2006 Journey House Battery Connection Confusion

[Sammie]

I am having battery charging problems on my 2006 36G Journey. There are three 12 volt batteries tied together. That part appears to be correct. Can anyone refer me to a diagram or picture showing where the charging cables should be attached? When I bought the coach new last year I had them replace all the batteries and I think someone may have incorrectly connected the two charging cables comming from the inverter/charger.

[Sammie]

I am having battery charging problems on my 2006 36G Journey. There are three 12 volt batteries tied together. That part appears to be correct. Can anyone refer me to a diagram or picture showing where the charging cables should be attached? When I bought the coach new last year I had them replace all the batteries and I think someone may have incorrectly connected the two charging cables comming from the inverter/charger.

[tomsm]

Sammie, does your inverter work? If so, you don't have an inverter/charger cabling problem. The same cables that are used for charging are also used to supply the inverter. The electrons just go the other way...

[Sammie]

Tom, I'm not sure that the inverter is working correctly. After storing the coach for a few weeks the batteries were so low (10.5 volts) that when I plugged into shore power to charge them the interior lights would not work until I got enough charge in the batteries to bring them up to 12 volts. Doesn't the inverter supply 12 volts instantly to inside 12 volt accessories as soon as it is supplied with 120 volts AC?

[tomsm]

If the batteries charged, sounds like your cabling is OK. If you want to check it, zoom in on the upper right corner of page 4 of this pdf file.

Don't understand the delay in getting 12v to the interior lights. The 12v wiring goes directly from the charger to the batteries and then forward to the battery disconnect switch and on to the coach 12v supply bus bars. Possibly the batteries were so discharged that they sucked up all the available amps for the first few minutes. Maybe one of our gurus will checkin with help on this part...

[SteveG]

Sammie, you may want to refer to schematic Chassis Wire 04 p36gwire 146050 page 02. This shows a pretty clear drawing. Also there is an inline fuse; on my 2004, 36g it is located at the upper right of the three house batteries. This fuse is shown on page 02 also.



The messages displayed or not displayed at the Dimensions message panel should provide a clue. You may need to call Dimesnions 651-653-7000.

If the batteries are charged it will be easier to trouble shoot the Inverter. This will help identify if you have an inverter, charger or both problem. I recently purchased a seperate charger to charge my house batteries to help me trouble shoot my inverter. I now use it sometimes to charge the engine batteries.

I suspect you have an inverter / charger problem which now may have created a battery problem.

I know this is not too specific but hope it will get you started.

[W8RLM]

Sammie,

When the coach was stored, did you turn off the house batteries? If not, the parasitic loads from the radio, etc. can eventually bring down the batteries.

Another possible problem may be that the inverter was turned on while the coach was at rest. That will also bring down the batteries. Inverters draw power even if no AC loads are turned on.

There is always the possibility that one of the new batteries is bad. Each one should be individually load tested.

The fact that the batteries were at 10.8 volts may indicate that the house batteries were on and the inverter was running. On my 2006 Journey, when the batteries get low enough to shut off the inverter, I am typically at 10.8 to 11.0 volts.

If my coach is going to be idle for a few weeks, I turn off the house and the coach batteries.

Good Luck

W8RLM - Bob

[Sammie]

Bob, that sounds pretty much like what I experienced. The coach was stored with the batteries on. Not isolated. I also think that I may have a bad cell in one of the batteries as when I checked them for water about a month ago one or two cells were down to the plates. I will load test them idividually tomorrow.