Battery Warranty Question

[UFO Pilot]

My chassis battery was replaced under warranty in July 2008. It has now failed again and I am being told that the new battery was only under warranty until the end of my original 1 year warranty (Oct 2008). The battery is a 75 month battery but was really only warrantied for 3 months? Does this sound correct?

[UFO Pilot]

My chassis battery was replaced under warranty in July 2008. It has now failed again and I am being told that the new battery was only under warranty until the end of my original 1 year warranty (Oct 2008). The battery is a 75 month battery but was really only warrantied for 3 months? Does this sound correct?

[MikeT]

That is Workhorses warranty policy. Why is the battery failing? Workhorse has the limited warranty because most failures were due to battery not being charged while in storage or non-use of vehicle. Your chassis battery usually is not charged when plugged in.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wthomas1: </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Wayne, Your battery warranty should be clearly detailed in a separate document that describes the policy. I believe that your battery is labeled Workhorse.

Later in my ownership I moved on from the OE battery to a Delco 75 month battery. After about a year, the first battery that I installed failed and I returned it to my Delco dealer and he gave me a new one right on the spot. The replacement has been fine ever since. I believe I'm on my 3rd automotive battery.

Now since I have had that battery installed, I keep a "Battery Minder" continuously hooked up to it. I am pleased to report that the BM keeps my automotive battery in a ready to go state of charge and I expect to continue to do so for the balance of my warranty.

Batteries fail when brand new for any number of reasons so one might say that its a gamble at best. If you have a properly working battery it should last for a good long time. If it's a defective unit it'll fail in quick order and hopefully it'll happen during your warranty period.

[UFO Pilot]

The original Workhorse battery was replaced with a CarQuest 75. I doubt that Carquest will honor their warranty when I don't have a receipt as I did not pay for it. If I had purchased the battery I would have warranty, because it was replaced under warranty, I don't have a warranty. It just seems strange to me.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wthomas1:
The original Workhorse battery was replaced with a CarQuest 75.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Wayne, I think you are in luck. Just bring back the battery to a Carquest dealer and act stupid! Let them decide if they will honor any type of warranty on the battery. You might be surprised!

[UFO Pilot]

We have 1 CarQuest store in this area. I will take the battery in and see what they will do.

Thanx!

[DriVer]

Great ... Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning!

[FreshAir]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DriVer:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wthomas1:
The original Workhorse battery was replaced with a CarQuest 75.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Wayne, I think you are in luck. Just bring back the battery to a Carquest dealer and act stupid! Let them decide if they will honor any type of warranty on the battery. You might be surprised! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

DriVer is correct, act stupid. I had a new 15 month old Trogan on a new coach go bad. I called the Trogan distributor and was told that the Batteries sold to manufactures do not carry the same warranty as sold to distributors, automotive repair shops. Mfg price discounts and manufacture separate warranty apply to their products. On this one I had only a 12 month warranty and a separate code would have been stamped on the battery stating so.

However, the distributor suggested I take the battery to a Trogan retailer, not a MH dealer, for warranty replacement. Most likely no one will catch the code difference, the retailer, automotive shop, will not be out anything and it's no big deal to Trogan as they will get customer satisfaction and everyone will be happy. ???

Pat

[CJBROWN]

Cranking batteries do not hold up well to a complete discharge. The plates are too thin, and they sulfite over and won't take a full charge. A deepcycle won't either if done repeatedly. Batteries should not be run down below 12.0 volts measured. A full charge is 12.7 to 12.8. Under about 11.8 they are considered completely discharged.

Mine will completely discharge the chassis battery in about 3-4 weeks if left unattended. So every couple of weeks I put an electronic charger on it and bring it back up. A trickle or 'tender' charger works great on them.

If your battery keeps getting discharged it will be killed no matter the grade or the warranty. They'll only replace them for you a time or two and then get wise that it's not the battery's fault. That said, a very few batteries are DOA, or in very short order.

I'm not sure what all the draw is on these units, they should be able to hold out for at least a couple of months. BTW, I just found out the slides are powered by the chasis batter, at least on the winnebago products with Kwikee slides. One would think they should run on the house batts. So I don't operate the slides unless the engine is running, or if I'm going to be putting the charger on it right away.

[John-D]

Though it is 100% possible your battery has failed don't be too quick.

A bit of info on my rig... and it's chassis battery...

About a year ago (rig was 2years old) I turned the key and NOTHING.. Now understand this rig has an intelligent battery control system that, among other things. keeps both house and chassis batteries charged, but there was nothing.. I crawled under with the proper tools, and ran a load test on the perfectly good battery.. Of course it passed, flying colors. Hooked it back up and VAROOM worked great.

Then again this year... Same symptoms exactly.. once again I crawled under, cleaned the terminals and VAROOM

Oh yes. Since I was there I ran the load test again.. It still passed

I know the battery is a "maintenance free", unlike the house batteries I have which are not. But don't believe that. Believe in cleaning the terminal connections.. Just loosen 1/2 turn twist 'em a bit, and re-tighten you may find you can tighten a bit more than you loosen.

[UFO Pilot]

I couldn't start the Coach even with a jumper battery box. I pulled the battery out and took it to be tested and it measured under 5 volts. They are charging it overnite and will then load test it. I will keep you posted on the results. By the way, I took it to storage with fully charged batteries 3 weeks ago.

[UFO Pilot]

The battery is completely dead. I took it back to CarQuest and they will not warranty a battery without a receipt. I know I did not pay for it but a battery should last more than 6 months. I will purchase all of my batteries at Costco in the future, they will replace up to 3 years with no questions asked.

[John-D]

That is another thing... As I said up-thread some coaches, such as mine, if you are plugged into shore power (or running the generator long enough) they charge the chassis battery (On my rig Shore/Generator charges the house first, then the chassis, Alternator the other way around)

Some rigs. that's not the case.

Though my U-2200's can take quite a bit of abuse (And alas, have) including deep discharging and they seem to have recovered.

I've not had such good luck with starting batteries such as the chassis battery. This battery is identical in construction (And dang near size) to the one in my car... And that one takes one deep cycle to kill it dead, if it gets down to five volts it's new battery time.

Since there are always loads on the battery (Engine control computer, radio memory and things like that) you have to keep a battery maintainer on it if your house system does not charge it.. Else what go got is what you get.