Coach battery died :(

georgetown350 · 03-25-2007, 01:37 PM

My coach battery went dead today. I hope thats normal after sitting for two weeks in the cold. Im keeping it plugged into shorepower for now as periodic charging with the generator I guess wasnt the way to go. I was advised to use a trickle charger but never got around to it. Water levels seem to be ok. Does it seem abnormal for the coach battery to go dead after two weeks in the cold while disconected?

Steve

georgetown350 · 03-25-2007, 01:37 PM

My coach battery went dead today. I hope thats normal after sitting for two weeks in the cold. Im keeping it plugged into shorepower for now as periodic charging with the generator I guess wasnt the way to go. I was advised to use a trickle charger but never got around to it. Water levels seem to be ok. Does it seem abnormal for the coach battery to go dead after two weeks in the cold while disconected?

Steve

GaryKD · 03-25-2007, 03:41 PM

Hi Steve,
When you say "disconnected" do you mean the kill switch was moved to off, or just disconnected from shore power? If you moved the kill switch to off, you are correct. The battery should not be dead. If you just disconnected the coach from shore power, the battery could run down to nothing in two weeks or less. It depends on how much drain is on the battery from a variety of components in the coach.

If you have a meter, turn the kill swith off and see if there are any AMPS being drawn on the coach battery. If AMPS are being drawn, then that is what ran down the battery. You'll need to find the offending drain and decide what to do.

georgetown350 · 03-26-2007, 01:41 PM

Hi Gary. Thanks for the reply. It was the kill switch or as it is labeled " battery disconnect ", so I was surprised that the battery went dead. First thing that I do when going into the motorhome is flick the disconnect switch to the on position but in this case the switch did nothing. And there was no power to anything in the coach. The interesting thing to me is that this 2 week period was not nearly as cold as it has been over the winter. Having said that, I was starting the engine once a week religiously up to this time.
I now have it plugged into shore power and this weekend I will unplug it and do so some boondocking in my driveway. Hopefully the battery will be ok.

Thanks again

Steve

GaryKD · 03-26-2007, 02:00 PM

Stave,
It is easy to test the battery. Take it to the auto parts store of your choice and have them put it on their machine. They will tell you if the battery has a problem. If the battery is okay and still dies after the kill switch turns everyting off, not everything is being turned off. If the battery is okay, make the AMP draw test I mentioned in my OP. If AMPS are being drawn, there is a coach component that remains on. If this turns out to be true, look for after market gadgets.

georgetown350 · 03-26-2007, 02:11 PM

I will test the battery and I like your idea of putting a tester on it to see if there are some phantom draws from the coach.

Thanks again Gary

Steve

**"007"** · 03-26-2007, 04:06 PM

Do you have a switch for your LP Detector most are connected to chassis battery.

georgetown350 · 03-27-2007, 12:41 PM

Yes I do have a switch for the LP detector. I think I had it off.

**Gary RVRoamer** · 03-28-2007, 04:38 PM

A battery will self-discharge, even with no load on it. If it was marginal to begin with, two weeks in cold weather could drive it too low to be useful.

And with the battery disconnect switch off, it probably cannot be charged by the hose charging system either, so having the RV plugged in doesn't help.

georgetown350 · 03-29-2007, 02:49 PM

I didnt have it plugged into shore power at all over the winter. I have it plugged in now after the fact ( dead battery ). Over the winter I charged it up by starting the engine and or generator and I made sure the disconnect switch was on. After charging/ generator exercise session was over I would switch disconnect to the off position. Engine battery kept a good charge but coach battery died. Perhaps the battery was marginal from the short charging sessions. I think from now on I will have the motorhome plugged into shore power or some kind of battery charger 24-7.

Thanks for the reply Gary

NeilV · 03-29-2007, 11:28 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Stevegeorgetown:
I didnt have it plugged into shore power at all over the winter. I have it plugged in now after the fact ( dead battery ). Over the winter I charged it up by starting the engine and or generator and I made sure the disconnect switch was on. After charging/ generator exercise session was over I would switch disconnect to the off position. Engine battery kept a good charge but coach battery died. Perhaps the battery was marginal from the short charging sessions. I think from now on I will have the motorhome plugged into shore power or some kind of battery charger 24-7.

Thanks for the reply Gary </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Steve,

If I understand things correctly, running the engine will charge the house batteries only after the starting battery has been fully charged. If your starting battery needed 15 minutes to charge and you ran the engine for just 15 minutes then the house batteries would not have received a charge.

Running the generator could take hours to charge the house batteries fully depending on the capacity of the charger that the coach builder installed.

hamguy · 03-30-2007, 06:29 AM

Not quite true. Both the starting and house batteries are charged simultaneously from the engine. There is a solenoid that parallels the batteries. I will say that this is the case with my '02 Itasca.