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Battery Question

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Gerald Farris:
If nothing was left on, the only thing that will run down the chassis batteries is the normal parasitic drain from the engine computer. All computer controlled engines have this drain, and that is what makes the use of a charge maintainer like an Echo Charger necessary.

In your case it is probably the failure of a chassis battery that caused the problem, and a failure of the boost solenoid system that prevented you from starting the coach with the help of the house batteries.

Gerald

Randy Perry:
Well, heading to Vegas this weekend and don't expect to have a problem but who knows :-/ Will have to work on fingering out this problem next week :) Thanks Gerald for all your input ;)

Richard And Babs Ames:
Gerald, I checked the blue chassis owners manual and I did not find a reference to to turning the ignition switch to acc to charge the chassis batteries.

It must have been discovered by an owner and spread by word of mouth at rallies. It seems more of an accident than a design in feature. It is good information though but not a good solution to keeping the chassis batteries charged IMO.

Edward Buker:
A couple of things that might help if you have trouble starting due to depleted starting batteres, or a bad emergency start solenoid.

As Gerald indicated, you must hold down the momentary switch that causes the battery bank solenoid to tie the two battery banks together. It should be held on for several minutes before trying to start the engine in order to allow current to bring the starting batteries up a bit from a dead state. This will ultimately provide more starting current to reach the starter.

If under those stressful conditions you learn that the batteries as well as battery jumper solenoid has failed, which is a very common problem, this should help. I have had great success using both the positive and negative cables in parallel. You would tie a jumper cable to each positive post of a starting battery (they are in parallel @ 12V) and then the other ends to the 12V positive posts of the house bank. (series/parallel combination for 6V batteries. Be sure to be on the 12V side where the bank main red lead to the house wiring is tied in) Because both battery banks are already wired together to the main chassis ground lug you do not need to jumper the ground side. If starting batteries are depleted wait several minutes with the cables connected before trying to start.

If you would like to do a very inexpensive upgrade to your battery wiring you can buy a short heavy premade black battery cable (I used NAPA) with suitable lugs on the end. I tied the starting battery ground to the house battery ground at the battery terminals. This lowers the wiring resistance of the starting circuit and allows a second ground path from the starting batteries to the chassis frame.....more strands is better for high current demands like a big starter.

I have an Echo charger and probably by luck it is mounted quite high up on the left side in the battery compartment near the front of the compartment. I have seen no signs of corrosion and have not had any fails. While stopped, the main outgassing of acid fumes from charging would be coming from the house bank and tending to travel downward. If your Echo charger has been failing check and see if it is mounted in the best location for survival. It does not have to be in the battery compartment as long as the cabling gauge is of a sufficient size for extending the leads.

In the battery department...When I bought our coach it had a pair of one year old "off brand" Group 31 batteries. They failed on the road a month after we bought the coach. I pulled those batteries and replaced them with NAPA commercial Group 31 batteries which were substantially heavier which have been fine. I'm not trying to endorse any brand just letting folks know that some brands of battery quality leaves a lot to be desired, particularly in our heavy duty application.

Hope this helps....Later Ed

Bill Sprague:

--- Quote from: ]I prefer the Ultra Trick-L-Start ....[/quote ---I helped put one on my son's motorhome and it has worked well.  Winnebago (who is still in business!) uses them on their diesels.  

"The Trik-L-Start device monitors battery voltage in the house batteries and compares it to the chassis battery. When the Trik-L-Start senses the chassis battery voltage is approximately ½ volt lower than the house battery, it allows up to 5 amps current flow to the chassis battery. The circuitry within the Trik-L-Start prevents back feeding of electricity from the chassis to coach battery so if 110V power is interrupted, the chassis battery will not be discharged."  

In other words, when plugged in to shore power, the Trik-L-Start borrows from the house batteries to charge the engine batteries.  There are only three wires.  Black to ground, blue to the engine battery and yellow to the house battery.  The unit is about the size of a deck of cards and can go anywhere in the battery compartment.

If my Beaver supplied "Big Boy" and BIRD relays fail, I will probably replace them with one of these because of the simplicity and lack of moving parts.

You can buy one here:  http://www.lslproducts.com/TLSPage.html


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