No shore or genset power

[OpaRon]

After picking up the MH from a consignment shop (no joy, no sale) we brought it home and it's been parked, unused & disconnected from shore power, for 3-4 weeks. Plugged into 20 amp circuit to charge the batteries but never got any power to the EMS board. Even started the generator, still no power to the EMS. The consignment shop mentioned they had a similar problem when trying to bring in slides one time. They took out the battery "in use/disconnect" switch (on the EMS board) and tapped it a couple of times and power was restored. I did the same thing with no results. The transfer switch was replaced about 1.5 years ago and have not had any trouble with it since then. Not sure where to start looking.
The batteries were dry as a bone. Took 2 gal of water to fill them. Left the coach connected to the 20amp circuit to see if it would charge them. Still nothing. Where do I go from here, besides to a shop? Any advice is appreciated. Always get good info from iRV2 readers.

[Paul R. Haller]

If your batteries were dry then the batteries are sulfated and probably bad. Pull out the batteries and charge them with a stand alone auto battery charger for a couple of days. Then check the voltage of the batteries after sitting off the charger for about 8 hours. 12.8 volts is fully charged. If it reads lower then that, your batteries are toast. To be sure take them to your local Kragen or auto zone and do a load test. My bet is they are gonners.

Now go to your rig and pull out your digital Volt Ohm Meter. Check voltages at plug, back at the fuse panel and from there out to the charger. All good?!? Now check output from converter. Converter should be somewhere around 13.5 volts depending.Depending on what you find with the VOM dictates your course of action.
-Paul R. Haller-

[OpaRon]

I'm not sure of the lifetime of batteries, but these have been in since the mfg date of 12/04 (bought 9/05) but I'm guessing I did well to get 6-7 years out of them. Since I'm also trying to sell it, I think just biting the bullet for 4 new ones is the route to go. Still, I'm wondering why I did not get any indication of power, even from the genset, on the EMS board. Do batteries have to be good the system to power up?

["007"]

I believe you need a good 12V's for anything to work, fridge, heaters, EMS if you could get one of the batteries to full charge with a 12V battery charger and hook that up you could test your other accessory's with the one battery.

[Iron Man]

Adding 2 gallons of water to 4 batteries is not good. Replace the batteries and go from there. Tracing down ghost problems because of bad batteries is not fun.

[denochs]

Ditto on replacing the batteries. You may find it will power up right away once you do that.

Dave

[HeapBigEngin]

It is not unusual at all for ANY battery left "dry as a bone" to have the plates within the battery warp....and even touch. If those plates touch, the batteries are shorted inside and power will not go through them. That is most likely why the power is not getting to the board....it can't get through one or more of the batteries. When you replace your batteries, DO NOT take the store's word that the batteries are fully charged....they will not be. Put them on a good charger until the green light comes on indicating full charge. If batteries are placed into service at less than full charge, they will not ever reach more than 80-85% of their rated cranking capacity. This is a fact, and it is one of the most common mistakes made by most of us. Don't ask how I know this! Good luck....

[tomwalt]

The shop probably didn't take care of it properly and left items on that drained the house batteries - if it was in cold winter weather the drained batteries may have froze and died. You can use any good 12V car or lawn tractor battery to troubleshoot this. Disconnect your questionable house batteries and connect a freshly charged 12V battery to see what you have (ensure a good ground as well). There is a lot of info on this site on how the troubleshoot the house DC side - starting with a known good battery. Use a Volt/Ohm Meter to follow the 12Vs. Next step is to get good voltage to the hot side of the battery disconnect switch with the output side disconnected (or verify the switch is off with the Ohm meter). Turn off all internal house DC power drains then activate the battery disconnect switch and see where you stand on current drain.

[OpaRon]

Thanks for the replies to my battery problem- which is clearly was. All four were "toast" and now replaced. Once that happened, there were no other problems, except that the Norcold frig had to have the board reset due to a "no co" (no cooling) code and I didn't know that I had only one shot at the reset from the front panel before having to take it to a tech to reset from the board from the outside. I'm at the FMCA rally in Perry, Ga with a "for sale" sign on the coach, so I'm glad everything works! Thanks again for your input.

[wa8yxm]

I'm only one state away.. Glad you got it working...

I post this to make a comment.... My Dometic does not do that "one shot at resetting" thing.. At least not that I've noticed. Kind of glad that's the brand I have.

[OpaRon]

Check your owners manual. The "reset" I'm talking about happens only when there is absolutely NO power to the unit for an extended period. The Norcold reads that and won't start until it's reset. The manual says that when you get a "no co" fault code (don't try for one, please) then you can reset by holding the "on" button for 1 minute. If that doesn't work, that's your "one shot" and after that it take a tech to reset the board.