Community Forums

captaindesmo · 11-11-2011, 06:50 PM

I FEEL STUPID ASKING THIS BECAUSE i'VE JUMPSTARTED HUNDREDS OF TIMES, BUT HERE GOES, i MIGHT BE HAVING AN ISSUE WITH BATTERY ON/OFF SWITHES OR ANTI-THEFT SYSTEM PO INSTALLED WHERE i TURN ON BATTERIES (DO i NEED BOTH SWITCHES ON TO START MOTOR) THEN INSERT KEY,TURN ON LIGHTS, PUSH WHAT LOOKS LIKE STARTER BUTTON AND HOLD THEN TURN KEY TO START, WORKS MOST OF THE TIME. THE OTHER DAY IT WOULDNT START, i THOUGHT BAT. DEAD, PULLED MY VAN UP AND HOOKED UP CABLES. i TRIED SEVERAL LOCATIONS FOR GROUND TO NO AVAIL SO CONNECTED POLES TO POLES, STARTED VAN WENT IN mh AND IT STARTED. SAT FOR ABOUT 30 SECONDS AND THE VAN STOPPED RUNNING, CONCERNED i DISCONNECTED ASAP AND TRIED TO RESTART VAN, DEAD! ROLLED UP CABLES PUT THEM AWAY.AFTER COUPLE MINUTES TRIED TO START VAN, CRANKED SLOWLEY, TRIED AGAIN FEW MINUTES LATER AND IT STARTED AND HAS STARTED FINE SINCE, VOLT METERS ON BOTH READ NORMAL WHEN RUNNING. dONT THINK THE mh BATTERY WAS ever dead. now it wont start again, is it ok to jump start a MH like I would a stranded car, should I remove hot battery from van to avoid damage? not have engine running? I have a battery charger with start setting, would that be better?

jfran304 · 11-11-2011, 07:05 PM

Battery charger with start setting would definitely be better.

Gary RVRoamer · 11-12-2011, 09:03 PM

There is no technical reason not to jump it as you would any other vehicle system, but if the coach is a diesel it could really suck the juice out of a car battery.

doc · 11-13-2011, 08:51 AM

IF (big IF) it is a diesel with shared battery compartment, house and chassis, it is not a big deal. My old Itasca Horizon had and the current Damon Essence has this setup - I am sure there are others. Simply use a single jumper cable from the hot on the house side to the hot on the chassis side. Both share a common ground so that second cable is not necessary. I am not talking about some grab-bag, junk table bargain stuff, but real, stranded, heavy duty cables like welding leads. I have done this numerous times. Hook them up and wait maybe 5 minutes and start the engine.
Those glove box type cables will burn up if you use them due to the amount of power they carry in a demand situation like a start-up.

PlayItForwrd · 11-13-2011, 09:32 AM

With all the extra's you've hooked up, it sounds like you may have an intermittent open ground or a 12v hot wire shorting to ground somewhere. And I'm leaning towards a short circuit, as there's no other reasonable explanation as to why your van battery went dead while it was running. It would also explain not-dead batteries not starting your RV...