Community Forums

stormy2000 · 01-10-2018, 09:20 PM

Following the cold spell we had in central fl, tried to start the RV (2014 Fleetwood Bounder 35K), and nothing ... Finally RSA arrived and gave us a jump and it started up right away, ran engine for awhile.
turned it off and tried to restart and nothing ?? I kinda had that feeling that I shouldn't have turned it off, but then I couldn't run the engine all night.

Also our stairs were retracted and now they won't extend out, that's a long way down, had to go put up some stuff which we are using now for stairs but go down carefully.

Since the battery started on the jump at first turn, is the battery good? or since it wouldn't restart is it bad and needs replacing? we ran our RV just a couple of months ago when we went camping and everything appeared fine then.

thanks for any input.

Bill

daveandcarol · 01-11-2018, 01:01 AM

May not have run long enough to get a good charge. Since you could jump start easily and run on battery, it's probably not shorted out or freeze damaged. See if you have any headlights. If lights come on at all, battery terminals may be dirty or moisture in connections could have frozen enough to mess with good connection. Should check battery with voltmeter to see if any charge is present. AutoZone and others will test battery for free if you take it there.
Steps run off engine battery, automatically retract when engine starts.

daveandcarol · 01-11-2018, 01:07 AM

One more thing, as Lt. Colombo used to say. If you hadn't used the coach for 'a couple of months', it's possible a small electrical drain might have discharged the battery (not as likely on the engine battery but a possibility anyway, its possible the manufacturer put something on the wrong battery). If your battery is 3 years old, it might be getting a little weak from age. Checked the water level in it lately, or is it sealed type?

nothermark · 01-11-2018, 01:19 AM

I'd go invest in a battery charger and charge the battery in place. Then check out a maintainer or just top it off every week or so. A voltmeter will tel the state of charge well enough to know when to charge it. One is needed anyway for basic electrical troubleshooting. YMMV

Arch Hoagland · 01-11-2018, 02:42 AM

https://www.amazon.com/WirthCo-20108.../dp/B002OWFLC4

I would install a cutoff switch, use an external charger to completely charge the battery and see what happens after it is fully charged which could take several hours.

Then when you have it working use the knife blade switch to disconnect the battery so it doesn't happen again.

Is your battery maintenance free or do you need to add water to it?

stormy2000 · 01-11-2018, 08:09 PM

I believe the battery is maintenance free, I have request to fleetwood for that info, still waiting, thought about taking battery to autozone, and I read somewhere that when you remove the battery, you must relearn the bounder to the battery installed? not comprehending that part of relearning the bounder, is there some memory attached to the battery?
Thought about putting a battery charger on the engine battery, or maybe just making a schedule to run the bounder least once every week when stationary for a bit.