Inverter/House batteries

[A~N~A]

I have searched Hi & Low, Left & Right for my inverter & house batteries with no luck. Could the inverter be built into the fuse panel, could the house be running off of the marine battery that starts Gen? 27' 1978 Dodge Monaco Sportsman. THANKYOU IN ADVANCE , for any help...AL

[targaboat]

You will have a house battery and a chassis battery which starts and supports the truck engine. The engine or chassis battery is located in the engine compartment up front. I doubt that you have an inverter which converts 12 volts to 120 volts AC. You do hav a battery charger or converter which converts the 120 AC which the unit is plugged into 120 AC and the converter also charges the house battery. So if you found a marine battery somewhere in the coach you have all the batteries located. As for the converter is will be near the house battery.

Now, what is your problem? We possibly can fix problems.

[wa8yxm]

Question: DO you have an inverter? Building it into the fuse panel would be very rare, INverters come in two by two by two flavors. For this discussion the only twos that apply are BIG and small, Stand-alone or Inline

BIG inverters need BIG 12 volt wires and thus are usually mounted near (But not in the same air space) as the batteries.. Which on many motor homes are under the steps by the way.. Many does not equal all.

Small ones can be anywhere.

Stand along take 12 volts in one end and 120 volts out, usually, the other.

IN-LINE can either take 12 in and 120 out, or 120 in and 12 out. (IF 120vac Shore/Generator power is present)

Two 120 volt wires and one 12 volt pair. So if you found your converter, it might.. and I stress MIGHT be your inverter, if you have one.

Not all RV's have inverters.

[okmunky]

My house batteriers are under my entrance steps. They are accessed by unscrewing 2 quarter-sized rubber thingys on the top of the second step. The top of the step lifts off to reveal a battery compartment.

If you will put the year and type of RV in your signiture it will help us give you better answers. Just click on "user cp" in the top left corner of every page and go to signiture to add your info.

[A~N~A]

Originally Posted by targaboat

You will have a house battery and a chassis battery which starts and supports the truck engine. The engine or chassis battery is located in the engine compartment up front. I doubt that you have an inverter which converts 12 volts to 120 volts AC. You do hav a battery charger or converter which converts the 120 AC which the unit is plugged into 120 AC and the converter also charges the house battery. So if you found a marine battery somewhere in the coach you have all the batteries located. As for the converter is will be near the house battery.

Now, what is your problem? We possibly can fix problems.

THANKYOU in advance for your assistance. When the vehicle is off I have 12.38 at chassis, 9.38 @ house /marine and 9.38 @ Gen, when running I have 14.31 @ chassis, 14.10 @ house and 14.14 @ Gen. The Gen won't start unless vehicle is running, I have been plugged in at the pole for two weeks. Bad house battery? I still can't find a charger or converter ... Again THANKYOU for your time. AL

[A~N~A]

Originally Posted by A~N~A

THANKYOU in advance for your assistance. When the vehicle is off I have 12.38 at chassis, 9.38 @ house /marine and 9.38 @ Gen, when running I have 14.31 @ chassis, 14.10 @ house and 14.14 @ Gen. The Gen won't start unless vehicle is running, I have been plugged in at the pole for two weeks. Bad house battery? I still can't find a charger or converter ... Again THANKYOU for your time. AL

Could the alternator charge chassis &house? Again. THANKYOU

[pwf16129]

from looking at your picture i would guess you have a class c similar to mine and you are probably right the house battery is toast, had to replace mine when i got mine last year.
with the rig running you should have very close to same voltage at both batteries and when keyed off should still be close after it has time to charge up.
pull your house battery out and have it checked it will be under the hood, mine is on the drivers side don't know on yours,they take alot of abuse by being run down to low, we are told at work that any thing below 10.5 is costing many charging cycles of life.
we run low voltage disconnects to protect our batteries they shut of the draw to protect the batteries and to insure they will start, haven't looked for one for the mh yet.
i run a constant duty solenoid to charge and isolate mine it will let my house battery charge to full voltage some use a battery isolator but the will not let you get full voltage, they usually cost you between .5 to .75 volts on total charge,doesn't sound like much but makes a real difference when dry camping.
happy travel

[A~N~A]

Originally Posted by pwf16129

from looking at your picture i would guess you have a class c similar to mine and you are probably right the house battery is toast, had to replace mine when i got mine last year.
with the rig running you should have very close to same voltage at both batteries and when keyed off should still be close after it has time to charge up.
pull your house battery out and have it checked it will be under the hood, mine is on the drivers side don't know on yours,they take alot of abuse by being run down to low, we are told at work that any thing below 10.5 is costing many charging cycles of life.
we run low voltage disconnects to protect our batteries they shut of the draw to protect the batteries and to insure they will start, haven't looked for one for the mh yet.
i run a constant duty solenoid to charge and isolate mine it will let my house battery charge to full voltage some use a battery isolator but the will not let you get full voltage, they usually cost you between .5 to .75 volts on total charge,doesn't sound like much but makes a real difference when dry camping.
happy travel

THANKYOU, you were entirely correct, bad cell in house battery. Your information was VERY helpful and informative.