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triplewide · 11-14-2019, 03:58 AM

You probably have already done this, but checking the engine battery cable connections and water levels if flooded type might be a good idea.

If you are getting "clicking" you might try hooking up the explorer again and let it charge for 15-30 minutes before trying to start. Engine bat may just be very low. If it is clicking it should not take much more charge to get it to turn over. Assuming connections , bat cells, starter are all good.

JTAG32 · 11-14-2019, 06:02 AM

Thanks Triple...going to do that today or tomorrow. Connections are all good...i did check. I didn't check fluid levels, but I checked my house batteries two weeks ago and they were fine...

EdInArk · 11-14-2019, 06:16 AM

My 2017 ACE did the same thing over a year ago with the battery in Store, except it was plugged in. I had parked it and just turned the battery to store. Then my wife went out and plugged it in to load and run the fridge, but she didn't turn the battery to Use.

I went out a few days later to start it, and all three batteries -- 2 house, 1 chassis -- were down to the point it wouldn't even click the starter. I checked them, and all three batteries were at 3 volts.

In my case, I jump started it off my pickup, turned the battery switch to Use, and it's been fine since.

I know this incident may not be helpful to JTAG32 at all, but I thought it may be useful to know, at least, that another Thor managed to run all three batteries down at once while in Store mode.l

JTAG32 · 11-14-2019, 07:10 AM

EdInArk

So, what caused the batteries to all drain? If the coach was in "store", but plugged in, I'm not sure what drained the batteries?

Want to make sure I learn from your experience...

EdInArk · 11-14-2019, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JTAG32

EdInArk

So, what caused the batteries to all drain? If the coach was in "store", but plugged in, I'm not sure what drained the batteries?

Want to make sure I learn from your experience...

I'm not either. I started not even to post, but I thought maybe just knowing it'd happened to another Thor product may be helpful in some way.

I spent quite a lot of time on the phone with our RV service guy, and we couldn't come up with a logical explanation. I finally jump started it and continued on. Just over a year and 7000 miles later we're still doing fine on the same three batteries.

Mark_K5LXP · 11-14-2019, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JTAG32

The lights came on, and the engine "clicked" weakly. The cables are decent gauge. I couldn't tell you if they were 2 gauge or not...I would've expected them to get hot if they were insufficient?

Since the batteries were beyond just discharged, even though the jump vehicle is bringing them back up to voltage they don't have any current capacity yet. So the only current source is the jump vehicle attempting to source a hundred and a half amps of current through two sets of alligator clips and whatever gauge of wires is in the cables. I highly doubt it's 2 gauge, probably more like 10 gauge or even smaller. I once cut open a cheap set of jumper cables which appeared "decent" only to find maybe 12 gauge stranded wire surrounded by a 3/8" sheath to make the cable look fat.

The solution here is to connect the jump vehicle and give it some time for the dead battery to not only come up in voltage but to actually accept some current which can then be delivered to the starter directly. When a battery has been run truly dead as in this case, the voltage will come up immediately but it may not accept current for some number of seconds to many minutes depending on how flat it is. Normally if a battery has just been run low and you connect a jump vehicle you can tell it's putting a load on the alternator but this won't happen right away with a mostly or completely dead battery. So the advice here to pull the batteries and put them on a mains connected charger is sound. You want a good long "soak" to restore 100% of the charge which isn't possible by just running the engine for a while.

The batteries are fairly new and you caught it quick enough they're probably OK to keep using. You can also do a capacity test at some point to know for sure. Determining why both systems discharged is the elephant in the room to figure out first.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM