Community Forums

AllanK · 01-09-2019, 03:26 PM

The last time I parked our Tour I made sure everything was turned off, disconnected both chassis and house batteries and took our 50 amp cord and using adapters came to 110V 15AMP and plugged it in.

When we got back to the coach (2 months later), the house batteries were dead. I then thought to myself, "self how can the batteries charge if they are disconnected?"

So this time I turned off everything in the coach and did not disconnect the chassis or house batteries. Now I am told the 15 AMP GFI has blown and when they reset it immediately breaks again.

The storage facility is telling me that the big electric cord is causing the issue.

What/how do you do it?

Arriving back in 6 weeks and really don't want dead house batteries because even the genset won't fire without house batteries.

scott 61 · 01-09-2019, 03:57 PM

You cannot plug your coach into a GFI outlet

Outbound · 01-09-2019, 04:54 PM

I simply plug coach into shore power with 115 V adapter, never had a problem, inverter charger keeps all batteries charged with help from Xantrex to keep chassis batteries charged.

FleetMan · 01-09-2019, 05:20 PM

Your coach should have a Trik-L Charge Charger installed from the factory. It should keep both sets of batteries charged. Chech your manuals, check your coach.

Finance · 01-09-2019, 05:32 PM

On our coach there is a setting for the energy management system to tell it how much power is available. It knows automatically if it’s 50 amp but if it less you have to tell it 30 / 20 /15. That helps it prevent overloading the source.

Part 2, in our case the charging system is not controlled by the EMS. The charger has it’s own setting for maximum source current.

My guess is your charger is demanding more than 15 amps.

Dark Sky · 01-09-2019, 09:19 PM

The circuit available to me at our storage yard is shared by 6 units. The inrush current when I first plug in the bus directly trips the breaker. As an alternative I bought a pair of good quality trickle chargers, one for the house batteries and one for the chassis batteries. I use my switches to isolate both battery sets and I connect the two chargers to their respective battery sets (fitted with a quick connect so no need to mess with the battery posts) and then I plug the chargers into an extension cord. No breaker tripping, virtually no water consumption and batteries are consistently good to go.

Arch Hoagland · 01-09-2019, 09:34 PM

Had the same problem when I plugged into my front porch 110 outlet at home. Kicked a GFI in the house.

I discovered if I went inside the coach BEFORE I plugged into the house and flipped the double gang 50 amp breaker off and then plugged into the house everything was OK once I turned the 50 amp breakers back on inside the coach.

It would be interesting to see if you have the same problem at another location...maybe at home. If six RV's are using the same outlet the problem may be at the storage unit end.

garym114 · 01-09-2019, 09:37 PM

The only way to totally disconnect the battery bank is to remove the ground cable from the bank of batteries. If your house batteries were dead they were still connected to a load.

LVJ58 · 01-09-2019, 09:46 PM

Our coach is stored outside, with both house and chassis batteries maintained by a 100w solar panel with a Blue Sky 2000-E 25 amp controller. We've had it for several years now and it works great.

Best of luck and safe travels....

A Traveler · 01-10-2019, 09:30 PM

If the batteries were dead when you plugged the coach back in to the 15 amp outlet, the initial current draw can trip the breaker because the battery charger will try to deliver a LOT of amps to the batteries. This has happened to me.

Once you get the batteries back up to a normal charge, the current draw will be much lower and everything will work OK.

Sweetbriar · 01-10-2019, 10:00 PM

RV's and GFI outlets rarely get long. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Your best alternative is as Dark Sky suggested separate trickle chargers connected directly to the two battery banks rather then using the installed charger. That and hope no one unplugs your power cord or something else to disable power.

lwmcguire · 01-11-2019, 03:39 PM

I do use a GFCI outlet to maintain my batteries when at the house. Most coaches have to much leakage to allow that and trip the GFCI. Using the built in charger is the best way however a couple of friends use little battery maintainers and they work as well.

Sonic · 01-11-2019, 07:53 PM

For MH storage I installed BatteryMinders charger/maintainers (model 128CEC1 (2/4/8 amp) for the 8 house batteries and model 1215C (2 amp) for the 2 chassis batteries) and run a single extension cord to the pole at the storage lot shared with other rv's with no problems. The BatteryMinders have a nice bonus feature that uses constant pulse desulfation (vs. high voltage desulfation) to keep the plates free of sulfation.
Kudos to IRV2 member Winemaker who was of great help answering questions and walking me through his setup.

WyCamper · 01-11-2019, 08:58 PM

I have both coach and chassis disconnected, and run a single 15A cord to the battery compartment, where I have two trickle charger/battery minders plugged in. One on the two coach batteries and one on the chassis battery. This is plugged into a Kill-a-Watt which says it costs me roughly $0.27/mo.