Community Forums

johnwr · 05-09-2010, 12:12 PM

It appears that as a result of either the engine fan creating a dust storm, or just dusty roads, that I've been getting a tremendous amount of dust, dirt, and debris in both the battery bay and the basement area. I have an open section about 12" square over the batteries, I presume for the purpose of venting, but I don't know if this should actually be open. Also, there's openings into the holding tank area that allows dirt, etc., to enter that area and then through access holes get into the basement area.

Does anyone else have this problem, and or has anyone found a solution to this. We bought the coach used with about 13K miles on it but don't know what may have contributed to this, or if it's a normal issue. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

EngineerMike · 05-09-2010, 01:57 PM

Our 06 had a large round porthole just ahead of the differential and another to the side but also between the frame rails that were wide open and sucked (these are supposed to be sealed during mfgr). Literally sucked. Spray foam closed them off. Or you can clean off the area around the openings and use a sealant like 3M 5200 or 4200 to place a piece of sheet metal or plastic around the cables, etc. to make the opening smaller, then use expanding foam sealer to seal the remaining opening.

Battery box needs some air to vent combustible gas from battery charging (hydrogen, like in the Hindenburg, only a lot less volume). Be your own judge as to how much if any you can safely close off.

Renipladlo · 05-10-2010, 10:10 PM

Ours as well gets real dirty in the Battery Compartment. One thing I did was to put additional foam strips around the mating surfaces of the two doors (where the air filter is-battery is forward of that), which helped a lot. But it does not totally cure the problem, so when I do my battery maintenance about every month or 6 weeks, I just use baking soda/water and clean everything down. I need to remove all the batteries and clean up everything, but not sure I can remember how to rewire everything, guess I will take a picture first. There is also a diagram. My openings are already foam filled, and toward the rear there is a little opening which I could cover up, but like Mike said, hydrogen gas, a little dirt wont' kill me to clean up.

Ted III · 05-11-2010, 05:50 AM

John, I have the identical coach to yours and the only place I got dirt was in the battery compartment. I mounted 1" X 1"-3/16" thick bracket to the forward bulkhead leveling it with the lip on the battery side. I coated a piece of 3/4" plywood for the area in front of the jack creating a nice shelf There is plenty of space for the batteries to get ventilation. The shelf I put in created a lot of unused space & cuts down on the dirt in the battery box. I do not get any dirt in my basements at all so check out E Mikes's suggestion. That may be the answer to that problem.

johnwr · 05-11-2010, 10:22 PM

Ted, thanks for your suggestions, and thanks to all for your ideas. As soon as I can parked for a couple of days I'll crawl under the coach and see just how big a challenge I have.

Here's the reason I've become so concerned about the dust in the Battery Compartment. Today I had a second set of Gel Cell Batteries (2X6V Batteries) go bad on me (in the last 2 weeks). I haven't figured out if both batteries in each set are bad, but I suspect they are. I noticed that while we were parked, and the inverter/charger was on Float, the charge rate jumped up from 3-6A up to 20A, and then up to 40A the next day. At this time I checked on the batteries and found that one of the "sets" was significantly warmer and could hear gurgling from one of the batteries. I took this set out of the group and after about 15 minutes the charge rate was back down to 2-4A. I don't know the specifics of the "Sealed" design, but there are caps (non-removeable) on the batteries so they can breathe. My concern is that there may be significant dust intrusion that has contaminated the batteries and is causing them to fail. The batteries are just over 3 years old, so I wasn't expecting them to fail this soon.

Thanks again,

EngineerMike · 05-12-2010, 12:00 AM

another concern is the inverter/charge sucking in the dust; probably no the charging problem, but not good for the longevity of a spendy piece of equipment. aside from the mess, that was my main concern for getting the holes filled asap.

johnwr · 05-12-2010, 09:23 AM

Engineer Mike you're right on! I had to replace my inverter (under warranty) 2 years ago because the internal fan that runs all the time failed. I saw the "port hole" behind the inverter when I R&R'd it but didn't put 2 and 2 together on the dust intrusion and it's impact on the fan bearings. Another GOOD reason to plug up the dust entry points where I can. Thanks.