Community Forums

VanDiemen23 · 12-31-2017, 10:21 AM

depending on the kind of alternator, isolator, and follower charger you have, it is possible for the batteries to discharge thru the field coil sense line.

Had this happen to me right after buying two brand new starter batteries.

Could be caused by a stuck relay allowing the sense line to remain connected after shutoff.

baloo · 12-31-2017, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VanDiemen23

depending on the kind of alternator, isolator, and follower charger you have, it is possible for the batteries to discharge thru the field coil sense line.

Had this happen to me right after buying two brand new starter batteries.

Could be caused by a stuck relay allowing the sense line to remain connected after shutoff.

vD,
What is the "field coil sense line"? Is that within the converter itself? (Meaning the whole thing needs to be replaced?)

Otherwise, I will look for this aforementioned solenoid or relay that might be getting stuck.

VanDiemen23 · 01-06-2018, 10:33 AM

some alternators that are designed for use with solid state isolators have a voltage sense line that ties to the stater battery, hopefully through a switched line. This allows the alternator to sense that the battery voltage is actually .75V below what is necessary due to the drop across the isolator, and boosts the output of the alternator to compensate.

If the line is unswitched or the relay sticks, the battery will drain through the alternator.

Dav L · 01-06-2018, 11:31 AM

I would take the batteries out, and individually charge each battery and if a flooded battery, check the specific gravity of each cell with a $6.00 tool available at any auto parts store.

Too much stuff going on...isolate and eliminate each potential cause of failure.

The batteries are the most finicky item so I would start there. If they truly have lost their complete charge and even got reversed...they probably are toast anyway as a result.

BobrUSMC · 01-06-2018, 02:10 PM

You've gotten a lot of good advice. I'd add only one more point, if you're charging the batteries in the MH using a portable charger disconnect them from the wiring since that will isolate the charger from loads that may exist in the MH like radios, CO2 sensors, etc. I used a smart charger on mine the first couple of times going for a full 15amp charge the first time. The charger eventually indicated 'charged' and 'maintaining'. Checking the battery voltages showed 11.1v which is 50 percent discharged. I then put the charger on 2amps and charged for 14 hours. Got me to 11.3. Pulling the batteries out and charging them at home with an old Sears charger overnight at 2amps got me no further. Solution: Six month old batteries are toast, new chassis batteries are the solution. My house 6v batteries were a slightly different story, went through the same cycle described about but got to 6.1v except for one battery which never got above 2.5. That battery obviously failed and may have dragged the others down since you have 8.7+-v in parallel with 12.4+-. I think I speak for all of us when I say batteries suck. We had terrible problems with NiCad batteries in our military aircraft and Boeing had problems with their Dreamliner batteries causing fires. MH designers don't do us any favors with the elements they design into the electrical system. I checked my storage yard and there are eighteen MHs not connected to shore power. Wonder what is going to happen when they climb in and turn the key? Probably the same thing that happened to you and me. Thinking hard about a Solar powered battery minder now.
Keep Smiling,
Bob

Magnafique · 01-06-2018, 03:21 PM

My .02 worth. Recently I had a problem with my batteries discharging even though I was plugged into 110. I changed out my CONVERTER with no joy. So I finally found that my battery isolator solenoid located in my power distribution center was bad. I replaced it and all is well. My converter has a Charge Wizard connected to it and it cycles the batteries between 13.2 V Float, 13.8V charge and 14.2 V for DE-sulfation mode, all voltages observed at the battery posts are with a Voltmeter. Check your voltage at your 12 volt leads coming from the Converter right at the Converter it should show charging voltage at this location. If not then your Converter is not working. If you get voltage at the converter 12 volt leads it is probably a problem between your converter and your batteries, possibly a solenoid. I hope you get the sorted out soon my friend. First be sure that you have good batteries. Happier New Year to you. Tom

Tony Lee · 01-06-2018, 05:24 PM

Did the batteries freeze?

