Batteries not keeping charged

[hondaman2gw]

Merry Christmas all. I am new to this forum and have not read all of the prior posts yet. I am having a problem keeping the batteries charged. I can plug in to shore power and in a couple of days the batteries will be full charged. The batteries were at least six years old so I replaced them last June. After I replace them they still would not keep a charge, the coach has a solar panel to charge them. I have noticed that on the control monitor the power lights ( main or aux) does not come on now and that none of the level switches . Any thoughts or ideas will be appreciate. Thank You .

[Gary RVRoamer]

Are you expecting the solar panel to maintain a full charge on both house and engine batteries when the coach is not connected to shore power? How big is the panel? Many of them are only a few watts in power and may be connected only to one set of batteries. The typical 8x15" solar panel mounted on top of an a/c unit is sufficient only to keep one battery topped up if there is no loads on it. And then only if the suns stays bright much of the day.

[trampsrv]

have you had the altenator tested.a bad altenator will drain your batteries when the engine is turned off.

[pcurt23]

battery disconnect switch

Here are some other discussions

[hondaman2gw]

Thanks for the replies. Some time around Sept or Oct of 2009 we put a cover over it. Wrong idea because the Texas winds tore it to pieces. That is when we started having problems with is. Before I replaced the batteries the lights would come on but after I replaced them the lights stopped coming on. We have less than 5000 miles on it and have not seen any problems with the altenator. I am thinking that I failed to turn the battery switch of before I replaced the batteries and I think it sent a surge to the control panel and shorted it out.

[loulong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hondaman2gw Thanks for the replies. Some time around Sept or Oct of 2009 we put a cover over it. Wrong idea because the Texas winds tore it to pieces. That is when we started having problems with is. Before I replaced the batteries the lights would come on but after I replaced them the lights stopped coming on. We have less than 5000 miles on it and have not seen any problems with the altenator. I am thinking that I failed to turn the battery switch of before I replaced the batteries and I think it sent a surge to the control panel and shorted it out.

There are two 30amp re-settable DC circuit breakers inside your BCC that are probably tripped.

[pcurt23]

One of the things I just remembered is that I have to turn off the inverter along with the battery disconnects or the house batteries will discharge in a few days.

[Shadowcatche]

A VOM is your friend, find where you do have power form the solar panel and trace it through to where you don't. Conventional Lead Acid batteries will self discharge apart from any loads.