to operate all three. For me, I want to be able to choose what two AC's I want on at any given time. When you bypass the switch, it's up to you to chose (and remember) what two you want to run together. The only reason you can't run all 3 is because the 20 amp breaker is not strong enough

When you separate the breakers into 2 breakers, your not overloading the existing 20 amp breaker and can run all 3 AC's at one time.

 

[BLHFUN]

I was told the same thing by my electrician. If you want to chose what AC to use ( any given two,) You simply remove the switch from the equation, but you can still only use two at a time. My choice to do this was because of the bedrooms. My switch would not allow me to run both bedrooms at the same time. This is a poor design In my opinion. By combining all 3 wires together, then it's your choice.

 

[hockinsonjohn]

Just so I can get this right. I have 2 20amp breakers that run ac in my 2015 RW420. one 20 amp breaker runs the garage ac Its labeled rear ac. one 20 amp runs the bedroom and living room ac labeled front ac. I have a 3 way ac switch as discribed below. right now I have the garage ac on. when i place the switch in the upper position the bedroom ac comes on and the garage ac stays on. when i place the switch in the middle position the bedroom ac goes off but the garage ac stays on. when I place the switch in the bottom position the livingroom ac comes on and the garage as stays on. It seems that they wired it up for the garage to run off the rear ac control at all times and the bed room and living room run off the switch. and from what im reading here there is no way to set it up to where I can have the living room as a main like the garage is currently set up and use the switch between the garage and bedroom?

 

[AAdams]

If you still want the switch and have your choices be Living room/Bedroom or Living room/Garage then you need to intercept the garage line and wire it to the place on the switch that the living room is now then extend the living room line to the garage breaker that the garage is no longer using since you wired it to the old living room location. This will leave the power management the same as it is now when running on the generator. When you extend the living room line you may want to make the connection in an electrical box with strain reliefs so it does not pull on the wire nuts and tape and pull apart in the wall. I would suggest that you relabel the breakers afterwards.

 

[pcardoza]

The 4100 comes wired with power to the garage AC at all times. The wall switch then allows you to select either the BR or LR unit. We told our dealer that this was a ridiculous configuration and he agreed. He rewired the RV (at no charge!), basically swapping power setup the LR and Garage units, so now the LR has power at all times and we can select between the BR and the garage as we wish.

To us, that makes a LOT more sense. Frankly though, we have yet to turn on the garage AC in the 14 months we have had the RV.

 

[danemayer]

The 4100 comes wired with power to the garage AC at all times. The wall switch then allows you to select either the BR or LR unit. We told our dealer that this was a ridiculous configuration and he agreed. He rewired the RV (at no charge!), basically swapping power setup the LR and Garage units, so now the LR has power at all times and we can select between the BR and the garage as we wish.

To us, that makes a LOT more sense. Frankly though, we have yet to turn on the garage AC in the 14 months we have had the RV.

I think this may have been the original configuration, but quite a few people complained that they couldn't cool both sleeping areas at night.

There seems to be no 2 out of 3 configuration that will be right for everyone.

 

[Snaredrum]

I was thinking the same thing and then we had my son and his wife stay in the garage. The way its wired, you can have both sleeping areas running at the same time. We chocked both unit vents down and the main part of the coach stayed cool also.

 

[avvidclif]

It's probably wired that way to also keep from dumping 2 A/C's into the ductwork for 1. On mine the bedroom and main are both ducted together. The garage has it's own vents on it.

I know my main has plenty of air out the ducts and may not need the boost from the BR. I'll wire it up so all can run at once because I know Texas heat and add the second breaker. It hasn't been hot enough yet to get me going. But it's sure working on it this week, in the 90's.

 

[danemayer]

It's wired to run 2 out of 3 at a time because the generator doesn't supply enough power for all 3 units.

 

[toolguy1964]

Can anyone tell me how to re-wire the three way switch so that I can just run the living room and bedroom A/C's at the same time? We cannot run any two at once now. We were told we could choose to run either the living room and bedroom or living room and garage or bedroom and garage at the same time but none of these configurations work on our 2015 Cyclone 3800.
Many thanks!

 

[Wk15]

Are there an pictures of this third 20amp breaker installed and where it should go. This sounds like another project for the weekend.

thank you

 

[danemayer]

Can anyone tell me how to re-wire the three way switch so that I can just run the living room and bedroom A/C's at the same time? We cannot run any two at once now. We were told we could choose to run either the living room and bedroom or living room and garage or bedroom and garage at the same time but none of these configurations work on our 2015 Cyclone 3800.
Many thanks!

Hi toolguy1964,

The current setup should allow you to run 2 A/C units at a time, but not necessarily the two that you want to run together. If you can't run two at a time, there's something that needs to be corrected before you can rewire and get what you want.

I don't have a Cyclone, so I can't tell you exactly how to change it. From what others have posted, it sounds like you have to find the circuit breaker for the garage A/C unit and move those wires to the switch, while taking the living room wires from the switch, and running them back to the circuit breaker for the garage. I don't think anyone has detailed this out, so my understanding could be wrong.

If you're not experienced working with 110V AC electrical wiring, it might be best to have your dealer do this.