American Coach: No Power in Coach After Storage

[oldnavycdr]

I picked up my 2004 Eagle and brought it home. Connected shore power to a 30 amp circuit and all was well. Inverter charging the batteries nicely and all. After a week I moved the coach to an enclosed storage facility. I let the owner pull it in as he had to move some vehicles around so I was not there when he shut the coach down. I returned 3 days later to wrench on it and discovered that 1. Coach is not plugged in. 2. No power in the coach. 3. Stairs out. Several other stored coaches are plugged in and seem to be OK. I found that all 120v outlets were filled so he probably couldn't plug my coach in until he did some electrical work. Anyway, I brought an extension cord, pulled the plug on one of the other coach hookups just to test and plugged and my coach in. Nada. Can't operate the battery disconnect relay or turn on lights.Got a fault code on the EMS of open neutral. Tried some of the other functioning plugs but same fault code. This is an old metal building and I suspect a compromised electrical system. But that said:


1. Other coaches have power

2. Another newer Eagle has power for the batteries

3. Another Dutch Star has power to their batteries.

Does my EMS prevent the connection because of the wiring in the building whereby the others don't have that issue?

And if my 4 house batteries are dead can I connect a battery minder and bring things back to life? I don't need full coach power, I just want the batteries floated and lights when I go to work on the coach.

I'm at a loss here.

[RussOnTheRoad]

Originally Posted by oldnavycdr

I picked up my 2004 Eagle and brought it home. Connected shore power to a 30 amp circuit and all was well. Inverter charging the batteries nicely and all. After a week I moved the coach to an enclosed storage facility. I let the owner pull it in as he had to move some vehicles around so I was not there when he shut the coach down. I returned 3 days later to wrench on it and discovered that 1. Coach is not plugged in. 2. No power in the coach. 3. Stairs out. Several other stored coaches are plugged in and seem to be OK. I found that all 120v outlets were filled so he probably couldn't plug my coach in until he did some electrical work. Anyway, I brought an extension cord, pulled the plug on one of the other coach hookups just to test and plugged and my coach in. Nada. Can't operate the battery disconnect relay or turn on lights.Got a fault code on the EMS of open neutral. Tried some of the other functioning plugs but same fault code. This is an old metal building and I suspect a compromised electrical system. But that said:


1. Other coaches have power

2. Another newer Eagle has power for the batteries

3. Another Dutch Star has power to their batteries.

Does my EMS prevent the connection because of the wiring in the building whereby the others don't have that issue?

And if my 4 house batteries are dead can I connect a battery minder and bring things back to life? I don't need full coach power, I just want the batteries floated and lights when I go to work on the coach.

I'm at a loss here.

I believe you are likely correct that your EMS is preventing electricity getting to your RV because of the open neutral. If you haven't already you can refer to the documentation or call the mfr.

It's hard to know what the situation is with your batteries, what their condition really is and if they can be recovered. How could they have gone dead in just a few days, I wonder? What was their state of charge when you dropped the RV off and what load(s) were on them are questions I would want to know the answers to. A healthy battery can sit for quite some number of weeks without losing very much charge if there is no load on on it.

It also sounds like you may need to have a little chat with the owner of the storage facility.

If by "battery minder" you mean Battery Tender, I doubt a little trickle charger like that would be the way to try to charge your batteries. I'm not sure it could and if it could it might take weeks or months. I'd suggest contacting the mfr. of your batteries for their recommendation.

[Jim_HiTek]

Some RV's require a certain battery level before you can get anything. In those cases you bring in a nice 'starting' style battery charger and hook it up to the chassis batts first and get them charged up than move to the house batts. Those chargers have an internal transformer and weird input power shouldn't bother it much.

Once that's done, you can plug in the shore power. But...in your case, if it's reading an open NEU, you should have the owner check that out.

You might consider servicing the batteries, charging them up with a charger as mentioned above, start the generator to top them off. Once that's all done, shut it down, and when you're confident they are holding steady, then just disconnect the grounds. No need for shore power. Might check them 3 months from now, but they should be fine. Next spring you'll want to charge them up before using, but you'll be ready for that.

If you want, remove them all, take them in for testing. Might need a bit of acid to restore their power capacity. Or wait till next year.

[FormerBoater]

I would start with a 3 stage external battery charger.


Give it a day or 2 to charge the battery banks, but it should give you enough surface charge to operate the 12 volt systems while you are aboard.


Your Eagle may be different, but for my 98 you connect the charger to the house battery bank at the points illustrated on the battery bay door.


Not to insult (as I know the coach is new to you), connect the charger to the six volt batteries at the points indicated, but have the charger on the 12 volt settings to charge.


