Community Forums

Maddawg46 · 09-24-2016, 06:52 PM

Park my motorhome at home. This time I don't hook up shore power. Everything's level. Sits for 10 days. Open the door steps don't go down. Strange. Get a step stool. No lights everything seems dead. Hook up to my 30 amp shore power. Nothing. Go to start generator click click generator won't turn over. I go to breaker box in bathroom. Everything looks good. I flip the 50 amp breaker back and back on". Nothing. Start the motor. That works. Go to start generator....no problem. Now everything works.

I did push the disconnect coach button at the beginning. Made no difference. So what would make a 2 month old coach with new batteries do what it did? I did wash the coach a few days ago.???

Mich F · 09-24-2016, 08:04 PM

Everything might be working now, but it sounds like (for some reason) your house batteries were dead. You probably should have them checked. The generator started because you started the engine, which gave it the power it couldn't get from the house batteries, or battery.
Was your battery disconnect switch in the off position for the 10 days? Even if it was, you still could have draws on the battery/ies from alarms and such.

Luv2go · 09-25-2016, 11:05 AM

Do you have in inverter? If so, it's usually connected directly to the batteries, bypassing the battery disconnect. Inverters will drain the batteries in short order.

Mike and Cha · 09-25-2016, 01:03 PM

Even with the battery disconnect in the off position there can still be drains on both the Chassis Battery and house batteries. You may have left the inverter on which will definitely drain the chassis batteries even though no appliances are being used. If you have the outside TV make sure both that radio in the compartment and the dash radio are off, as they will drain the batteries. Also check all your storage bay lights you may have left one on. I just keep mine plugged into shore power all the time at home and everything stays charged. When dry camping the batteries will hold just fine with the generator being run a couple hours a day.

Andyfarmer · 09-27-2016, 09:39 PM

This is worth a look. My new Newmar did the same thing. Here is what I discovered. When I went through the walk around with the dealer they left the light on in the engine compartment. This does not rely on the main on off to operate. Once I turned it off, plugged into shore all was good.

nothermark · 09-27-2016, 09:53 PM

FWIW - if it happens again stop when the lights don't work and take a minute to check your battery voltages. If the house battery is low that would cause your symptoms. You would need to address that as you would be killing the batteries by repeatedly letting them run down.

BPoland · 09-28-2016, 06:16 AM

I had a situation where The house batteries were in a marginal state, and would not hold a charge for very long. I believe this was a result of multiple complete discharge / recharge cycles on the dealer's lot before we bought the coach. We had the batteries tested and replaced (under warranty) and they have been much better about holding a charge.