Totally confused over batteries

[binkley2]

I have a 2005 Winnebago Vectra 40AD diesel pusher. I use my rig pretty often, and when parked, I always keep it plugged into a 50 amp shore power outlet in my driveway. I keep my refrigerator on very low and set my AC to 85 degrees (Texas heat). It is sometimes a month or more between RV trips and more often than not my batteries are fine when I go to fire the unit up. Sometimes, the engine battery will be low and I have to use the battery boost switch to fire it up, one time both the house and engine batteries were low. There is no rhyme or reason around when there will be a problem. The last time this happened, after charging the batteries, I took the rig to CW to get my systems checked. I was sure something wasn't working right, as I thought the on board charger would maintain my batteries. Well, they found nothing wrong, and thus my extended warranty would not cover the work. The service adviser told me that i had to turn on my battery storage switch in order for the system to charge the batteries. He said anytime the unit is stored for more than a week, the batteries should be switched to storage mode. So the other day I went to move the RV since we were having work done on the house and it was in the way. It had been sitting for over a month plugged in but batteries not in storage mode. it fired up just fine and house batteries were all great. Where I had to park it for two days does not have a plug, so i decided I would put the storage mode on to ensure my batteries don't go low. Went out yesterday to put it back into its spot, and low and behold the engine batteries were almost flat!?! What the heck am I doing wrong?

[nosticks]

There are parasitic drains on your coach battery. They are very small, but over time drain the battery. My solution was to install a battery maintainer on the coach battery, this is presuming you can plug in to shore power. If not, you could install a battery disconnect switch on the coach battery.

[EDALLSAILS]

Something is draining your batteries. On one of my units the batteries were wired thru a solenoid that was sucking power because of faulty wiring. There are other devices that draw power, hard wired smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, thermostats on furnaces, water heaters, refrigerators. Here is an easy test. Disconnect the batteries. Physically remove plus side of battery cables. Now see if the batteries go dead. If they don't go dead then you have a power stealing gremlin. Hope this helps. Ed

[Old Scout]

First problem is -- you went to CW for advice/service. As mentioned, many rigs have a number of things hooked up directly to the bats, eg inverter--so they by-pass the switches. Only sure way to isolate bats during storage is a physical disconnect [eg. blade switch] at the battery post......

[MSHappyCampers]

Hi ! Welcome to IRV2! We're sure glad you joined the gang!

Are you keeping the water levels checked regularly? Keep her between the ditches!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[RayJr]

My 2003 Journey sits in the yard sometimes for months with the house batteries off and I do not have it plugged in and I don't have a problem starting it. I have never left it plugged in unless we are camping in it and I don't recommend that. I would clean all the terminals then check the batteries, the problem might be just that one of them is bad, in that case you need to replace the bank, either 2 chassis or 3 house. Don't forget to check the house batteries water lever once in a while.

[Vaflatlander]

Reading your problem I have a strong suspicion that your chassis batteries have lost the capacity to hold a charge. How old are the batteries? Were they load tested at CW? Two days off charge is to short a time for the batteries to discharge unless there is more then the normal parasitic draw. If you are familiar with the use of a VOM you canread you parasitic draw by disconnecting your pos cable on battery setting the meter to amps and bridging the cable to battery with the meter test leads. But check your meter for its max amp draw if you feel there is more current than the meter allows you have more than a parasitic draw. The intermittent start problem may be a bad bat connect solenoid on your battery control board. Hope you find a solution. Good luck.

[Kiawah]

Reading your problem I have a strong suspicion that your chassis batteries have lost the capacity to hold a charge.

I agree X2

[PJStough]

For the most part only newer Wwinnebagos charge the engine batteries when the RV is plugged into shore power. For best results get a Trik-L-Start, problem solved.

[Mr_D]

My rig is always on shore power when in storage. Pretty much has to be even with 400 watts of solar due to the home refer.

[binkley2]

Good information. Thanks everyone for the help. I will dig in this weekend and see if I can figure this out. I suspect a trickle charger installed on the chassis batteries is probably the best idea for me. As i said, prior to moving the rig around front, the coach had sat for a month and fired up just fine. But when it sat with the batteries turned off for two days, they were weak. Very confusing. Thanks again.

[marjoa]

As you're trying to figure this out if I were in your shoes I'd start here:

• Go to Amazon, Walmart or auto parts store and buy a good hydrometer. Not a cheap one that's 4" or 5" long with beads
Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

• make sure the batts are fully charged
• open each cell on all batteries and check the gravity
• if this test fails, no need to buy a trickle charger, won't help, your batteries are bad

No sense throwing money at something until you've diagnosed the problem properly.

Once you know the health of your batteries with certainty, then you can methodically narrow down what's draining them and then devise the solution.

good luck.

BTW...do yourself and us a favor by putting your MH and Toad information into your signature
This will really help in all your future posts, and you won't have to type it in each time.
You do this by:
1) Going to the top of this page and click the top left tab named “User CP”
2) Look at the menu on the left and scroll down to “Settings & Options” and click “Edit Signature”
3) In that text box type all the information about your MH, Year, model, length, mileage, any aftermarket extras installed, your toad and so on.

[Arch Hoagland]

This will solve the problem for sure:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Auto-Batt...-Off/135500502

[pfritz]

Put a coach battery knife switch in.

Originally Posted by binkley2

I have a 2005 Winnebago Vectra 40AD diesel pusher. I use my rig pretty often, and when parked, I always keep it plugged into a 50 amp shore power outlet in my driveway. I keep my refrigerator on very low and set my AC to 85 degrees (Texas heat). It is sometimes a month or more between RV trips and more often than not my batteries are fine when I go to fire the unit up. Sometimes, the engine battery will be low and I have to use the battery boost switch to fire it up, one time both the house and engine batteries were low. There is no rhyme or reason around when there will be a problem. The last time this happened, after charging the batteries, I took the rig to CW to get my systems checked. I was sure something wasn't working right, as I thought the on board charger would maintain my batteries. Well, they found nothing wrong, and thus my extended warranty would not cover the work. The service adviser told me that i had to turn on my battery storage switch in order for the system to charge the batteries. He said anytime the unit is stored for more than a week, the batteries should be switched to storage mode. So the other day I went to move the RV since we were having work done on the house and it was in the way. It had been sitting for over a month plugged in but batteries not in storage mode. it fired up just fine and house batteries were all great. Where I had to park it for two days does not have a plug, so i decided I would put the storage mode on to ensure my batteries don't go low. Went out yesterday to put it back into its spot, and low and behold the engine batteries were almost flat!?! What the heck am I doing wrong?