Community Forums

src · 02-16-2010, 04:19 PM

I have an 06 Endeavor and the house batteries didn't charge when I drove on a recent 24 hour trip. I'm at Wildwood today and they said the coach is not set up to charge the house batteries when driving.

I saw a similar posting and have a few questions. Where is that selonid in the battery box? I want to have them look at it.

What do I need to do to the coach to make the house batteries charge while driving short of running the generator?

Also, what is a BIRD?

Mandys Man · 02-16-2010, 04:54 PM

OK, last first...BIRD
Solenoid is shown in the pic

Dual charging devices include Echo~charge, BIRD, trik-l-start

mfire1339 · 02-16-2010, 05:13 PM

If that was the shops answer I would go elsewhere. It should charge your house batts.

Mike

src · 02-16-2010, 07:00 PM

Did the BIRD and the selinoid come with your coach or did you add them? ...And what year is your coach?

Mandys Man · 02-16-2010, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by src

Did the BIRD and the selinoid come with your coach or did you add them? ...And what year is your coach?

SRC,
I am going to guess that this was directed at me.. If not, please disregard.
Our coach is an 07 Diplomat. It did not come with the BIRD or any other bi-directional charging device, although the owners manual stated that it did. After a couple of times with dead chassis batteries, we installed the Xantrex Echo~Charge. It lasted 3 years. Then tried the add-on daughterboard from MegaRV. It worked for 2 months.
That solenoid that I pictured should also be on your coach. That is the one that operates when you hit the "Battery Boost" switch on the dash if you need to transfer battery power in order to start either the engine or generator.
Since I included a link for information on the bird and the trick start, here is one for the Echo~charge
IMHO, the echo is the best unit and very easy to install.

src · 02-16-2010, 07:22 PM

Thanks Mandy's Man! That's the info I was looking for!

Our Time · 02-17-2010, 02:27 PM

Now I am confused. I installed the trickle-start to keep the chassis batteries charged and it is working fine. So now I need to add the echo-charge to charge the coach batteries while we are moving?

Mandys Man · 02-17-2010, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Our Time

Now I am confused. I installed the trickle-start to keep the chassis batteries charged and it is working fine. So now I need to add the echo-charge to charge the coach batteries while we are moving?

Nope, they are bi-directional units. Just one works at 5 amp and works at 15 amp. Or at least the Echo~charge is.

itdave · 02-17-2010, 06:04 PM

OK here is my understanding from the owners manual the House batteries will charge from the alternator but the chassis batteries will not charge from shore power. But I think this is incorrect I don't think the house batteries charge from the alternator. Based on discussion with SacTC he installed the unit from Mega RV and things still don't work as advertised. I think we need to do more research into this issue.

Mandys Man · 02-17-2010, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itdave

OK here is my understanding from the owners manual the House batteries will charge from the alternator but the chassis batteries will not charge from shore power. But I think this is incorrect I don't think the house batteries charge from the alternator. Based on discussion with SacTC he installed the unit from Mega RV and things still don't work as advertised. I think we need to do more research into this issue.

The sentence in bold above is correct. (maybe)

The house batteries SHOULD charge off the alternator. There are conditions that must be met first. When you start the engine, the first thing the alternator does is run the heating elements for the engine until it arrives at a set temp. (computer controlled)
Then it begins monitoring the charge of the chassis batteries. They have to reach a charge of 13.2 Volts and maintain that charge for approx 5 minutes before the change-over to charging the house batteries. If there is a drain on the chassis batteries or if there is a problem with the chassis batteries, the charging of the house batteries will not happen. If the chassis batteries are drained for some reason, and you have to boost start the engine, it may be a very long time before it ever swaps over to the house.
Oh yeah, some of the coaches will charge the chassis while plugged in to shore. Just seems to depend on who set up the electronic monitoring system that particular day on the manufacturing line.

Our Time · 02-18-2010, 05:37 AM

Mandys Man
You are correct in how the system is suppose to work. However, after driving all day and then connecting to shore power, or the generator my HOUSE batteries go into bulk charge to replenish. I had this checked at Monaco Elkhart and Wildwood and both said the system was normal. My conclusion is you get such a small charge from the alternator that it does not keep up with the demand of the house batteries. I don't know what the solution is. As previously stated, the bird from Mega RV is not the cure all either. So?????????? SacTC what you think?

William Willard · 02-18-2010, 10:28 AM

itDave -- SacTC gave me the unit from Mega RV when we were in Quartzsite, & it didn`t work on our 07 Camelot either

-- Bill Willard

MonacoMama · 02-18-2010, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Our Time

Mandys Man
You are correct in how the system is suppose to work. However, after driving all day and then connecting to shore power, or the generator my HOUSE batteries go into bulk charge to replenish. I had this checked at Monaco Elkhart and Wildwood and both said the system was normal. My conclusion is you get such a small charge from the alternator that it does not keep up with the demand of the house batteries. I don't know what the solution is. As previously stated, the bird from Mega RV is not the cure all either. So?????????? SacsTC what you think?

SacsTC is outside but I happen to know what we did use when he took out the "MegaRV Bird". This is the part he put in. It will be this part unless it proves to have a shorter life than the Echo~Charge. It does have the same Trombetta Solenoid that Monaco installed. The one thing about this unit is that we think we need to make sure that the "charger" section of the inverter is switched off if you are running the generator while traveling.

Also..in retrospect of your first sentence...We ALWAYS plug in or have the generator running when we put the slides out (or in) and level up. These functions operate off the batteries and will cause you to go into "bulk charging" if you are not plugged in...
I hope this helps!

tom49 · 02-18-2010, 11:26 AM

When I discovered the battery combiner that the factory had installed in our 97 Dynasty had failed I installed a Xantrex Echo charge, however
in our GMC I have a Yandina Combiner150.
The Yandina Combiner works the same way the Xantrex works, whichever set of batteries are being charged it brings that charging current over to the other set, the major difference is that it does 150 amps not 15.