[Larry & Diane]

Tom, please disregard the request I sent to you. As you can see I logged in successfully.

I have the SCS basement AC units in my Newell. I was having problems with them in the form of burnt circuit boards. A friend on the Newell forum who is an electrical engineer has a Newell that is the same year as mine and he has the same units. He also had trouble with his circuit boards overheating in summer weather. He changed the wiring on the circuit boards to a much heavier grade wire that has rubber water-proof connections.

I followed his lead and re-did my spare circuit boards with the heavy duty wires/connections and so far no problems this summer.

We just returned from Highlands, NC and the drive thru the Atlanta heat was brutal. The ACs ran cool with no problems.

I have been told that 80% of the problems with these SCS units is in the circuit boards. So all you guys out there with SCS units consider beefing up your wiring and connections – it will solve many of your AC problems.

Good luck!

Tuga Gaidry

1999 Newell w/ 2 slides

2005 Honda Pilot

[Archived]

Tuga…

Great article… thanks… I am in need of a used circuit board… doesn’t need to be working either… mine disappeared last summer when it was apart and my electrical guru built his own but would rather rebuild the original one like you have… I remember that mine had a couple of jumpers soldered on the back that looked burned and I think it got trashed but will never really know. I called the place in Fort Worth and they don’t have any … said I should try to find one somewhere though…. do you have any clues where I might find one? maybe through Newell do you think?

I really appreciate any info you may have. BTW are you and Karen coming to OKC? We are but not going on to Vegas like many others.

Cheers,

Diane

[Larry]

Diane,

Newell may have some spare circuit boards; talk to Chuck in parts.

SCS is out of business (they were located in Ft. Worth). Victory Systems bought out their inventory of circuit boards and now they are out of business. Seems like I remember hearing that Newell had found a place that would make up 100 or so boards. I’m not sure about that.

If you have your existing boards improved with the heavy duty wire connections you will be way ahead of the game.

These SCS units are really good ACs. Mine are 14 years old and still going strong (knock on aluminum).

Thanks for asking but we can’t make the trip to OKC – wish we could – JDUB has some great BBQ and we would love to see you guys.

[Archived]

I had an email conversation with Linda Pannell At Victory Climate Systems yesterday (July 9, 2012).

They have 17 original control boards in stock for $225 each, plus shipping .

She can be reached at linda.pannell@vcsemail.com

or by phone at (817) 293-3331.

I think that the rumor that they are out of business is in error. What happened was a group of capital investors by a name like Victory Partners LLC executed a leveraged buyout of SCS Frigette. SCS made a bunch of stuff for automobiles, trucks, buses, and military vehicles including in-dash and in-dash-in-cabin AC systems, cruise controls and keyless entry and security systems.

The new company was Named Victory Climate systems which abandoned the SCS R-VAC products. They have been actively liquidating the acquired inventory. Now, the 17 control boards are all that remains.

O.K. I know that sounds ominous, but I think repeat, think that there is an option. The coleman unit has a control board which basically does the same thing. I suspect it could be adapted to these RVAC units. Also, I read, but cannot find at this time, a posting on one of the marine forums in which a control board was replaced entirely with a couple of 2-stage thermostats.

Also, the coleman unit is a drop in replacement for the R-VAC. One of the marine supply houses in Stuart Florida has the 27,000 btu dual (13500 btu) stage ac on sale for $1700. plus shipping.

Apparently the biggest part of the changeout is a rework of the ducting near the unit and installation of a coleman thermostat (makes things easier), although the SCS thermostat will work.

Flagship Marine

P.S. This was to be included in the article, but cat’s out of the bag now.

[Archived]

Very interesting article… I called Victory about a month ago and they were still very much in business but told me there are no more circuit boards available anywhere to their knowledge… they said they get lots of calls for them… also said they can repair the bad board if I sent it to them… however my bad board vanished so I had my tech guy build a control board for it… It works fine… but wonder if I should go ahead and do like Tuga did and have the original type board redone with the heavier wiring???

Million dollar queston I guess! Hmmm what to do? Suggestions anyone?

Diane

[Doug]

In response to my inquiry, VCS responded that they DO NOT rebuild PC Boards.

[Archived]

Re-reading Tuga’s post, he stated he had heavier wire CONNECTORS installed on the control board. Or did I read that incorrectly? Maybe wires which connect to the control board? Like the AC Supply lines?

According to the service manual, these control boards have no wires on them. Just wires which connect to them as follows:

You have 2 AC circuits supply 120 VAC to the primary and secondary which is 2 (+) and 2 (-) conntections to the control board. Grounds go to the frame.

You have 1 red, 1 white, 1 black going to the indoor blower.

You have 1 red, 1 white, and 1 black going to the outdoor fan

You have two leads going to each compressor/start-assist/overload protector.

NUTZ! Now my head hurts.

[Archived]

Oops..excuse me…

It was NOT Victory that was going to rebuild the board but http://www.flightsystems.com I haven’t ever talked to Victory .. I got my wires crossed there… good thing I didn’t rewire anything isn’t it.!!!

You are right… the circuit board has no wires but mine had jumpers that had been put on it in an attempt to repair it I guess and it worked for I don’t know how long as we had no service records on the a/cs.

I probably should go back to the original board what do you think?

Thanks,

Diane

[Archived]

Heavy duty wiring to the board NOT on the board itself of course !!

Diane

[Archived]

Diane, my usual approach on these systems is

Don’t fix what ain’t broke. (I usually mung&mangle things if I try)

Preparing for it to break is O.K. because you and everyone else knows that it will.

That flight systems, inc. link is great!!!!!! Thanks for that.

[Archived]

Hi Ed,

I changed the power supply wires with heavy duty wires and rubber coated connections (the kind you would have on a boat trailer for trailer lights). They are water proof and have a heavier gauge wire than SCS used originally..

I also used the same kind of wire connectors to replace the flimsy plastic male/female connections that go to the compressors. The old flimsy connectors (red in color) would get loose or wet and amperage would rise causing the connection to overheat and burn.

Sorry I can’t explain this any better, I’m not much of a technician. Hope this has cleared it up.

The only wires that were changed were ones that plugged into connectors on the circuit board.

I’ll be in OKC at the 3 Amigos rally – I can show you better than I can explain it.

[petar]

Hey Tuga:

That is a great explanation and it clears things nicely. Maybe you could post a couple of pictures of that in this thread.

Regards,

Ed