Bounder: 2015 Fleetwood Bounder Battery Disconnect

[Spectrepilot]

Hello all.

Very new to RVing and trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible form the kind folks here. We recently purchased a 2015 35' Bounder, we had it at the house for a few days then put it into storage to go on a preplanned vacation. I returned two days ago and went to check on the RV as we plan to go camping this weekend, all the batteries were dead. We purchased the RV direct from the previous owner who kept it at his home always plugged into "shore power." I thought I disconnected the batteries via the two disconnect switches that are above the passengers seat, but obviously I did something wrong. The manual is not very good and I was hoping some knowledgeable folks might point out what I did wrong. After reading some other threads it seems I might want to put an external battery disconnect switch in?

Wanted to add that I currently have the chassis battery back here at the house charging. I presume the generator starts off the chassis battery as well?

Have been lurking for sometime and really appreciate the forum, thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[raytaylr]

Many questions in order to help.
-How long was rig parked
-How many batteries
-How old are the batteries
-Are the disconnect switches part or the rigs system

Some answers;
-get a solar battery maintainer they provide a trickle charge that should keep them live
-try a physical battery disconnect that mounts on the post or pull the + or - cable (you can still use the maintainer, just wire direct to the battery)
-If the engine battery doesn't die start the rig and the alternator will charge the house batteries, fully if you drive a few hours
-get a hydrometer and check each cell. If there's 1 bad cell it shorted and the battery is toast.
- Also I always use a deep cycle for my engine/starter they are a good starter battery and tolerate discharge~charge cycles better.
-Another good item to have a is a 110V battery rejuvinator, they help break down battery killing sulfation that discharge~charge cycles creat
-If you replace batteries best price I've found is Costco and I always convert to 2 6V golf cart batteries. I'd love to explain why, just ask
Good luck
~RT

[Spectrepilot]

Originally Posted by raytaylr

Many questions in order to help.

1. "How long was rig parked" - 24 days.

2. "How many batteries" - 1 Chassis Battery (BXT-65-750), two house batteries.

3. "How old are the batteries" - 2015 rig with original batteries.

4. "Are the disconnect switches part or the rigs system" - The switches I am referring to look to be factory installed switches inside our rig mounted above the passenger's seat (they are the same black switches for other rig systems."

Thank you for the other answers, I am going to order a post disconnect switch that will at a minimum isolate the chassis battery. Researching the solar charger now. Thank you!

[pcurt23]

Need to turn inverter off. It will run batteries down in two or three days.

[rmueller]

We have a 2014, the batteries will run down without any other source of power just sitting there, in about 2 weeks. There are parasitic loads all over the coach. The one that isn't so obvious is the TV antenna amp.

Ours has a solar panel on one of the AC units, its enough to keep the batteries 'topped off' but will not deep charge them if they go too low, probably below somewhere in the low 12v range.

Best advice is plug it in if you can, 110 20amp (15am if your not going to run too much stuff), we leave ours plugged in year round. In the winter, the battery maintenance of the inverter/charger keeps them from freezing (both house and vehicle batteries). Next best, is turn the red switch in the bay with the battery control center/inverter; that disconnects batteries from the 12V circuits in the coach. They will eventually go low, but not as fast.

ron

[computerguy]

24 days "should" not drain your batts to dead if the disconnects were working as designed.
There is a BCC (Battery Control Center) on your MH. Inside there are 2 solenoids - one fore the chassis (Main) and one for the house (Aux). The solenoids are known to go bad. So that would be one thing to check. There are many threads on irv2 how to test the BCC.
If you have original batts and it was always plugged in (by the previous owners) the batts may be kaput now. They are probably 4 years old. Load test the batts to check how good they are. 24 days on bad batts will very likely kill them. The BCC controls many loads but not all.

[mpfritter]

I have 2015 Bounder. Same problem. TV antenna amp was the issue.

[R_2ndWind]

My house batteries go low after about 10 days. The chassis battery stays up the whole time. The antenna amplifier in my coach has an on/off switch and an indicator light and that goes off when the battery disconnect is pushed. Do you think the light goes out but the amp stays on? I have to chase down what's draining mine since there is no AC power available when in storage.

[computerguy]

On the '16 the antenna amp is powered by the Illumiplex (Fuse 15). The Illumiplex is controlled via the Aux battery disconnect.
So the Antenna Booster on the '16 and later is shut down when using the battery disconnect (or this is how the electrical documents show it).