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Pogo · 12-29-2017, 09:44 AM

On our '04 Holiday Rambler 36' Neptune with Cummins engine, it has a converter, and no inverter. I tried to start and run the engine and generator a couple of weeks ago, for routine maintenance, since it has been parked for quite awhile. Our 30 amp shore power charges the house batteries, but not the chassis batteries.
The 2 year chassis batteries were dead. So, I hooked the batteries to a portable automatic battery charger, which I have done in the past. After a couple of days, I again found the same batteries to be dead, so I left the charger hooked up.
And yesterday, when I disconnected the charger and turned on the red chassis battery switch, some contacts, apparently in the converter were constantly switching on and off. This made the voltage in the chassis circuit to go up and down. I shut the switch back off. I am not sure what happened.
Did I ruin something? Do you know what caused this?
And, maybe my starting solenoid contacts are corroded, and the batteries are not discharged, but i don't know.
Thanks for your help.

K7JV · 12-29-2017, 11:50 AM

It is hard to tell what is happening, but it would depend on how your battery systems are configured. If you have a relay that ties the two banks together that is currently in the closed position, it is possible that when you brought the chassis battery on line, it pulled the voltage down on the coach batteries, thus causing the bus tie contactor to drop out. And then when the voltage immediately recovered, caused it to reclose, and to repeat this process resulting in the switching sounds you were hearing. I could see how that could happen, if the configuration of your coach was such as to allow that.

Second, have you tried opening the disconnect on your chassis battery bank and then putting the charger on it for several hours? Once you do that, you should take the charger back off, and then leave the disconnect open and check the voltage on the bank every little while and see if it is dropping off. I didn't get for sure in your message above whether you were leaving the disconnect open or closed after you took the charger off of them. It is very possible you have a shorted cell or cells in one or both of your chassis batteries that may be the cause of your whole problem.

Until something else happens, and you have new information to share, I would suspect that your converter would not be high on my worry list as a result of anything you have done. I hope that is true.

60sumtin · 12-29-2017, 11:59 AM

Fix the battery problem first. Sounds like the batteries (one or both) are dead, not simply discharged since they wouldn't accept a charge. If the caps are removable you could use a battery hydrometer and sample the electrolyte in each cell. Or you could remove the batteries and have them tested at an outlet that sells batteries. They'll likely do it for free. Once you got the battery problem sorted out then you can tell if anything else has gone wrong. The clicking you heard was probably just a solenoid or relay cutting in and out due to low voltage.

Outbound · 12-29-2017, 04:13 PM

If your engine batteries are 100% drained a battery charger will not bring them back, you need disconnect your engine battery and find a good fully charged 12V battery, jumper cable the good battery with dead battery 12 hrs or more then disconnect jumper cables and hook up battery charger, if battery is good it will come back. This does work I just did it on a battery that sat a few years. Good Luck

Pogo · 12-30-2017, 01:45 PM

Thank you to all three of you that offered your help.
The batteries are sealed NAPA batteries that are about 2 years old, and seem discharged, not dead. (my mistake in using the wrong terminology). I separated the 2 chassis batteries and the disconnect switch is open.
I am now charging each battery separately as of this morning. One with my 10 amp automatic battery charger, and one with my 1.5 amp Battery Tender. The Battery tender indicates that that battery is at least 80% charged. The other one has 9.1 volts now.
Possibly one of the batteries is defective and I should know tomorrow. The cycling of the converter stopped, and I now think it was due to a thermal overload cycling due to being hot, but not sure.

pylotttt · 02-27-2018, 10:10 AM

Assuming your batteries are 100AH a 1.5A charger would take about 67 hours to charge a single battery. if they were both connected,,,, good luck!

The voltage of a fully charged battery with no load and sitting for a day or two to equalize is 12.6v+.

If the voltage is down to 12.1 it is only about 50% charged.

Your converter is probably at least a 50A which if it is working would charge them much quicker.
If they are starting batteries they are most likely dead or dying, if deep cycle they may come back, but discharging them that far will definitely lower life expectancy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pogo

Thank you to all three of you that offered your help.
The batteries are sealed NAPA batteries that are about 2 years old, and seem discharged, not dead. (my mistake in using the wrong terminology). I separated the 2 chassis batteries and the disconnect switch is open.
I am now charging each battery separately as of this morning. One with my 10 amp automatic battery charger, and one with my 1.5 amp Battery Tender. The Battery tender indicates that that battery is at least 80% charged. The other one has 9.1 volts now.
Possibly one of the batteries is defective and I should know tomorrow. The cycling of the converter stopped, and I now think it was due to a thermal overload cycling due to being hot, but not sure.