engine battery drain

Doggievet · 02-01-2005, 05:13 AM

I have an 03 Journey and after being parked for 2 months, plugged in to electric, the engine battery dies. The first time it did this, I used the house batteries to start the engine and did not have a problem on our trip. The problem has recurred and I thought there might be some sort of parasitic drain that I don't know about. There are 4 2-way radios that charge from the engine batteries. What else charges from the engine? I just bought one of the small 1.8 watt, 125 mAmp solar chargers that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Will this prevent the battery from becoming exhausted. By the way, the coach has a solar panel on the roof but the coach is under a shelter so the sun doesn't hit the roof, and I don't know if that panel charges house or engine battery(s). Thanks for the info.
Annie K. and Sparky the smiling doggie
03 Journey DL 36LD
BlueOx tow system
04 Saturn L300 wagon as toad

Doggievet · 02-01-2005, 05:13 AM

I have an 03 Journey and after being parked for 2 months, plugged in to electric, the engine battery dies. The first time it did this, I used the house batteries to start the engine and did not have a problem on our trip. The problem has recurred and I thought there might be some sort of parasitic drain that I don't know about. There are 4 2-way radios that charge from the engine batteries. What else charges from the engine? I just bought one of the small 1.8 watt, 125 mAmp solar chargers that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Will this prevent the battery from becoming exhausted. By the way, the coach has a solar panel on the roof but the coach is under a shelter so the sun doesn't hit the roof, and I don't know if that panel charges house or engine battery(s). Thanks for the info.
Annie K. and Sparky the smiling doggie
03 Journey DL 36LD
BlueOx tow system
04 Saturn L300 wagon as toad

"007" · 02-01-2005, 06:56 AM

I have had the panel on the roof of all my Newmar coachs never had a discharged chassis battery. My coach is outside not under cover, so it will always be able to charge the batt. You have parasites draining the batt. radio, cb maybe, clocks, LP gas detector, etc. There has been mentioned about a trickle charger on this site by someone maybe they will see this for your answer. Your solar charger plugged into the cigarette lighter needs to have the sun also to work, the trickle charger should be the answer.---"007"

troth · 02-01-2005, 07:50 AM

doggievet, see below. (my fingies were flying too fast and I screwed up this post).

troth · 02-01-2005, 07:54 AM

doggievet, there's been a lot of posts on this subject. Look at some of them here:
http://irv2.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=...ortType=1&lv=Y

(ps- You can do searches like this by going to "Find" at the top of the page, then "Advanced Search" and enter your criteria. I did this one by using keywords "Journey Battery".0

LandHo · 02-01-2005, 08:01 AM

on mine, 38G suncruiser, the roof solar only recharges the house battery. I have a small solar trickle charger at my front whindshield that is directly wired to the "car" battery for trickle charging. seems to work well. The cigarette lighter on my dash is hooked to the house battery.

DonavonP · 02-01-2005, 10:45 AM

Doggievet, On our 37B I put a 1 amp trickle charger on the chassis battery.
That takes care of the problem. Another way to keep the battery charged is to put a little jumper wire between the house positive and the chassis positive.
Auto parts stores have test wires with clips on both ends that work good for this. Just disconnect the wire when you go to start the engine/use the coach.

If you simply blow on the batteries before you create sparks with the wire, you'll greatly reduce the chance of a battery explosion.

The Shadow · 02-01-2005, 01:08 PM

My chassis battery tray (2 batteries) is marked "disconnect before connecting charger" (or words to that effect). Do you put the trickle charger on with the batteries still connected?

On a related front, how much distilled water have folks here had to add to the house batteries (my chassis batteries are sealed)?

I have to say I cursed the designer who did the battery tray that doesn't let the third battery come out far enough to conveniently check the level and fill the cells.

Slowdragon · 02-01-2005, 02:30 PM

The coach batteries on my 2004 Journey keep running flat and the dealer told me that this was a known Freightliner issue and they are supposedly replacing the batteries this week.

DonavonP · 02-01-2005, 04:32 PM

Dleslie125, This system could help you with that hard to reach battery.

http://www.flow-rite.com/spw/qwik-fill/

I don't disconnect battery cables on my Adventurer with no problems so far.

