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Battery Question

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Gerald Farris:
Randy,
Don't just go and buy new batteries without testing your old batteries first. You can take your old batteries to any large volume battery dealer and they will test your old batteries at no charge in the hope that they can sell you new ones if yours are bad.

Next, check your Echo Charger by checking the voltage at your chassis batteries when on shore power with the batteries being charged. If the voltage is above is 12.8V to 13V, your Echo Charger is working properly and buying a battery tender will be a waste of money.

Gerald

Richard And Babs Ames:
Our 1997 Patriot did not have any type of echo charger or otherwise to keep the chassis batteries charged. We found out the hard way after Hurricane Charlie and 7 days of boon docking in the driveway. We installed an echo charger. Monaco/Beaver said that it was a bad design decision by then SMC/Beaver.

Gil_Johnson:
I'm a bit surprised that Beaver didn't engineer a way to charge the chassis battery, especially given they provided a means to parallel the two battery banks.  This is something they corrected in newer coaches.  The solution they installed in my 2008 Contessa seems much more bulky than I would have expected and what I've seen on boats.  Rather than installing an echo charger I'd install a smart battery combiner/isolator.  Although you can find others for much less money (this one is about $140), here's a great example of an ideal battery combiner/isolator that supports extreme current with both a remote and manual battery combiner capability. http://bluesea.com/category/2/products/7622 This has the added benefit of charging both banks from the engine's alternator when you're driving.  I assume you don't have this capability either.

BTW, I'm with Gerald, don't replace what hasn't been determined to be bad, as you may not fix the problem.

Gil

Gerald Farris:
The Patriot and Monterey coaches from the mid nineties had battery isolators, so they did charge the chassis and house batteries from the engine alternator. The method that was designed into them to charge the chassis batteries when on shore power was a continuous duty boost or intertie solenoid that had a feed wire to activate it from the accessory side of the ignition switch. So to keep your chassis batteries charged when on shore power or generator, you would have to turn the ignition switch to accessory for an hour or so occasionally to keep the chassis batteries charged.

Since this system was not automatic and required owner action, it was not a success at solving the discharge of the chassis batteries. Therefore Beaver started installing automatic systems like Echo Chargers to maintain the batteries.

Gerald

Randy Perry:
OK, battery check will happen before replacing! So, what could have put a draw on the chassis batteries while I was dry camping??? I've gone a month or two without using the coach (although plugged into shore power) and fired it up without a problem? What runs off the chassis batteries besides engine start, running/head lights, maybe the hydro jacks......I'm at a loss!!! (BTW, she fired up fine this afternoon to move it???)  

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