House batteries discharged

[YC1]

Sounds like your bird system is not working properly and that can be addressed when you get things up and running a bit better.

Post a few pictures of your battery compartment and the relay you speak of. It is very common for them to be bad.

The circuitry does not decide to charge one or the other banks. Your converter would be connected to the house batteries ( the 70 amps you are seeing is the charge current)...Not AC current or you would be tripping breakers.

You must have a good AC outlet to be running the magnum that high. It probably can do 100 or so but 70 is great feeding just four to six batteries.

Since the converter is up and running take some voltage measurement on each bank and carefully feel the Relay you think is the combiner. It could have a purple wire on one small terminal and who knows what color on the other. Measure those two little posts.

IF you have voltage on one little post the relay should be closed/ thus connecting battery banks. If you have that voltage on the little post and the battery banks are NOT the same voltage then the solenoid is bad. Which is quite normal for them to fail. The contacts get pitted.

[pflightnut]

Originally Posted by YC1

Sounds like your bird system is not working properly and that can be addressed when you get things up and running a bit better.

Post a few pictures of your battery compartment and the relay you speak of. It is very common for them to be bad.

The circuitry does not decide to charge one or the other banks. Your converter would be connected to the house batteries ( the 70 amps you are seeing is the charge current)...Not AC current or you would be tripping breakers.

You must have a good AC outlet to be running the magnum that high. It probably can do 100 or so but 70 is great feeding just four to six batteries.

Since the converter is up and running take some voltage measurement on each bank and carefully feel the Relay you think is the combiner. It could have a purple wire on one small terminal and who knows what color on the other. Measure those two little posts.

IF you have voltage on one little post the relay should be closed/ thus connecting battery banks. If you have that voltage on the little post and the battery banks are NOT the same voltage then the solenoid is bad. Which is quite normal for them to fail. The contacts get pitted.

So the house batteries charged up fully. I will try measuring the various voltages you mentioned tomorrow or Saturday, and also see if the generator will start now (forgot to check that after work).

I concluded the relay or the BIRD was bad over the winter when I power adapted the shore plug down to a 20A AC plug/outlet. The house batteries were fine and one heat pump ran fine all winter, backed up by the furnace, both set to 50 deg. However, the chassis batteries went flat. You will see a battery maintainer on the wall of the compartment ( I don't know if that was original equipment or if it was installed by the previous owner). I used it to charge the chassis batteries back up and left them on the maintainer the rest of the Winter.

Here's the requested pics...

[iluvuk]

Just an FYI, my Magnum charger will run 85 amps or more on Bulk and I run it just fine from a 15amp house plug with an extension cord and adapter. The 85 amps are DC at about 14v. This level of charge does not require a 30 or 50amp AC outlet to run, unless you also are running other loads on the same outlet.

[YC1]

Great picture. Now if you could get just one or two more. There is probably a large fuse box with relays below the driver in the outside compartment.

I'm looking for a small add on circuit board in the upper left top quadrant area.

This small circuit board controls the lager solenoid on that back wall.

Someone no doubt did not know how to diagnose or get parts to repair that system.


That heavy duty solenoid has two functions. One is to combine the battery banks when there is a charging voltage available such as the converter running via shoreline or generator, and then it should also work with the engine alternator running.

If you are connected to shoreline as you are that solenoid will get/ should get hot to the touch.

If it is hot it is at least trying to work but not likely passing any real current to the batteries.

That solenoid is critical in an emergency start situation. The button you push in the dash area bypasses the automatic closing of that relay and forces it to engage hard to combine the batteries. It basically becomes a jumper cable.

In an emergency you can use one good jumper cable between the 12 volt posts of each battery bank. Or you could stack the cables on the solenoid together one one post or use a nut and bolt if you insulate them safely of course.

I can supply you with a ton of documenation on the system if you would like.

I took my solenoid apart on the original one and it was filled with green goo. Never saw one like that before. It cleaned up nicely but I eventually replaced it again and keep a spare onboard. I try to convince folks to just change them every few years. It falls on deaf ears. If I suggested they lube or change a filter they will jump on board.

This system works great but when it fails it deals lots of misery and mysterious complaints.

Your emergency start button could have been propped in the on position and that should have allowed you to start the generator IF the solenoid is working. Which I highly suspect it is not.

Taking the readings I suggested will tell the story but NOT if you have the maintainer plugged in at the time. You need a bit of a load one one bank or the other but in any case get what you can.

Be careful touching the solenoid after being plugged in for hours. It can blister your fingers

[153stars]

Some cheap maintainers can actually discharge batts when they go bad or loose power or worse overcharge while green LED is just glowing as a lie. One of the Diehard or Schumacher's had nickname "battery boiler" on boat forum IDR which. It looks like case is broke as well.

[pflightnut]

Originally Posted by 153stars

Some cheap maintainers can actually discharge batts when they go bad or loose power or worse overcharge while green LED is just glowing as a lie. One of the Diehard or Schumacher's had nickname "battery boiler" on boat forum IDR which. It looks like case is broke as well.

The chargers for airplanes cost hundreds of dollars and have a temperature sensor to keep from overcharging. I don't even know if those exist for RV's, but if I can fix my BIRD maybe I won't have to worry about it.

[YC1]

The Magnum Chargers used on many Monacos etc have battery temp compensation and if that part fails can be counter productive. In some cases they just remove or disconnect those options.

[153stars]

The bird or isolator combiners are the universal issue on all brands of MH. I was only suggesting Battery Tender or Buddy type quality.Not $1000 one. Guest is a marine type that you get get single or dual for decent price. Tripping GFCIs with MH plugged in is also an issue during storage. Complete disconnect of full charged batts.is another real cure.
Also Bluesea has line of ACR starting at $75.

[pflightnut]

Originally Posted by 153stars

The bird or isolator combiners are the universal issue on all brands of MH. I was only suggesting Battery Tender or Buddy type quality.Not $1000 one. Guest is a marine type that you get get single or dual for decent price. Tripping GFCIs with MH plugged in is also an issue during storage. Complete disconnect of full charged batts.is another real cure.
Also Bluesea has line of ACR starting at $75.

@153stars The Blue Star ACR... is that a substitute for normal relay that is connected to the BIRD that it's known to be more reliable?

[153stars]

Short answer is yes. The smallest simple one will automatically combine for house charger and alternator to lower charged battery. It can replace diode isolator for alternator becoming bi-directional charger. Leaving big combiner solenoid for jump starting. The magnetically latching ones and with or without manual switch "no real dif. in price" will also replace big boy combiner solenoid and or diode isolators BOTH in older coaches. The control switch for latter requires 5 control wires. Monaco was pretty good about suppling spares if you can find them. Bluesea ACRs have lifetime warranty as well.
There are a few threads on these with pics and diagrams here.
There have not been any reports of them failing here. You can find many marine forums discussing these over solenoids and manual combiner switches as well as vids from Bluesea.
I have seen better or higher prices on both. Opt for SI version if smaller. Start isolation.
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syst...983009663&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syst...983009663&th=1

Originally Posted by pflightnut

@153stars The Blue Star ACR... is that a substitute for normal relay that is connected to the BIRD that it's known to be more reliable?

[153stars]

I was editing above if you read early on. I see 6 wires now as well on ML ACR