Newbie question(s)

[GetnBusy]

Just bought a used 1994 WinnieMinnie DL and everything seems to be in pretty good shape although I do have a couple questions.

First one is probably a really stupid question but for the life of me I cant figure it out. In the battery hold there are two batteries which I asume are the house batteries. There is also two "battery charger type" clips wires that are not connected to anything (either of the two batteries). Do they need to be attached to one of the two batteries?

The second question sort of relates to the first. It appears that I have no electricity to the RV interior unless the RV is running or generator is on. I'm guessing my house batteries are toast but before I drop $250 on two new batteries I wanted to see if I had to "switch or connect something" to get electricity without having to run the engine or generator.

ANY INSIGHT WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

[RJay]

The first thing is to test the batteries but you'll need a Specific Gravity Tester. I can only guess what the two “clips” are, but they might go to a battery charger.


As to your second question, your lack of battery power to the interior might be due to an open battery disconnect switch.

[wildtoad]

Pull the two batteries and go to wal-mart and have them tested. If bad, they have replacements for way less than $250. There may also be a switch on the dashboard that will disconnect the house batteries.

[John H...]

There should be a battery disconnect switch somewhere that may be turned off. As far as the clips, you may have to follow them and see where they lead. Could be a battery charger or tender somewhere. Good luck...

[Gary RVRoamer]

Another possibility for those clips is a connection to charge the engine battery from the house system. Older Winnies do not have this function built in, and the engine battery can run down if you camp in one spot for weeks at a time. Hooking up a jumper to the house system gives a way to easily charge them.

In any case, it's not a standard part of the hook-up, so that's not the cause of your other problem.

[Retired and Happy]

If the batteries are bad, and if they are 12 vdc (wired in parallel), you might want to consider changing to 6 vdc and wiring them in series for greater capacity. Either way you get the 12 volts needed for most interior requirements.