Whlsdn · 01-06-2018, 08:11 PM

My RV garage temperature never drops to freezing and the MH shoreline stays connected. Yet when I went to my rig a couple of days ago I discovered both batteries dead. The inverter was off, though I did not turn it off intentionally, thinking I understood that shoreline connected + inverter on = batteries maintained. (That IS true, right? If all systems are working properly at least.) Anyhow, don't know what happened.

This 2017 Fleetwood Pace Arrow 35M has only 4K miles on it, since it has spent much of its short life at one dealer or another awaiting service or being serviced to address various bugs. By last fall we thought the last flaw was resolved. One rooftop climate control unit was bad when we bought it. After Camping World tech killed the second unit while trying to fix the first one, it took a couple of months to get them both working. Camping World had to order an electrical circuit board to fix the whole climate control system. (I'm wondering if what they did had some unintended consequences, but I digress.)

Anyway, though RV shoreline is plugged in, here's a description of my current dilemma:

Power Control System Central Monitor Panel is off and unresponsive.
Home lights don't come on.
House outlets DO work.
RVComfort control panel is blank and unresponsive.
On the TEST panel, Battery Main will display good level AFTER I charged that battery with external charger, and -oops- no, I did not remove it from the MH. It did charge sufficiently for the MH to start and be driven to a local fuel station. Ran it for 40 minutes or more.
On the TEST panel, Battery AUX displays no data.
On the TEST panel, all tank data is properly displayed.
Power seats DO work.
No breakers in the main panel are thrown. I did not pull fuses to check them, but none that are clearly visible showed any damage.

Even though my Fleetwood is under warranty, I hate to wait for an appointment for service in order to resolve this. Camping World will set me a date a few weeks out; then when the date arrives along with me and my MH, they'll park it on their lot without shoreline connection for another few weeks until they can actually pull it in to have someone look at it...which means I'll have to winterize it first. If they find it needs a new part, it goes back out to the lot while they contact manufacturer for permission to install the part under warranty. Then, when the part gets in, they'll again schedule shop time to, hopefully, fix it. Once that's all said and done, we'll miss our scheduled trip to Phoenix February 26, 2018!

Whlsdn · 01-06-2018, 09:48 PM

Dear lord, how do I correct a mistake I made in this post? Our woefully long service ordeal was from LazyDays, not Camping World! We've been to both, and I just got confused. My wife pointed out my mistake. I really need to edit my post and don't remember how.

Quincy · 01-07-2018, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whlsdn

Dear lord, how do I correct a mistake I made in this post? Our woefully long service ordeal was from LazyDays, not Camping World! We've been to both, and I just got confused. My wife pointed out my mistake. I really need to edit my post and don't remember how.

Dont worry I am sure enough people have similar issues with Camping World. I would call the MFG and tell them your concernes and see if they will authorize a repair shop of your choosing.

Additionally. What you describe could be a bad ground somewhere which can cause all kind of wierd things to happen. An open in some circuit somewhere including on a PC board. This can be found with either allot of time or allot of luck or both. No average tech can do it, you need that one in ten Tech with the knowledge and intensity to run it down.

Good luck, Of course I could be wrong and this time I hope I am. Please post the results for all of our benefit.

Dav L · 01-07-2018, 07:39 AM

whldn,
That's too much info for me to process in reading a forum post

Basics:
Are the batteries good (all of them) will they hold a charge. That can be done offline from the vehicle with a good battery charger and load test.

Are the battery cables on the right posts? I made the mistake of believing I had taken a picture of the connections and disconnected everthing when I cleaned the battery tray and replace all of the batteries. Then realized I did NOT have a picture...so I had to reverse engineer most all of the connections which weren't marked (even no indication of Plus and Minus). They are all marked now...took hours to run down each wire and figure out what it was for.

Next would be checking with a meter to ensure the BIRD / Aux relays are working...then the invertor...etc. Too much diagnostics for one post...but hopefully you get the point.

Sounds like for you though that you need to get it back to a good dealer if you aren't DIY. You are under warranty and from skimming your post...sounds like some of the complications might have been induced by the serviceing dealer anyway.