Chassis Batteries

[Jeremy Parrett]

Gerald,
When I Cranked the C12 my generator died.  After restarting the generator I had no battery charging.  I think a voltage spike fried the circuit board in the Prosine 3000 . There is a 1 amp fuse on this board but Alliance Coach refused to check it and replaced the unit with the Freedom 3000 instead.

[Gerald Farris]

Jeremy,
The generator died because the high amperage draw of the starter dropped the chassis battery voltage below the point that was require to keep the generator  fuel solenoid engaged. When the generator died, it did not create a voltage spike that damaged your inverter. When the generator dies from starting the engine there is no difference in the voltage pattern than when you press the kill switch to kill the generator.

Gerald

[Edward Buker]

Your right Gerald, we agree that with only an Echo charger coupling the chassis and house batteries there is no risk of pulling a large load from the Xantrex while cranking the main engine. Like I said the only case that would concern me is if a large solenoid system had the house and chassis batteries coupled while the voltage drop from cranking the main engine was killing the genset at the same time.

Actually my cranking batteries and starter are fine and the main engine cranks quickly and starts just fine. My genset however, at the end of that long wire run, cranks slowly normally and there may be some resistive lug issues somewhere in the path. It is probably part of my genset dying issue while cranking the main engine.

Later Ed

[Keith Oliver]

Ed/Gerald

When I first got my Contessa, I had issues with the chassis batteries that led to their replacement.  While trying to start the main engine, and not having the juice to do so, I did manage to get the generator running, then after "charging" for an hour or so I tried to start the main engine and that shut down the generator.  I didn't know then, but soon figured out that the Chassis batteries were toast and the gen would shut down under those conditions.  Once those batteries were replaced I had no issues with starting while generating.

[Jeremy Parrett]

Gerald,Ed,
You are right. Since replacing both chassis batteries I have managed to start the coach with the generator running  with no problems.