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Marathon Mess
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To non-Marathon owners, if you don’t know what make your equalizers are, I would definitely check them out. I have a friend with a 2006 Country Coach and sure enough, he has a set of Sure Power equalizers that are on the list below as being recalled. I suppose he was never notified since Country Coach no longer has direct support.
Here is the recall from Sure Power:
Sure Power recalls battery equalizers and DC-DC converters
SOURCE: NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION (NHTSA) SEP 26, 2013
Sure Power, Inc. is recalling certain battery equalizers and DC-DC converters manufactured between January 2000 and Aug. 18, 2013 containing a particular epoxy sealing, aka “potting,” compound, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Sure Power product is identified by the following part numbers: 12025C00, 12025C00-B, 12025E00, 12025E00-B, 12030C20HR, 12030C20HR-B, 12040C00, 12040C00-B, 12040E00, 12040E00-B, 52204, 52206, 52206RB, 52208, 52208P, 52208RB, 52210, 52210-20430K, 52210P, 52210RB, 52210RB-B, 52210RB-T, 52304, 52304P, 52306, 52306RB, 52308, 12040C01. The specific potting compound used in the subject products for insulation was found to be capable of conducting electricity after being exposed to heat.
Once electrically conductive, the material is capable of melting and burning, increasing the risk of a fire.
Sure Power will contact each of its aftermarket customers and notify them of this recall. The vehicle manufacturers that used the affected products as items of original equipment will conduct their own campaigns and notify their owners. Owners will be offered an unaffected battery equalizer or DC-DC converter, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule. Owners may call Sure Power at 1-855-450-3594 or e-mail Sure Power at recalldc@cooperindustries.com.
Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.safercar.gov.
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Kevin what is the status of your coach and batteries. Next week my coach will have been at Marathon one month. The microwave, burnt awning boards and burnt bathroom breaker have been replaced. apparently the burnt Kohler control unit is not available. Last discussion was replacement of the batteries and equalizer had nothing to do with the electrical damage. What a nightmare! I’ve been in touch with Oregon I’m giving Marathon the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing in the end. My fear is there is more damage that they are not admitting..
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I am not familiar with the equalizers that were used. Can anyone determine why Vanner equalizers were not used through the coach? I have only ever had equalizers made by Vanner for both the house and the coach and in 24 years have never had an issue. Are they interchangeable?
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I
too don’t have a clue as to why they went with Sure Power for a few
years instead of Vanner. Prevost according to Bill Jensen never used
Sure Power. Mine had Sure Power for the chassis because somewhere in
the history of the bus the original Vanner got changed out. Maybe
Vanner was unavailable at the time.I’ve
been told Marathon has to add some other components to the new Sure
Powers, maybe Hish can jump in here. I thought it was just an easy
replacement like my chassis was, 4 bolts, 3 cables and your done, but
there is more to it for the Marathon house.
New recall on the left, old on the right.
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Tom
Marathon added (2) 150 Amp fuses from the Sure Power equalizer to the house batteries. I will add pics of the clixon fuses. I am not sure of the SP. for the fuse maker.
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This is bizarre, just realized today that I have a sure power equalizer, but it is the the engine bay for the chassis! I guess I never looked closely at it as I had the Vanner monitor and heard prevost only used Vanner. I know I have a Vanner up in the battery bay as we looked at it and discussed the recall when I was at Parliament getting new Lifelines this summer.
Guess the phone call from marathon asking about my address today may have something to do with the recall.
I am not going to be anywhere near any Marathon places anytime soon, will they just send me a good one to swap out?
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G-man,
I had the same deal, Sure Power for the chassis. You can change it out yourself, 4 bolts, 3 cables and your done. The bolt holes are the same and no drilling is required. Marathon will do nothing for you and neither will Prevost. Prevost never used Sure Power, so yours like mine got changed out in the history somewhere.
Now the biggest problelm is getting the Equalizer to you, Sure Power is a pain in the ass big time. They’re going to try to jerk you around telling you to go to Marathon, then telling you to go to Prevost and none of that works. Your best bet is to contact Brenda at 503-612-7101 and explain your situation. You can use my name if you want, and tell here we have exactly the same situation. It took over 2 months to get mine and that was after they lost the first order.
Here’s on of my posts on PC: Sure Power
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Thanks Tom, I will follow up with them and get it changed out, really appreciate the help!!
Glenn -
I found 2 of the recalled equalizers on my coach last November. I called Sure Power and gave them the serial numbers from my units. They sent me two new units and I returned the two defective units to them at no cost.
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When Marathon did the swap on our 2005 Marathon (2004 Shell), Marathon did have to make some adjustments as the screw holes were slightly off from the original. I will check on Friday, but I remember Marathon saying they had to add an additional plate to mount the replacement to.
My point is, our replacement was not plug and play. Modification was required.
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The chassis change out is plug and play with same bolt holes.
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G Man
They added 2- 150
amps fuses to the house batteries and brackets to mount the fuses, they added
4-4-0 wires from the fuses to the house batteries. look at my pics, Tech worked on my
coach 1/2 a day and after that they had to work on my techlink and the auxiliary
timer as both die after the recall completed. I was in luck as I was in Coburg
OR., they were able to get everything fixed with few hours and of course I got charged for
the additional repairs. -
Hish, this is in your battery bay correct?
Oddly my battery bay already has a Vanner. Ben C at Parliament is not a fan of the Kilxon breakers, suggested we change mine out in house battery bay, and we were going to but it would have been a lot of re-wiring and work, so put it on hold.
We did ditch the Kilxon breaker coming off 50dn in engine compartment and changed that to a T fuse.
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Picked up my coach from Marathon, they absorbed all the costs regarding the electrical problems, everything works and all is well.
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You will probably never know, but was there any indication as to what was done that caused the damage?
You were not alone in having repairs that go beyond an equalizer replacement.
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