dead chassis battery

[Gerald Farris]

Bill,
On your coach, you have an Echo Charger, but no a "Bird" system. The two systems accomplish the same thing, so you will have one or the other, but not both. The "Bird" system was first installed by Monaco, so it is only on Monaco built coaches unless it is an aftermarket add-on.

Gerald  

[Keith Oliver]

Bill:

Not likely that you will have both a BIRD and an Echo.  They do the same job.  That is, to supply charging power to the chassis batteries, stolen from the house system after those batteries are in a healthy state of charge.

[Bill Borden]

Thanks for all the info, I suspect one of the house batteries has a bad hole. I borrowed a load tester from a buddy to check them.

I checked the voltage on echo charger, but not yet checked the bird and the big boy. On my Beaver the panel is mounted on the ceiling of the battery compartment. Not an easy place to troubleshoot.

Is there a circuit diagram for this charging circuit out there. Is there a copy i can get?  When talking to Bend in the past, I was told that most of the drawings and specs were dumped by Monaco not too long after they bought Beaver.

I also plan on checking the output of the solar charger according to the display, it's. not putting out very much juice.

Thanks again for everyones comments,

Bill

[Bill Borden]

Ok, I was wondering about the Bird since there was no mention of it in any manual.  
 
Thanks for setting me straight.  

Do you know of any source for a circuit diagram?

Bill

[Joel Ashley]

Point of curiosity Gentlemen:
if you have an Echo charger to take care of the chassis bats, is there a Big Boy involved, or is BB only part of a BIRD system?

-Joel

[Gerald Farris]

Joel,
The "Big Boy" solenoid is only part of the "Bird" system. But on the older coaches that used the Echo Charger there is a similar solenoid that is used for the boost feature to tie both battery banks together as a starting aid only. The boost solenoid is not intended for continuous duty operation like the "Big Boy" is.

Gerald  

[Joel Ashley]

Thanks for the explanation, Gerald.

The old "Ford" solenoids were definitely not made for constant duty, and there could be a difference in product quality that dictated how well they'd hold up.  I soon learned, as a young guy on the farm and then with our Pace Arrow, to not waste time and money on cheap solenoids, and ditto for isolators.  One tough boost solenoid on the PArrow lasted dozens of miles one night, as I had to hold the Boost switch down after a failed alternator compromised headlamp power.  I had used it to replace a less than stellar factory solenoid.

I note they use "Ford" type solenoids before both the house and chassis 12v panels in our Beavers.  Those style switches have sure been around awhile, and when well made they still do the job.  An impressively long record for a single automotive idea.

The Big Boy's interior construction seems well suited to its task, and I would expect little trouble with it;  the BIRD unit would be to me more suspicious during a system failure.  Since it's wires are subject to movement and pinching as the access door it's attached to is used (on mine at least), it's connections would be a first place to look.

Joel