Ed, Joel,
I have a Big Boy system in my coach. What is puzzling to me (and many things are), is the solar controller. In the photo you can see there are + leads coming off of it to the house batteries and to the engine batteries. I am thinking that maybe the engine battery lead is connected somewhere I can't see it, such as on the main switch?
Ed, if the solar charges the house and once they are full then through the Big Boy or BIRD the chassis are charged, then it seems to me that with enough drain on the house batteries the chassis will never get charged. By charging the house batteries first seems somewhat backwards as I'd have thought the main priority is to keep the engine batteries charged so they are available to start the engine and/or the generator. But what do I know!
Thanks for the info. If I can get at hooking the batteries up today instead of dealing with other life issues (lots the last few days), then I'll post my success or failure.
Jeff