James Cook Forum

Hello again.

this is the first of a series of posts I"ll have with questions as a "new" (and completely inexperienced) JC 2006 owner.

I am in Canada and my JC is stuck in a caravan repair shop in Beligum (where i found and purchased it recently)
the water heater did not work when I inspected it and so the seller offered to have it looked at (and fixed) before we arranged shipping back to Canada
it has been at the garage for 2 weeks now. I have had no news.

it is a tank system with a control know on the ceiling in the kitchen area.
when we tried it, the pilot light light up, but then it went out again immediately. The light on the control knob when GREEN but then went to RED.

and I foolishly do not even know what type of Truma water heater it has, that isn't working.

My question is: can someone with a 2006 JC tell me what model Truma water heater they have? and maybe send me a photo?
I could then at least do some investigations.

and one solution might be to just ship the van without repairing the water heater, and replace the tank system with a newer On Demand "Instant " hot water system.

Many thanks

Peter Stock
Toronto Canada

Hello Peter,
Your water heater is heated with propane gas. There are several possible reasons why the boiler is not working:
- The fuse is not in order
- The switch for the water pump is set to “off”
- The cover for the gas chimney at the rear has not been removed
- There are insects or spiders in the exhaust chimney and are blocking the exhaust pipe
- ....
This can be checked with little effort. Perhaps you could pass this information on to the workshop?
Best wishes to Canada
Linus

thank you.

the back story here is that though I was in Europe to find the JC and had arranged shipping, when the water heater didn't work I thought it best to leave it in Belgium so that a Truma workshop could diagnosis it and repair it before I shipping (Truma North America tells me they cannot work with any Truma systems that are not made in North America, so I was not confident this could get fixed here.)

It has now been 4 weeks though and I am back in Canada and not really in control of the camper. I am relying on the Seller who now that he has been paid in full is not really very motivated to help me any longer.

So I cannot even confirm what model of Trums system I actually have.

when the Truma repair person first looked at it quickly 4 weeks ago, he apparently thought it was quite simple. That there are 2 starter systems on the unit (I think I remember the Seller telling me that the current Truma water system was a replacement of the original from 2006, because the previous owner burned out the original by running it without water in the tank) and that the 2nd starter system might be bad.

if it as simple as that and parts are still available from Truma Germany, I expect I could eventually get the parts shipped to me from Germany.

But I would like to get this to Canada before the worst of winter hits us. I have to drive 1800 kms from Halifax Nova Scotia back to Ontario.

Update

I just heard back from my contact in Belgioum
the Truma repair person apparently just needed to clean and service the system and it is back to working again.
So I have booked a shipping date of November 28th. arrival Halifax Canada Dec. 9
hopefully it won't be too snowy by then

once I have the JC in hand here, I am sure I will have more questions and I look forward to participating on this Forum.

I wonder how many JCs there are in Canada or North America? not many i bet.

Peter

Hallo,
ist ja dann gut gelaufen,
Viel Glück und gute Fahrt !

Hallo Peter,
der Truma-Warmwasserboiler im JC 2006 befindet sich im oberen Bereich hinter dem Spiegel im Bad. Untere Spiegelschiene abschrauben (Schrauben im Kleiderschrank) Schiene und Spiegel vorsichtig herunterlassen und dann am Wasserhahn vorbei ausfädeln. Ein paar Bilder vom Boiler habe ich angehängt, die Elektrik in dem Fach ist aber bei unserem JC 2006 nicht mehr ganz original.
Viel Freude mit Deinem James Cook und allzeit gute Fahrt.

Gruß aus Braunschweig vom Arnd