Community Forums

jacwjames · 11-05-2018, 09:58 AM

I had posted ~6 weeks ago about my solar charging being somewhat erratic in what it was showing the state of charge was however it did keep the batteries up.

I was going out of town for 3 weeks and decided to turn the salesman switch on, cutting all the 12 volt to the house.

Got back Sunday and checked and I couldn't get in the motorhome due to house batteries being dead (I meand zero, zip, nada). Had to crawl through a window to get in and unlock the doors. When I turned the ignition on there was no voltage. House batteries had no voltage. Checked the chassis battery and it was 13.4 volts but no power to system. Hooked up a battery jumper and the chassis side to life and I was able to start the coach. The house batteries started to charge as soon as the voltage on the chassis batteries triggered the maintainer. I was then able to open my basement compartments via the touch pad and get the extension cords to plug in the coach.

Long story short, did the salesman switch prevent the solar from chargint the batteries. Why did the chassis side not have power even when the battery was good. What really happen and how to prevent in future.

For now I am going to leave the coach plugged in but I would have thought 325 watt of solar power would have been enough to maintain the batteries.

8.3Oilbuner · 11-05-2018, 10:29 AM

Good morning Jim; My previous 2000 Windsor had the solar panel from the factory. My current 01 Windsor does not. On the 2000, when the solar panel was producing voltage, you could read that info on the solar controller panel along with the amperage produced and the voltage on the house and chassis batteries. When not hooked up to shore power or the gen. running, I once put my volt meter on both sets of batteries to see if I could see the affects of the panel charging the batteries. To some extent, you could detect the batteries were receiving some charge. I do not believe that the salesman switch, or for even the matter that the battery disconnect switch, should affect the charge from the solar panel. I would guess that the panel is hooked through the controller right to the batteries. Consider that our coaches charge the battery banks even with the battery disconnect switches are in the off position when hooked to shore power. You might need to see if you can find where the circuit goes from the controller. That is all I can think of at the moment. Good luck Jim!

vsheetz · 11-05-2018, 10:43 AM

The salesman switch likey does not turn off all 12v items. Likely there is another disconnect switch in the battery bay. And the battery bay switch still may not disconnect everything. An inverter/charger and alarms are likely direct connected to the batteries.

vito.a · 11-05-2018, 11:25 AM

Are you still using the factory installed Heliotrope solar charge controller?
They are wired to charge the batteries (both coach and chassis) regardless of the cutoff switch position.

I suspect you have two issues.
1. Your solar charger controller is not directly connected to both battery sets.
2. You have something draining the coach batteries even though your salesman switch is off.

MSHappyCampers · 11-05-2018, 01:22 PM

I thought the salesman's switch just turned off the inside lights. Didn't know it controlled anything else.

P.S.- I just checked the 12VDC wiring diagram for our coach. It shows a "Front ceiling lights" switch and a "Rear ceiling lights" switch. I believe the front switch is what we call the "salesman's switch" and the rear switch is in the bedroom right next to the bedroom light switch.

jacwjames · 11-05-2018, 05:24 PM

In my rear passenger side electrical compartment there is 2 fuses for the solar, a 30 amp and 5 amp for the house and chassis battery. I checked both and it is showing charge.

The solar was keeping the batteries up when the salesman switch was on. Just before I left for the trip I decided to turn the salesman switch off.

Not sure what's going on. Now that I'm back I'm going to play with it and see if I can find out what's going on.

Thanks for all the responses to date.

jacwjames · 08-18-2019, 07:36 AM

OK, this is an older post that I thought I revive.
I am starting to slowly start on getting the coach ready to roll.

I've checked the batteries with a hydrometer and all cells are good.
The solar controller display indicates is it charging the batteries, I've amps up to 10 during good sunlight.
The Inverter is off, the display is still lighted.
I unplugged the coach to see how the batteries stayed up, I left the salesman switch on. There was nothing plugged in in the coach, no lights on, fuses pulled on water heater.
The first time I did this the batteries dropped to 40% of charge overnight. I started the generator and let it run for ~an hour, excersising the AC units and charging the batteries, they came up to ~70% of charge.
I turned off the battery disconnects to completely isolate the batteries from the coach, the next day the batteries were up to 100% of charge after a day of letting the solar do it's thing.
I then turned the battery disconnect back on along with the salesman switch, the batteries dropped to ~67% at which point I turned off the salesman switch and left it sit overnight. One thing I did do was pull the plugs on the Norcold and disconnect the 12 volt power supply.
This AM I checked and the batteries were still at 67%.

My question is when I first left the salesman switch on it drained the batteries quickly with nothing in the coach but he 2nd time I did this there was not any other drain (note the only difference was unplugging the 12 volt on the frig, which was turned off) What would cause this.

How/Where can I check for parasitic draw.

I need to get this fixed before installing my Samsung