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KrankyKoot · 10-05-2020, 05:36 PM

I had some problems a year ago with my 12 volt batteries and shop recommended 6 volts replacements. Worked well but my Windsport has been in storage for a long time. Have been cranking generator and charging house batteries every couple or weeks with no prob. A few weeks ago I took it for a ride for half hour or so with the generator running and air on per load recommendations. All good till 2 weeks later when house batteries low and gen not starting. Battery cutoff will not function. I'm getting a reading or 5.6 volts and can't seem to jumper them to get things going. 2nd problem is that the jacks are down and I can't get them up. Manual operation of jack system (open valves and use power drill) does nothing. Question (finally) is there something different about a 6 / 12 volt system that prevents jump starting from a normal 12 volt? Do I need to pull the batteries (real pain in this thing) to charge them and will a normal battery charger work? Any other suggestions?

twinboat · 10-05-2020, 05:53 PM

Start the main engine and see if the house battery voltage starts to climb. It should.

Once above 12 volts, start the generator and let it run for 5 to 6 hours or find shore power somewhere.

If the main engine doesn't bring the house batteries up, you have a isolation system problem. That's the system that allows the chassis battery to connect to the house battery for charging.

2- 6 volt batteries make 1-12 volt one, so just look at the jumper between 2 and don't use those terminals.

Any charger will then work.

DavidEM · 10-06-2020, 06:56 AM

Expanding a bit on twinboat's post above, with 6V batteries you have to wire two in series. You wire the pos terminal on one to your coach's positive red wire, the negative is then wired with a jumper to the other battery's pos terminal and the negative terminal of the other battery is wired to the coach's black negative wire.

To measure the voltage of the two batteries with a meter, hook up the pos meter probe to the red positive wire from one battery and the negative probe to the black negative wire from your other battery.

Your symptoms sound like the jumper between the two batteries has come loose.

David

KrankyKoot · 10-07-2020, 07:01 AM

It worked. Thanks guys. Had to hold the emergency start switch open but it did charge the house batteries from the chassis system. Also was able to jump start gen by using the right terminals. Kinda feel like a dummy since it was so obvious but never gave the fact that the batteries were in series a thought.

triplewide · 10-08-2020, 03:20 AM

And once again life is good

KrankyKoot · 10-08-2020, 07:04 AM

Spoke to soon. Charged the batteries up and because the jacks won't come up left it overnight. May not have set the battery cutoff but when I returned the next day the batteries were down to 5v. Jump started again and ran gen for over an hour and only showed 12v when stopped. Could actually see the volts dropping with a meter on the batteries. Battery pack is about a year old and I have a water fill system that I use to put distilled water in. Not liking the idea of having to pull the batteries from that shoebox space. Also thinking that it might be related to LCI jacking system. I have no power to the panel and the jacks won't come up with the manual / power drill method. But that's a subject for another post.