The Shadow · 02-01-2005, 05:27 PM

DPK, I bought a battery filler for $2.50 at Advanced Auto. I also have made some dipsticks (cardboard) that I can stick in the batteries to determine the level - and then keep adding water until it is 3/8ths of an inch above the plates. Just have to go slow.

The Flow-rite product looks interesting. I wonder why they don't do it for a 3 battery set up like mine?

DonavonP · 02-02-2005, 04:36 AM

Don - You can put the battery filler kits on as many batteries as you want and connect them all together.

Here's another interesting site for battery information.

http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/index.htm All about batteries, who makes
want for whom, maintenance, and other neat stuff (including warnings etc).

The Shadow · 02-02-2005, 06:58 PM

Donavon - I found that site earlier this evening. One of our batteries boiled today. Friends in the park think it may be a short in one battery. I addressed here

Boiling battery

Sure was scary. I hope one or perhaps all three batteries can be replaced under warranty. If not, I'm in for about $400. I just seem to have one problem after another with this Coach. Starting to wish I'd never seen it. When others in the park came to help they were absolutely stunned by our rust problem. I'm starting to wonder who built this thing and when - maybe late Friday night after the bars closed.

Stan Kohagen · 10-04-2005, 09:34 AM

I have an Itasca Meridian '05 36G. When the coach was new, the house batteries boiled over three times. Each time the dealer replaced only the battery that boiled. The problem is that the inverter/charger reads the malfunctioning battery, and charges them all at the same rate, overcharging all. Once all three were replaced, I have had no problems.
Stan Kohagen

kenbt · 10-04-2005, 02:14 PM

Chassis batteries going dead on Freightliner chassis have been a long time problem and susposidly not just with Winnebago. But Winnebago does not have a separate solenoid and isolator system like other coaches that allow the converter to charge not only the house batteries but the chassis batteries at the same time when plugged into shore power. Both sets of batteries only charge when driving. Save yourself a lot of greef and get the Tril L Start system to charge you chassis batteries when plugged in along with your house batteries. It also will trickel charge the house batteries off the solar pannel that feeds your house batteries. The Tri L Start is only bet $50 and $60 depending where you get it. I went straight to the company via the web and had in in 3 days. It takes less than 30 min to install at the batteries. Your problems will be gone

Barney B. · 10-04-2005, 02:23 PM

Thanks kenbt. Do you have a website for Tri L Start, I can't find them with a simple Google

MrTransistor · 10-04-2005, 04:21 PM

Try Trik-L-Start

tomsm · 10-04-2005, 04:27 PM

Barney - try here

MrTransistor · 10-04-2005, 05:05 PM

Hi All,
Electronically, the graph for the Trick-L-Start is a bit lacking. It only lists the chassis battery charge current at an input of 14 VDC. Depending on the charger and what coach batteries you have and the battery temperature, the float charge voltage can be as low as 12.9 Volts to as high as 14.2 Volts (give or take). If for instance you have a ProSine 2.0 set for AGM batteries and the temperature is 90+ degrees, the float charge voltage would be around 12.9 Volts. Under these conditions, what can the charge current to the chassis battery be with the Trik-L-Start? They don't say.

The Echo~Charge graph can be interpreted for this condition. And will pass up to 15 Amps. It does cost more. I've had one installed for three weeks now and it seems to be working fine as I type this but I will withhold final judgment until I have a lot more experience with it. I will assume that the Trick-L-Start works adequately well until someone replies that they have had some sort of problem with one. If anyone has a problem with an Echo~Charge, please let us know.

Ernie 60 · 11-12-2005, 04:31 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by dleslie125:
My chassis battery tray (2 batteries) is marked "disconnect before connecting charger" (or words to that effect). Do you put the trickle charger on with the batteries still connected?

On a related front, how much distilled water have folks here had to add to the house batteries (my chassis batteries are sealed)?

I have to say I cursed the designer who did the battery tray that doesn't let the third battery come out far enough to conveniently check the level and fill the cells. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have put in as much as a gal. of water in the 3 batteries that are in my coach.