Community Forums

Joe Brunold · 01-01-2009, 09:34 AM

My house batteries are not charging. Normally I would take it to my local repair shop to fix; however, they are closed until Monday and I am scheduled to leave for the FMCA Rally Monday. Any suggestions on where and how to check why the batteries are not charging. I have a 2006 Apex and everything goes thru the Silverleaf. Guess what, without the batteries charged the Silverleaf is not functioning.

Help

Joe Brunold

Joe Brunold · 01-01-2009, 09:34 AM

My house batteries are not charging. Normally I would take it to my local repair shop to fix; however, they are closed until Monday and I am scheduled to leave for the FMCA Rally Monday. Any suggestions on where and how to check why the batteries are not charging. I have a 2006 Apex and everything goes thru the Silverleaf. Guess what, without the batteries charged the Silverleaf is not functioning.

Help

Joe Brunold

Basil Shannon · 01-01-2009, 10:48 AM

This is probably too simple, but have you checked the inverter to see if the "External Power" (inverter is getting AC power) & "Charger on" lights are lit? If the inverter is getting power and the charger light is off, try resetting the charger button.

Renipladlo · 01-01-2009, 01:20 PM

Funny thing, I went over to the coach today and was going to run the Genset for its monthly two hours, and all my batteries are dead. Now I had the charger on through the day after Christmas, and no large loads, just the little alarms were on inside, but everything is dead. The chassis batteries are dead too. It's like the inverter/charger is not charging them at all.

If they have been run down that far, will they come back or are they ruined? I checked some of the cells for water and those all looked full.

We had a bunch of snow and the place where the coach is parked could have lost power or had a power surge, which could have made the inverter burp. All the A/C circuits were good and hot, and the power was still going into the coach.

I turned of the master switches, then pulled the A/C on the coach for 30 seconds, plugged it back in, the inverter seemed to clunk, and then go through the normal self test. I then pushed and held the reset button, and the inverter then shut down, and then restarted and the charger engaged in bulk, which I think is normal. I don't think the solenoid is letting juice go to the coach batteries, but I cannot get into that compartment very easy in the position, and where it is stored. I may have to bring it over to the house and work on it for the day. I am going to have to hook up my little charger and boost the house batteries to get them up enough for a start.

I will go back over there later today and check it again, to see if things have gotten back to some since of normal.

Joe Brunold · 01-01-2009, 01:36 PM

My external AC light is on. The network light is on. The charger light is on. I hit the reset button and a bunch of lights came on and when it settled down in addition to the ones previuosly lit, now the bulk light is on. I do not recall it being on before. I also hit the charger enable and invertor enable. Don't remember if the bulk light was on before or after I did that. With the bulk light now on, maybe it will charge?????

Monty: My chassis batteries are fine and I have about 7-8 volts reading on my house batteries. When I get mine working I'll let you know. Please do the same for me.

Basil: Looking forward to seeing you at the DRR. We are also going to the FMCA, then to your park for 2 days, and on to the DRR.

Joe Brunold
2006 Alpine Apex 40' quad FD
2007 Honda CRV

Renipladlo · 01-01-2009, 04:47 PM

Joe - All,

Went back around 4:45PM today, and here is what I found.

Turned on Master Switches for coach & Chassis, after about 15 seconds, the system came alive, the remote door opening panel lit up and everything 12V inside seemed to work ok.

Tried to start coach, not enough battery juice in those but using the Boost switch it then started fine, once oil pressure came up, I put engine in fast idle for 5 minutes then cancelled fast idle and shut down main engine.

I then had to reset system and was then able to start genset, which I then ran for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I started both heat pumps as well to take the chill off.

Shut down heat pumps, let genset cool down for around 3 minutes then shut down genset.

The breaker in the storage facility tripped while all this was going on so I don't have A/C presently, but that is ok for a day until I call them and ask them to reset.

I turned off all master switches, but left coach plugged in and will go by there tomorrow and check on it.

I believe the Xantrex got its brain scrambled with all the power surges/outages we had while the snow was falling and then melting. Now today we have had 1.50+ inches of Rain, and the weather office is talking about low level flooding, it's feast or famine here in the NW. Forget about global warming, we are going into the Next deluge for 40 days and nights. Possible snow tomorrow above 500 feet.

