engine bat bad no boost start

ron55 · 03-27-2010, 07:46 AM

My engine battery totaly dead and the boost switch would click the selnoid but not enough juice to start the engine. Hook up engine to house bat and no problem.
question: Can the engine battery short out or be so bad the boost system will not work?
My last two engine batterys have been so dead not one volt. DELKA (terrible battery)
I am getting 13.8 volts out of my parellax converter/charger model 7445, so I guess it's working?

FleetMan · 03-27-2010, 09:50 AM

Is your converter/charger set up to charge both house and chassis batteries? Do you have the Trik-L-Start or something similar installed to charge the chassis batteries? On many, the converter/charger is set up to charge ONLY the house batteries. I would'nt be too quick to blame the battery manufacturer, they supply many of the house brands you may currently be comfortable with.

ron55 · 03-27-2010, 12:46 PM

the converter/charger is set up to charge 2 house bat only, far as I can tell
this is the second bat that has had no voltage and the second time the house boost switch would not start ( it tried) could the bad battery short out so bad it would kill the boost start system???????
I have purchased two boats in the last year and they both had delka batterys 4 of them, two each. in less that one year 3 have failed so dead they would not charge on any amount of amp into
there is a delka center at Ft Myers, fl and I took one there and they would not warrenty them because, "quote, they won't take a charge so we can't tell if they are bad or not"
they were suppose to be replaced less than 1 year old, anybody tells me they can't warrenty because they won't charge, I will continue bad mouth delka because I am in a boating area and all boats seem to have delka as OEM and they are JUNK
delka are so unrealible I move them from my boat to the M/H and that the rest of the story.
I would like to know if the boost swith system is bad because it started right up when hooked to one house battry

rvGator · 03-27-2010, 04:34 PM

My engine battery also were dead today, got no help for the booster switch.

bruceh · 03-28-2010, 01:15 PM

This happened on mine. The switch didn't help. I had to jump house batteries to engine battery to start. Turned out to be a bad relay.

CJ7ole · 04-04-2010, 10:34 PM

You keep saying Delka batteries, do you mean DEKA?

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I found that you need to remember to flip the house batteries to the on position or the boost switch won't work. Duh...

My 21 month old DEKA engine battery was dead after 4 months in storage. The battery boost switch worked and got it started. (old Interstate house batteries). I suppose I could have had a small drain on it while in storage. Had under 11 volts and the engine wouldn't charge it enough after 1/2 hour to start. No local DEKA dealers in Bradenton FL, had to remove it and take it to the Lakeland DEKA distributor on a side trip to Orlando. I presumed it was bad and was going for the warranty. They threw it on the tester and said it wasn't bad, but the voltage was too low to charge with normal methods. I couldn't wait for them to do it. They said to parallel it with the house batteries for 12 hours (while they were charging) and that would force it to charge. It seemed to work. Still not happy, give me Interstates any day. Had one in my boat for 11 years. And 6 dealers within 10 miles of where my RV sits today (Cortez FL)

Rocket Heart · 04-05-2010, 08:37 AM

For what it's worth - I found out the hard way that my dealer traded the factory house batteries for a new set from NAPA - said the other set was just too far gone - sat for a year on the lot before I bought it. I had one almost boil over and took it to my NAPA dealer who informed me that I had only medium service batteries not heavy duty ones as called for by Winnie.

If that's the case for you - they have a hard time keeping up with demand - the heavy duty ones crank mine over with no problem even after sitting idle for 2 months.

John Hilley · 04-05-2010, 10:29 AM

Your battery isolation solenoid may be bad. If the contacts were in bad shape it would explain why you couldn't boost the engine battery.