Chassis Battery Problem

[Lindenberg]

On my 2000 Alpine I have two, four month old, chassis batteries I bought from Napa. I went camping this weekend and the Alpine started right up and I parked it in front of the house. I went to leave two hours later and it started up without a problem. Got to the campground and between checking in, unhitching the toad and parking it didn't have any problems. Went to leave this morning and it appeared to have dead chassis batteries. I used the boost button to start it up. Drove home and made a stop on the way. I wouldn't start again. Drove home and checked the battery voltages while parked in front of the house with the engine running. One battery was around 13.62v and the other battery was 12.75v. Does this sound like a failed battery or something else?

[Lindenberg]

On my 2000 Alpine I have two, four month old, chassis batteries I bought from Napa. I went camping this weekend and the Alpine started right up and I parked it in front of the house. I went to leave two hours later and it started up without a problem. Got to the campground and between checking in, unhitching the toad and parking it didn't have any problems. Went to leave this morning and it appeared to have dead chassis batteries. I used the boost button to start it up. Drove home and made a stop on the way. I wouldn't start again. Drove home and checked the battery voltages while parked in front of the house with the engine running. One battery was around 13.62v and the other battery was 12.75v. Does this sound like a failed battery or something else?

[Jim A]

How did you check the voltages of the two batteries separately while it was running? Since the batteries are tied together in parallel they should show the same voltage reading. If not, the low one is likely not making a good connection.

My two cents worth.

[Lindenberg]

I checked the voltages with a meter to the +/- terminals on each battery. It did surprise me also that having both batteries connected together would yield different voltages from each battery. Earlier today I checked the water level of both batteries and they were both good. I also removed, cleaned and reconnected the terminals to the batteries.

[EngineerMike]

Sounds like you have a bad battery connection.

[Lindenberg]

The positive terminal on the battery that shows a lower voltage must have about seven cables connected to it. I'll check on those connections tomorrow to see if they are all making good connections. Thanks for the idea.

[Dave Fernandez]

You might want to also check the Ground cables both ends, because that can give you the same symptoms.

[dgerstel]

Tom,

I would guess that one of your problems is the 7 cable connection. I dealt with that on my '02 and many others have also. Check out the information and photo from Gary Arnold in this post.
House Battery bank replacement.