Community Forums

ouachitah · 01-23-2016, 07:27 AM

I have a 2001 Country Coach Intrigue. Just before I put the coach away for the winter, I noticed that the one battery I hadn't replaced in the spring was weak. I thought I'd wait until this spring to replace it. It is now just about useless. When I checked the water level in all the batteries last week, the bad one was nearly dry. I added water. A while later I heard noise from the battery compartment. The bad battery have vapor and fumes coming from it. I loosened the caps and the vapor gradually diminished. After that I lost DC power. The monitor shows no DC power coming in and I don't have lights and other things that operate off DC. I checked the battery disconnect switches, all the breakers in house and on the inverter itself. I'm plugged into shore power and all the AC things are working. I thought the bad battery was the chassis battery, but the MH started just fine this morning. Any ideas??

Stajones · 01-23-2016, 10:19 AM

Are you able to use a multimeter/VOM? Do you have 4/6v coach/house batteries in series-parallel?

ChasA · 01-23-2016, 05:13 PM

Ouacita,
The first thing you should do is disconnect the black cable from that battery. You will need to replace at least that battery and probably others. I think you should call someone who knows what they are doing since you obviously don't.
Sorry to be so harsh, but you kept trying to use battery that is dangerous.

dennis45 · 01-23-2016, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChasA

Ouacita,
The first thing you should do is disconnect the black cable from that battery. You will need to replace at least that battery and probably others. I think you should call someone who knows what they are doing since you obviously don't.
Sorry to be so harsh, but you kept trying to use battery that is dangerous.

I agree with ChasA, And, when replacing batteries, they should be replaced in sets. Not one at a time. Attached is a real good write up on battery maintenance that may be helpful.

http://www.rveducation101.com/articl...tery_savvy.pdf

dons2346 · 01-23-2016, 09:01 PM

Do you still have the two 8D house batteries or has someone changed them out for four 6 volts?

ouachitah · 01-24-2016, 10:19 AM

Two batteries were replaced last spring at an RV dealership. I was told that the third battery was the chassis battery and was still ok. The two replacement batteries are Interstate 8D-MHD 1400 CCA. I'm wondering now if the bad battery is really a house battery, which is why I don't have DC power. The MH started right up so it can't be the chassis battery.

I contacted the person at the dealership that normally takes care of my MH and he said the other two batteries should be ok. I was also concerned the new batteries would be damaged.

I know I don't know what I'm doing with batteries other than adding distilled water to keep the level above the plates. Would never change them myself.

Thanks for the comments.

**CountryFit** · 01-24-2016, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ouachitah

I have a 2001 Country Coach Intrigue. Just before I put the coach away for the winter, I noticed that the one battery I hadn't replaced in the spring was weak. I thought I'd wait until this spring to replace it. It is now just about useless. When I checked the water level in all the batteries last week, the bad one was nearly dry. I added water. A while later I heard noise from the battery compartment. The bad battery have vapor and fumes coming from it. I loosened the caps and the vapor gradually diminished. After that I lost DC power. The monitor shows no DC power coming in and I don't have lights and other things that operate off DC. I checked the battery disconnect switches, all the breakers in house and on the inverter itself. I'm plugged into shore power and all the AC things are working. I thought the bad battery was the chassis battery, but the MH started just fine this morning. Any ideas??

are you sure you added distilled water? the sizzling and fuming are a typical scenario when undistilled water was added into a battery where the metals in the water (arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, copper, mercury, selenium, nickel, thallium, antimony, and beryllium) shortened the electrical polarities. or distiller did a poor job in removing those metals.

when this happens, the batteries on the same circuit were depleted. those deep cycle batteries might be able to recover, but the starting battery, more than likely was dead.

Quote:

I thought the bad battery was the chassis battery, but the MH started just fine this morning. Any ideas??

was the battery booster button on? my speculation is that the house batteries were recovered from shore power and the chassis battery stopped shorting over night. the booster button linked all batteries with 50a shore power to start the engine.

good luck and happy rving!

ouachitah · 01-25-2016, 12:28 PM

The booster switch was off. I'm sure the water was distilled. Good ideas.

wa8yxm · 01-26-2016, 08:00 AM

Bad battery likely has one or more shorted cells.. If it is a 12 volt then disconnect it and tape off the positive cable till spring.. (You can tape the negative as well, Use red tape on the positive if you have it)

if it is a SIX volt than disconnect the pair it belongs to as above.

If it is a six volt replace BOTH of them come spring. .. WHY...

Well there are no six volt batteries in RV's. just 12 volt that have been split into two halves for easier handling, Each pair of six volt is basically one 12 volt (Size 4D if you must know) and should be treated as such.

TQ60 · 01-27-2016, 08:16 AM

Your battery control may be powered by chassis battery so check the voltage there.

Place a portable charger on it if needed.

wa8yxm · 01-27-2016, 03:57 PM

Well I see you have BIG 12 volt batteries.. Isolate the bad battery, remove for testing. Tape off the leads while it's out of the RV so they do not short out by accident,, use just the one battery while in storage.