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Old 12-05-2020, 08:36 AM   #1
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Odd House Battery Issue

I have a 2008 Terra LX motorhome and had a weird house battery issue. I had this issue with the old house batteries and since they're at over eight years old I replaced them with new 6 volt golf cart batteries thinking their old age was the issue. When we went to pack the motorhome i discovered the new batteries were dead. I checked and they were at 2.4 volts at the battery posts. My charger wouldn't charge them as they were too low. I got a low amp charger and got a trickle charge started. Within 5 minutes the batteries came to life and were at 14volts and all was normal since. We've made the trek from Minnesota to South Padre Island with no further issues. I do use the 'salesman switch to turn them off when putting the motorhome in storage and I'm suspecting that may be the issue but it seems weird that they will register basically no voltage at the battery post one minute and a few minutes later be at full voltage.

Bruce
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Old 12-05-2020, 09:15 AM   #2
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You mentioned that your batteries go to 14vdc. This is not the battery voltage but the charger voltage.
It sounds like you let the batteries get totally drained and your inverter/charger or converter wouldn't start charging until you hooked up the trickle charger. It could be that simple.
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Old 12-05-2020, 09:22 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by okcnewbie View Post
You mentioned that your batteries go to 14vdc. This is not the battery voltage but the charger voltage.
It sounds like you let the batteries get totally drained and your inverter/charger or converter wouldn't start charging until you hooked up the trickle charger. It could be that simple.
Yup.
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Old 12-05-2020, 10:47 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by okcnewbie View Post
You mentioned that your batteries go to 14vdc. This is not the battery voltage but the charger voltage.
It sounds like you let the batteries get totally drained and your inverter/charger or converter wouldn't start charging until you hooked up the trickle charger. It could be that simple.
Everything in the house using 12 volts was dead, no interior lights, etc. There wasn't 120 electric plugged into the motorhome. I checked across the posts from the two batteries looking to measure 12 volts from the two 6 volt batteries and saw 2.4 volts on the meter. I have a sophisticated charger that told me the batteries were too low to accept a charge. I had a small charger that would do a 2 amp charge and it would charge for a couple of minutes and then kick off. After re-starting the charger several times with it trickle charging a couple of minutes each time I suddenly had lights and the batteries displayed full charge without the charger connected. As I said, my meter showed 2.4 amps at the posts when I found no 12 volt power to the house but after the charger routine I mentioned, which lasted a total of fifteen minutes suddenly all power was back with the batteries showing full charge. Everything has worked fine since then. This is the second time this has happened, the first being the late summer event when I decided to replaced the 8 plus years old batteries. I know this doesn't add up but I was just hoping someone may have an idea if this could be possible or maybe I'm just nuts.
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Old 12-05-2020, 10:55 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by okcnewbie View Post
You mentioned that your batteries go to 14vdc. This is not the battery voltage but the charger voltage.
It sounds like you let the batteries get totally drained and your inverter/charger or converter wouldn't start charging until you hooked up the trickle charger. It could be that simple.
I'm guessing your charger (either converter or inverter) is bad and not charging the batteries properly. I had the same thing happen to me. It would charge for just a couple of minutes then the converter/charger voltage would fall off. New converter charger and all is good again.
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Old 12-05-2020, 11:13 AM   #6
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You have a bad, dirty, terminal connection or ground connection.

While nothing works, go out and move the terminals.
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Old 12-05-2020, 02:48 PM   #7
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You have a bad, dirty, terminal connection or ground connection.

While nothing works, go out and move the terminals.
Makes sense, I'll have to check it out when the rain stops. Thank you.
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Old 12-05-2020, 02:55 PM   #8
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When you use the "salesman switch", your onboard charger can't maintain the charge on the batteries. They are "disconnected" from everything, including the charger.
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Old 12-05-2020, 03:46 PM   #9
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Many people check the battery terminals and read 12+ volts but then don't check the cable ends connected to them.

If the connection is corroded, the volts don't get to the cables.

The same goes for the other way. You probe the terminal and get very low readings but not the actual battery post.
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