Your Eagle will charge both the chassis and the house batteries when you connect the charger in this manner.


If your batttery disconnects were not turned OFF and the batteries were weak, the parasitic loads could easily lead to the situation that you found.


While you leave it on a day or 2 charge, turn all of the battery disconnects OFF.


Keep us posted!

[NHRA225]

Inverter's do not charge Batteries, They consume Battery Voltage .
Where is your on board Charger ?

[twinboat]

In his inverter.

Originally Posted by NHRA225

Inverter's do not charge Batteries, They consume Battery Voltage .
Where is your on board Charger ?

[oldnavycdr]

I turned off the inverter and all loads when I dropped off the coach. I did leave the battery disconnects off (batteries connected). So, it is possible that when he departed the coach after moving he left the lights on but they are LED and would a 3 day load deplete them? And, and I have not checked, he might have manually changed the disconnects. Regardless, there is an open neutral issue with his power. Did he ground his system to the metal building walls?

[oldnavycdr]

The inverter indicated float charge when I moved the coach to his facility. That may or may not indicate the actual SOC of the batteries. I will take a DVM over and read them tomorrow. Thanks to all for your responses!

[oldnavycdr]

Jim, how would I connect a standard battery charger to the house batteries? I've got 4 of them.

[FormerBoater]

Regardless of whether your EMS is indicating an open neutral coming from the shore power connection or an open neutral within the 120V AC on-board system, hooking up a 3 stage charger powered from a 15 amp duplex receptacle within the facility will allow you to operate your 12 volt DC system and bring your chassis and house battery banks up to a SOC if they are viable.


Go by Harbour Freight and pick one up, along with an extension cord long enough to reach a 15 amp outlet within the facility for a $50 solution to get the 12 volt system operational.



I know from your other posts that the battery access on your coach is sub-par. Hopefully you can check the electrolyte levels and apply the leads from the battery charger.


Good luck with this!

[oldnavycdr]

I have a 12v automotive charger. How would I connect the charger to the batteries? Since there are 4 house batteries I assume they are 6 v (but I'll verify with a DVM). Connect the charger across 2 batteries or across all 4? Can I leave the batteries connected to the coach?

[Jim_HiTek]

Originally Posted by oldnavycdr

I have a 12v automotive charger. How would I connect the charger to the batteries? Since there are 4 house batteries I assume they are 6 v (but I'll verify with a DVM). Connect the charger across 2 batteries or across all 4? Can I leave the batteries connected to the coach?

Those 4 batteries would typically be 6 volt. Measure them to be sure. Wired in a series/parallel setup so you have 12 volt out. The outputs that go to the RV as Plus 12 volt should be obvious and is often 2 large red wires going to a insulated stud on the nearby frame. Or to two large studs with a jumper between them.

If necessary, since someone else pointed out your battery compartment is difficult, take some pictures of the wiring, maybe get some colored vinyl electrical tape and mark the wires and the terminals they go to as you pull them off. With the wires off, you should be able to get the batteries out one by one. Service them with distilled water, clean with baking soda/water solution. What I'd do is add 2 oz of 3-in-1 (mineral) oil to each cell. This prevents corrosion. I use a cheap plastic turkey baster to remove some electrolyte if necessary.

There will be two short jumpers between the two sets of batteries. Going from NEG of one battery to the POS of another. That makes that set 12 volt. Put those jumpers back in place after the batteries are removed. Measure the voltage across the set...should be close to 12 volt.

Now connect the charger from the unconnected POS of one battery set to the NEG of that same set. So 2 6 volt batteries at a time. Let them charge up for an hour. Do the other set. Don't try to do both sets at once unless it's a high amperage rated charger. Use the 'Charge' setting (not the 'Start' setting) of the charger so you don't blow a diode.

And after that, return the batteries to the battery tray following the pictures, rewire them and maybe leave the grounds unconnected if it's staying in storage, move to the 12 volt chassis batteries and repeat. What I do when I'm storing, is just remove one end of the jumper that goes between the 6 volt batteries, put an old glove over the cable terminal so it can't short anything.

Shutting off the battery disconnects is fine and good, but most RV setups bypass those for many items like the tranni and engine computers, the steps, the dash radio, and all safety devices like the CO and propane detectors. That's why I recommend just disconnecting the grounds when in storage. I've done it for 7 months at a time up in Fairbanks, Alaska. Hooked a battery charger back up in the spring, and an hour later, good to go.

[oldnavycdr]

Thanks, Jim. Looks like I'll be missing some of the football games today.

[Jim_HiTek]

You'll still be able to watch the Seahawks game on Monday night. And that's the only important game in my mind. Heh.