charger problem

[Robert Mathis]

I went out to get the coach ready for the weekend and both chassis were dead and the house batteries very low. The charger is showing "standby" on the control panel and does nothing when I try to turn it on or off. My coach is a 2007 contessa. I know one of the chassis batteries is now bad, and will repalce it today, but I can't get the charger to kick on. Any ideas? I have reset the breaker for the inverter, which I assume (always dangerous, I know) that is the same one for the charger.

[Richard And Babs Ames]

Unplug from shore power and plug back in after a few minites and check all fuses.

[Edward Buker]

You could unplug shore power as Richard indicated but in addition while the AC power is off, turn off the the coach battery switch for 15 seconds or so. Be sure that the battery switch is turned back on before supplying AC to the coach. This is the only way I have been able to reset my charger system when it 'locks up" logic wise. Hope you get it to work...

Later Ed

[Gerald Farris]

Robert,
The first question is, are you sure that you have 120V A/C to the inverter. If there is 120V A/C to the inverter, the battery cables are clean with a good connection, and the inverter will not start charging when you try to reset the standby feature, the is a problem that will need the attention of a service technician.

You can contact Magnum Energy customer support at;  support@magnumenergy.com <support@magnumenergy.com>

Gerald

[Joel Ashley]

Robert,
One rule of thumb is to replace batteries in sets together.  Unless your chassis bats are both relatively new, you should consider replacing both of them, not just the bad one.  When one battery of a set is older than the other(s), it can shorten the other ones' lives.  In fact your bad battery has probably already been a drag on the good one, and both have been badly discharged at least once;  unlike house batteries, they don't fare well after a deep discharge like that.

-Joel

[Robert Mathis]

I called for tech support, after checking the AC input and cleaning and re-tightening all battery connections. After resetting the inverter, and removing the remote cable, the charger started working. Turns out the remote cable is bad. The tech support dude told me to remove the remote from the wall and plug it into the inverter using a 4 wire phone cable. Now it works perfectly. The house batteries were replaced in 2008 on our trip to Alaska, and I replaced the bad chassis battery (the other one was only about 2 months old.) The next magic trick is going to be replacing that bad cable. So far, I found that it goes up into the ceiling area, over the bathroom, and I think it comes back down and into the bays behind the washer and dryer. I plan to work on that tonight after work. Thanks for the tips.

[Robert Mathis]

After disassembling the pantry, I found the cable(s) go up into the ceiling area over the dryer, tugged on the proper cable to see if I could pull it out and use it to fish a new one into place. Not only didn't that work, the cable parted completely where the rodent had chewed it partway thru. Now I know the problem for sure, but fixing it is going to be a bear. Anyone know how to remove the ceiling panels without destroying them?