1988 fleetwood pace arrow no power

[joepetruscan]

I am new so I hope I give enough info. I have a newly owned 1988 fleetwood pace arrow with a 454 big block. While I was camping one weekend I noticed on my instrument panel that most of my lights weren't working ie-lp gas detection, holding tank 1, holding tank 2. The only lights that were working was batt condition 1 and 2. One of the batt showed fully charged, the other one had no power reading whatsoever. At the time this happened I was plugged into ac camp power. Everything in the motorhome was working ie-lights, ac , microwave. My first reaction was to see if the motorhome would start, there was no power at all, no crank no auxillary, no dash lights,radio etc. Checked my power converter and it showed blinking red light which means not charging. Checked fuses in power conv and fuses under hood found no problems. Had to get towed, once home I was able to meter both batteries and they both showed +12v. Any suggestions??????? Thanks, Joe

[Bagger97]

Sounds like bad ground connections either at the battery or on the frame. I would start by removing, cleaning and replacing all the ground cables I could find.

[joepetruscan]

thanks i'll let you know how i make out.

Joe

[dbender]

I also just bought a 1988 Pace Arrow and the main battery was no good so I replaced it and now it seems like I have too much power. It has 3 12 volt batteries hooked in. Would you happen to have a picture of how it should be hooked up? Should I have 3 12 volt batteries because I have read lots of forums and many of them say 1 12 and 2 6 volt batteries. Please help!

[Forest Grump]

For the 12v batteries hook the positive terminals together and the negative terminals together. This would give you a 12 volt system. If you hook positive to negative, as in a flashlight, and did this with all three batteries you would have a 36v system. The first method is called parallel and the second series.

For two six volt batteries you need to hook them up in series since the coach is 12v. Two sixes in series give you 12v.

With batteries in parallel the amp hour ratings are additive. So if each of your 12v batteries above is 200 Ah then you would have a total of 600 Ah's of capacity. With batteries in series the Ah ratings are not additive. If you have two 200 Ah 6v batteries in series you have 200 Ah of capacity.

Two increase Ah capacity in a 6v system you need to add, and have room for two batteries. For a 12v battery system you need just one battery.

Look at a 6v battery you will see 3 cells, hooked in series each approximately 2 volts. Now look at your 12v battery. You will see 6 cells hooked in series each approximately 2 volts.

The promaty argument for 6v is that it had been easier to find a deep cycle high capacity 6v than a 12v deep cycle high capacity. Golf carts often use high capacity deep cycle 6 volt batteries and therefore they are easier to find. But, 12v deep cycle high capacity batteries are often used in floor cleaning machines and electric lifts and just as easy to find.

Most coaches have a start assist switch where the auxiliary coach batteries can be used via series hook up to help start the coach.

Get a good voltmeter and check out your system. Bad grounds are a major source of electrical problems in any vehicle. Being from Chicago we used to add a second ground to all our vehicles. The regular ground is usually quite low and easily accessible by crawling under the vehicle - to a thief who wants to cut vehicle power. Add a second up high and they get a real surprise.

[Rick Long]

[dbender]

Whoever had it before us (we just picked it up) had the battery hooked up incorrectly (they had the main battery hooked up to the auxillary batteries in a series which caused it to be 24 volts) we hooked it up the way it was when we took out the dead battery. They did not tell us the battery was dead. In searching around and using a voltmeter it was discovered that the wires were connected incorrectly. In further search we discovered that the wires have little letters on them telling you where they go. I guess we will live and learn since this is our first motorhome. I really appreciate the response to my question. Again we are new and very green to this chapter of our lives!