Chassis battery not being charged on shore power

[RetiredBob]

We've been hooked up to shore power for a month. Tried to start the MH, but no juice. Tried to start with Battery Boost, nothing. Chassis battery is dead and is not receiving a charge. House batteries are fine and are charging at 13.6v. The fact that there is no power when using Battery Boost leads me to believe there is a problem with the B.I.R.D. Where do I start checking?

[Luv2go]

If your Canyon Star is like ours, under the hood above the radiator there should be a box with a clear cover. This will have the B.I.R.D. and two relays, on ours the one on the right is the relay connected to the B.I.R.D.

While plugged into shore power (have it plugged in for a few minutes before you test this) you should have no voltage across the relay contacts that have either large wires or bus bars connected to them. It should have 12V across the two small connections that have small wires, one which goes to the B.I.R.D. and one that goes to ground.

I had this exact issue and it turned out to be the ground wire going from the relay to the chassis, the screw had broken off and the wire was dangling. I have a couple of pictures somewhere I can try to upload, but this was on a F53 chassis so they may not be helpful to you.

[RetiredBob]

Thanks, Stewart. I checked voltage and, assuming I was checking the correct terminals, it showed 8.5 volts across the large terminals and zero volts across the small ones. Any idea what that wold indicate? I've checked all the wiring and all seems tight.

[Luv2go]

I forgot to ask you to measure the voltage across both the chassis and coach batteries. Assuming the coach batteries are around 13V it looks like the relay is not being turned on and the chassis battery is almost dead.

I'm not sure, but the B.I.R.D. may depend on voltage from the chassis battery to turn the relay on, so if it is too low it will never close it. Can you get an external charger on your starting battery? After charging it up re-measure. You should have very little voltage across the big terminals and 12V across the small terminals if things are working.

[HicksRA]

If your system is the same as mine and you had your BIRD system in the "STORE" mode while plugged in, the coach batteries will charge but not the chassis batteries. If you're plugged in, you should not enable the store mode. Then chassis and coach batteries will charge.

["007"]

If you check this diagram you will notice a 5 amp fuse feeding to coach battery check it to make sure its OK.
The fuse maybe hidden behind the large battery cable in a clip holder for fuse.
When you are plugged in the battery cut off switch for storage has to be on and all the batteries will be charged.
Your voltages are reading to low should be up near 13+ with coach plugged in.
You should also check both your battery ground cables for chassis and house to the chassis frame for good clean tight connections.

Picture of Bird

[cc8375]

Had a similar problem with my CS this summer...... everything pointed to the BIRD. Come to find out it was the Chassis Battery, which had a "Soft Short". After replacing the 6 month old battery..... Problem solved. I had ALL the same symptoms that you posted.

[RetiredBob]

Problem solved! After a lot of checking/testing, something made me check the Store/Use switch and guess what? It was in the Store position. Don't know how it got changed, because I never use it. When the MH is stored I disconnect the negatives on all batteries. Anyway, all is good. Thanks for all the replies.