General Boards > Technical Support

2008 Beaver Patriot Thunder Battery Configuration

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Frank Bergamo:
On my 07’ Marquis, the top two trays are the house batteries. The lower right compartment are the chassis/start batteries. I would think yours would be the same.

Steve Huber:
Ante,
Based on the CCA the AGMs are your chassis batteries. I can't speak for what the battery installer did re the house batteries but the the 3 of them supply the needed amp hours. But it's your coach so...
Steve

Joel Ashley:
I reckon I’d first try tracing the cables to see where they go, but it sounds like you may not be able to tell which Main Switch (“cutoff”) is which?  On ours the chassis switch is rearmost on the panel, intimating the engine’s position on the coach, but that might not be an assured design on any one coach configuration.  And tracing wires with that many batteries involved may be an intimidating task. 

An option would be to first turn off both cutoff switches, then disconnect the ground cable(s) coming into one of the two battery types;  I’d guess the 1131’s would be handiest since they are all together on one shelf and you should be able to see one good sized cable entering that shelf and attached to the negative post of one of the three.  Commonly, the positive cables will have red tape or coloring on their ends, and negative cable ends are just unmarked/untaped black.  With one (or more) black umbilical removed between battery set and coach and fastened securely well away from any battery post, turn the cutoffs back on.  Try starting the coach.  Obviously if it starts, and you know for certain that the threesome have no large ground wires coming into them, then Steve is correct and the 4 AGM’s must then be chassis set.  They do, after all, rate a good deal of cranking amps.  Approach this task with caution;  if you don’t feel comfortable handling battery cables that can spark, then don’t try it.  Ask a certified electrical tech.

Without actually seeing the setup, I’m shooting in the dark here.  But any of your mechanics could’ve done the same thing, likely much easier than you as a relatively inexperienced coach battery inquirer.  If you approach the cable disconnect experiment, please use care that a wrench or other tool used on the negative cable(s) doesn’t inadvertently at the same time hit a positive post or bare cable.  You don’t need sparks in your face.

Joel

Frank Bergamo:
The top cutoff switch is for the house batteries. The lower switch is for the chassis batteries. As I stated above, the top trays are the house batteries, the 4 AGM’s. The lower right compartment are the chassis batteries.

Scott Shearer:
Ante,

Unless someone has reconfigured your battery setup, Frank is 100% correct.

Joel gave you a great road map to prove the usage of each battery bank. However, you’ll have a very hard time tracing the cabling as you cannot easily see the backside of the disconnect switches.

It sounds like you are still having issues related to storing your coach. There is a section in your post of April 22, 2026, that discusses some of the gotchas when storing the later model Patriots and Marquis. The only way that you can prevent battery draw is to disconnect them.

-Scott

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