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zoocrackers · 05-10-2012, 09:09 AM

Hello all,
Have a 2001 Itasca Horizon 330 Cat that has been in storage (heated) for the winter. Went to start it a few weeks ago....not enough juice to make it turn. Put a "trickle" charger on and went back last night. Nothing....not even power to the dash (wipers, lights etc. ) Charger is reading "green". Do you think the battery is toast....or is there a fuse I could have blown? As always, you help is greatly appreciated. BTW - House batteries are fine.....Thanks.

Full.Monte · 05-10-2012, 10:14 AM

It may be a bad battery, but do a couple things first. If your charger is in the green with this battery, check the battery voltage. It should be 12.5 to 13.1 volts. If so, and there's still no crank, check your battery cable connections. They should be tight. Especially important is where the ground attaches to the engine and or the frame. You may have to remove corrosion at the terminals. Then use some grease on the terminals to preclude more corrosion later. Also, look at the water level in the battery to see if it's above the plates.

A bad battery will most often crank the engine for a short time and then quit.
They don't often just quit if they have a good charge on them.

BFlinn181 · 05-10-2012, 10:18 AM

A trickle charger, even overnight probably didn't put enough juice back in the battery to start it. Put a real battery charger on it and/or jumper cables and see if you have power in the chassis circuits. By the way, you are sure the battery disconnect switch/solenoid has reconnected the battery to the circuit? You don't have a emergency start switch to connect house to chassis batteries? If not, use jumper cables to use house to chassis jump since you said house batteries are O.K.

gfs1943 · 05-12-2012, 02:01 PM

You don't have a disconnect on the chassis batteries unless it was added aftermarket. There is a connection stud mounted on the side of the battery compartment where the positive cable from the chassis battery goes. Corrosion can build up there, even though it may not be visible. Also, loosen the positive cable on the starter and clean up that connection really good, then tighten. Also, as Bob mentioned above, put a more powerful charger on the batteries for a while.

I bought a Schumacher charger/starter from WalMart. When my coach sits a few weeks, it won't start unless I hook up the charger for about a half hour, then use the start function for some additional boost. When the coach is being used frequently, I don't have a problem.

There is a little bit of battery drain when you're parked unless you add a chassis battery disconnect. I bought one, but haven't got around to installing it yet.

wa8yxm · 05-13-2012, 03:54 PM

Check and clean the terminals, also the other end of the wires, epically the ground wire.

On my Workhorse they used the wrong metal on the positive lug and I have to clean 'em every couple of years. Same symptoms you have. No start, crawl under with load tester and Flying Green.. Clean and re-connnect and away we go.