Removing Chassis Battery

[FLSteve]

I have never removed the chassis battery or turned off the Big RED Switch back there … but am getting ready to do both as part of installing the “Dutch Star Don” chassis battery compartment modification to close off the lower section to prevent debris from flying into the compartment. I want to give it all a good cleaning and maybe a repainting as part of the process.

Just a couple questions:

• Assume I should turn off the RED switch before remaining the battery?
• Can I leave the coach plugged into shore power while doing all this?
• Do I also need to turn off the master 12 volt red light switch inside the coach?
• Will removing the chassis battery cause any of the “history” to be lost in my engine data/electronic LBCU dash panel?

Thought I better ask before getting myself in a mess.

Steve

[LETMGROW]

I would shut off any switch I had, disconnect the shore power and disconnect the battery by disconnecting the negative (ground) cable first.
If you have a fault code stored in the computer you may lose that information but there should be no other ill effects.
When reinstalling the battery hook up the positive (hot) cable first then the ground cable.
It's also a good practice to cover at least one battery terminal with a piece of tape before removing it. This will prevent shorting the terminals out should they contact metal somewhere while handling it during the removal and installation process.
Most vehicle and battery manufacturers recommend wearing safety glasses while handling batteries. Not a bad practice. Better safe than sorry.
Lynn

["007"]

Originally Posted by LETMGROW

I would shut off any switch I had, disconnect the shore power and disconnect the battery by disconnecting the negative (ground) cable first.
If you have a fault code stored in the computer you may lose that information but there should be no other ill effects.
When reinstalling the battery hook up the positive (hot) cable first then the ground cable.
It's also a good practice to cover at least one battery terminal with a piece of tape before removing it. This will prevent shorting the terminals out should they contact metal somewhere while handling it during the removal and installation process.
Most vehicle and battery manufacturers recommend wearing safety glasses while handling batteries. Not a bad practice. Better safe than sorry.
Lynn

And when you hook up your battery again hook up the negative battery cable last, do not need blown fuses or control circuits blown.
Had someone do the reverse and locked slide moved out and muiltable fuses blown plus control boards blown and burnt.
It maybe good to remove fuse or small 12v plug on slide control board when ever working on batteries.

[siggyd]

Before you start with the batteries, take a picture of the layout.
Note how the batteries are sitting, eg + / - !
The switch in back will only prevent the engine from starting.
Place some small plastic bags over the disconnected cable's.
The LABEL attached at the battery compartment with the layout is exactly
opposite as to how my starting batteries are connected.(No joke).
You will also loose some data, like the clock and date and so on.
One of my starting batteries started to out-gass massively at the 5 year mark.
The best deal on 2 new batteries was at NAPA, about $120 each, 18 months ago.
Siggy

[JFXG]

Steve......
When I did my compartment a couple of years ago, I....
--- drew a detailed wiring diagram. A picture was not good enough- couldn't get a good enough angle.
--- numbered and labeled each battery post.
--- disconnected shore power.
--- double plastic bagged and labeled each post's respective wire/cable as I disconnected.
--- when all disconnected, I reconnected shore power. I could support the whole coach on the converter alone, without the batteries in the circuit. I understand most- but not necessarily all- coaches work this way. I had the batteries out of the coach for 5-6 days.


John & Diane, fulltiming since '12
'02 DS, FL, Cat, '04 Element
NHSO RVM103