I will update this post tomorrow after I know how the coach is doing once the breaker has been reset in the storage place. But I now believe all is well with unit.

Ted III · 01-02-2009, 09:46 AM

I do not know if this is a valid suggestion or not. I never change anything in my coach when I am not using it. I plug it in to A/C and walk away. I do not turn anything off and I guess the inverter/charger is doing its thing. I have never had a problem. It starts, the lights all work, etc. I have had it sit like this for at least 3 months and never had a problem.

Joe Brunold · 01-02-2009, 10:26 AM

Ted and All:

That is my normal also; however, I am in a community storage area and my neighbor used the AC plug for his home. He did ask me first.
HOWEVER, I guess I have a little egg on my face. There is nothing wrong with my charging system. I was taking a battery reading on a terminal that was giving me a false reading. After I crawled in the bay and checked the back termainals, my batteries are charged as should be. MY PROBLEM: IT IS IN THE SILVERLEAF. FOR SOME REASON WHEN THE OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE SENSOR IS HOOKED UP, MY SYSTEM GOES DEAD. I JUST HAD THIS FIXED A MONTH AGO AND THE PROBLEM HAS RETURNED. HOPEFULLY I CAN GET THEM TO LOOK AT IT MONDAY BEFORE I LEAVE. SO IF ANY OF YOU APEX OWNERS LOSE YOUR DATA, DISCONNECT THE TEMP SENSOR LINE ON YOUR SILVERLEAF CONTROLLER IN THE BASEMENT.

JB

Renipladlo · 01-02-2009, 09:33 PM

Joe,

I had the same problem with my Silverleaf after our first outing with the coach. Since I don't know which coach you have my suggestion is as follows, based on what I had to do.

In mine, the outside temp sensor was in the tank bay, which is located in my coach on the passenger’s side aft of the mid door entry.

If I remember correctly, I turned off all the switches to the coach, and following the silverleaf tech instructions pulled the power lead on the main SL computer then unhooked the lead from the OS Temp sensor, and then could use the system after plugging back power. They told me the outside TS is not needed and can be left unhooked.

Here was my solution to fix the sensor because it got/gets wet all the time the way Alpine installed it.

Go to Lowes and purchase a 4" X 1.25" long piece of black plastic water pipe, a threaded cap, 1 - 90 degree elbow, and a Galvanized pipe flange in the size of the pipe. See if Lowes will thread the straight pipe for half of its length so you can thread the pipe flange onto it. Take out the old pipe WRV used, and clean up all the ikkytack they used to make it waterproof, I used lacquer thinner to clean it up.

Ensure the hole through the floor is large enough diameter for the new pipe, thread the flange on it half way down, put some pipe compound on the cap end of the pipe and put the cap on as tight as you can with your hands. Thread the temp sensor through the 90 elbow and then down into the pipe to the bottom of the pipe then raise it back up just a tad. If you can get the sensor through the elbow after tightening it on, better still, otherwise it will tangle up when you put it on, unless you hold the elbow and spin the pipe. You will figure out what I am trying to say once you see how it will go together. Once you have it all screwed together, screw the flange down to the floor of the compartment using at least two screws, and I put poly-putty tape under the flange in a good amount to keep water out of that area. I then left the pipe open where the wires come out of the 90 degree elbow so air can flow and keep it dry. Mine sticks out the bottom of the coach about 1.5" and above the floor of the compartment about 1.5-2.0" so water cannot get into it unless I have a major tank failure.

I have not had any more trouble with the temp sensor since I did my repair, and although it's mostly a bogus reading, it does give me an idea how warm or cold it is outside.

If I was going to be where you are, I could show you easily how I did it. If you PM me over the weekend I will take a picture and it will all make sense.

Now concerning the batteries. I went over today and checked the power was again back on, and so I made sure the coach master switches were off, but the inverter/charger was running. I will go back over on Sunday or Monday and check it again, and take a picutre if you need it. I did see if I had power available at various points in the coach and I did.