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RV Manager · 04-24-2015, 03:57 PM

Need help again from the experts. Started coach and generator last month, all was great. Now even though I was plugged into shore power everything was dead. Checked all of my batteries, seemed that all were bad. Took them in to the Interstate dealer and yep all batteries, coach and chassis were bad. Now all of them were new in 2014, 4 of them in October.
Okay, batteries were replaced under warranty, brought them home, power to the chassis now, but nothing to the coach.
Looking for suggestions on what to check, tried all of the breakers, none were tripped, check all of my connections all were tight.
One thing that seems wrong is that I have 4 ground wires attached to the rear coach battery. Can anyone with a Vectra or Horizon let me know if thay have 4 wires attached to the negative lug?
Thanks in advance for everyone's help as I know I will get some excellent advice and suggestions

the_vfox · 04-24-2015, 04:11 PM

Does your unit have a house batter disconnect? Shot in the dark, but two of my MH's had them and if you didn't trip it, it would mimic dead house battery.

RV Manager · 04-24-2015, 04:22 PM

Yes, I have a disconnect switch, which I have reset several times with no change., but thanks for the thought.

wa8yxm · 04-24-2015, 04:28 PM

Also you might have a resettabl (manual) circuit breaker or fuse..Though those are actually fairly rare on newer rigs.

I am assisting on a vinage Coachman just now..Batteries are FLAT, not just dad but will not even accept a charge... On well... We did manage to get the slides to come in.. Took 3 of us.. one on ye old button.. two assisting motor.

Johndale · 04-24-2015, 05:31 PM

Do you have a auto transfer system? If gen is not working and shore power not working everything goes through that.

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chboone · 04-25-2015, 10:41 PM

Do you actually hear the house disconnect operate? Should hear a clunk when it closes and opens.

Chaffeekid · 04-26-2015, 05:01 AM

Also just a thought, check for any GFI's on the circuit. Check each electrical outlet with a GFI and reset it.

HHIDan · 04-26-2015, 05:28 AM

AC volts go from Shore power or Gen thru the transfer switch into your main AC panel. Do you have 120 there?
Then from main panel AC goes to your Inverter/Converter-Charger, check the breakers on there.
If the converter works it should supply a DC charge voltage of around 14.5 volts to your coach batteries.
If you charged the batteries before putting them in you would have to measure at least 12.5 at the batteries. If you see anything between 13 and 14.5, then the charger is working. If you see 12.5 then converter is not reaching batteries. Check around batteries for a fuse such as this one:
BLUE SEA 5005 FUSE BLOCK ANL 50-300A
This fuse is a 200-400 amp (at 12 volts DC) depending on coach. You should see the same volts on each end of the fuse...
If all of this is working then the problem is between the batteries and the coach... Let us know!

RV Manager · 04-26-2015, 06:48 AM

No I do not hear the disconnect switch operate. The house system is totally dead, as if I had no batteries installed. Am going to pull the new batteries today to see if I missed a connection or have a bad wire. When I had the old batteries in and had the charger on them I had some power to the system as the light in the battery compartment came on, very weak sue to low voltage but nevertheless it was on, so think I must have missed something in my install. Will let you know.

HHIDan · 04-26-2015, 07:17 AM

When you say house system is totally dead, do you mean both 12DC (lights) and AC not there?? 120 can come from two sources, shore or inverter, do you get either or both?

Also, there are usually two fat + red cables to the coach battery bank, one to (or from) the charger/inverter and one to the coach. Is one of them not re-connected? The one to the converter is the one that goes through the 200 A fuse I mentioned...

Bumps · 04-26-2015, 08:40 AM

Catcoach: Your MH is prolly pretty close to mine in this regard. The first thing I would check are the breakers on the converter in the electric bay. If you have the Sensata 2000 there will be two separate push-button circuit breakers on the angled face of the unit.

Then I would check the Dimensions display to make sure the converter is functioning. Attached is the display control for your converter. Start with the button on the left to make sure your display is on, then go to the center button to make sure it is actually distributing power. Then use the button on the far right to throttle the amount of power (you will need to toggle through several screens to confirm this). For this test, I would go all of the way to 25amps.

Your problem is prolly one of those two things.

From the converter, the 12volt output goes right to the DC disti-panel on the base of the bed. The 120volt output goes right to the AC disti-panel on the base of the bed (I assume you have checked those breakers more than once?). The output from the converter to charge the batteries goes directly across and underneath the coach, over top of the Allison, and into the battery bay. On my coach there is no fuse in the circuit between the converter and the batteries. If yours has a fuse, then that would be the third place to check.

As far as the number of cables to the negative post on your house batteries, a total of four sounds about right (I cannot check mine since it is still undercover and parked in a field of snow - BUMMER).

\ken

PS. If you need the owners manual, PM me and I will send it to you.

RV Manager · 04-26-2015, 10:11 AM

Pulled the batteries could not see where I missed any connections. Found and removed the fuse block where the positive cables are connected as mentioned by HHIDan, cannot tell for sure if it is bad as it looks solid but has a great deal of blue like burning on one side of the interior copper piece.
Does anyone know if that is something I can buy at an auto parts store or will I have to go to an RV dealer?

Bumps · 04-26-2015, 10:13 AM

Sounds like a problem. Can you post a picture of the suspect connection? \ken

HHIDan · 04-26-2015, 10:17 AM

If you took it out and you have an ohmmeter it should test like a short (0 ohms), no resistance.

If it is in the circuit you could measure the voltage on both sides of the fuse should be exactly the same. Black probe to ground and red probe to each side should be the same.