Community Forums

dshelton · 07-28-2014, 12:32 PM

anyone out there ever have a problem charging the house batteries on your thor tuscany. the manual says that they should charge off the generator, a 50 amp hookup or from the engine while driving. mine won't charge from the engine while i'm driving. i even tried the AUX START assist. if i let the rig sit for more than a couple of weeks without cranking the generator my house batteries die. any thoughts?

Mjlitz · 07-28-2014, 05:39 PM

Yes, we have the same issues. We are travelling on our first maiden voyage and were surprised after a day of driving the house batteries where not charging. We have been dry camping but running the generator 2 to 4 hrs a day to keep the batteries up.
We will be getting solar in the late fall, so not too worried but it is a hassle now.
My question is the same as yours but also is it ok to run the generator while driving to charge the batteries?

CRay_Tuscany · 07-29-2014, 06:23 PM

I have the same issue. I had the coach back to Elkhart with this being one of my issues. They claimed they changed a relay but that did not correct my problem. Please keep us posted if you find an answer as I hate to run the generator every time I am moving place to place.

Eugene2 · 08-14-2014, 04:05 PM

I have a 2014 40EX Tuscany XTE and find the House Batteries do not charge while driving. Gen & 50 Amp both charge fine. But since I have a residential Fridge pulling 5-10 Amps DC off the Inverter, I slowly drain the House Batteries while driving unless I start the Gen. Book says Engine should charge both Chassis and House Batteries.

Has anyone found a solution? Ideas?

Mjlitz · 09-26-2014, 11:16 AM

Quick update. We contacted Thor directly and they advised it was one of two problems...bi-directional isolator relay delay or trombatta solenoid. We have had it diagnosed and found it to be the relay, so we are having that replaced in the next week or so. Will let you know the results.

camato5 · 10-30-2014, 07:24 AM

Mjlitz, I have a 2014 Tuscany 40EX XTE and my fridge will drain the batteries while driving but you have to be on the road quite a long time,.. I was told by my dealer to keep an eye on the amps on my control panel and when the inverter gets down to less than 11 amps start the generator. It is ok to drive with the generator on in fact that is what you have to do to run your roof mount a/c or TV while on the road. It just reduces your mileage a little.

Mjlitz · 10-30-2014, 11:21 PM

Thanks. Our batteries were not charging while driving but since has been fixed. The battery isolator has been replaced. When we realized that the batteries were not charging while driving we did run the generator while driving. Looking forward to getting our solar installed, then all issues will be dealt with.

Eugene2 · 10-31-2014, 07:38 AM

My 2014 40EX has the same charging/not charging issue. After talking with Thor Tech, I did some voltage tests and have concluded it is my Bi-Directional Relay Delay (BIRD) board that is bad. The BIRD is located below and left of the Inverter box and has 4 wires running out of it IGNITION, COACH, RELAY and GROUND. The purple RELAY wire runs to the Isolator Relay (below and Right of Inverter). The Isolator Relay has two Large Red wires (Top is Chassis Battery and Bottom is House). This relay is normally open until 12 volts is applied to the purple wire that is running from the BIRD. When the BIRD senses over 13.5 volts or more (charging voltage) on either IGNITION or COACH lines for about 2 minutes, it is suppose to apply 12 volts to the purple RELAY line which triggers the Isolator Relay to close and ties both House and Chassis batteries together thus charging both banks. When charging voltage of 13.5 or more is removed, then the purple should de-energize and the Isolation Relay will then open again and Isolate the two battery banks.

This BIRD controls whether your House batteries get charged off the Alternator (IGNITION) or whether your Chassis batteries get charged off shore power (COACH). I think it may also control your Battery Override switch for starting as well (not sure on that).

According to Thor, you can use a small jumper wire and apply 12volts to the purple wire, thus holding the Relay closed and drive that way to get your House charging while on the road. I have not tried that yet, but I have the coach in the shop right now to replace the BIRD. If the Relay is always closed, you could then drain both House and Chassis batteries if you were to run on batteries too long dry camping.

My Tuscany by default has the Auto Gen Start set for 11 volts and 2 hour runtime. Your genny should start automatically at this point to charge the House batteries on the road or not. I have not tested mine yet. You can adjust that trigger voltage to start the genny at any level. 8 hours driving normally dropped my House batteries to 11.5 volts so my genny never started on the road, but I entered the campground with pretty low batteries each day.

Hope that helps...

wstrace3 · 10-31-2014, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camato5

Mjlitz, I have a 2014 Tuscany 40EX XTE and my fridge will drain the batteries while driving but you have to be on the road quite a long time,.. I was told by my dealer to keep an eye on the amps on my control panel and when the inverter gets down to less than 11 amps start the generator. It is ok to drive with the generator on in fact that is what you have to do to run your roof mount a/c or TV while on the road. It just reduces your mileage a little.

Not the expert nor am I trying to be. I'm still a newbie but have been trying to learn more and following many threads on voltage. From what I've read on letting your batteries drop to 11amps which is below 10% SOC (state of charge) will drastically decrease the life of your batteries. Even below 12.1 volts (50% SOC) is not recommended to occur too often. when inverting and relying on AGS we set to 12.1.
Maybe some one will chime in and let us know if this is correct. Again... I'm still learning this stuff.. so critique at will..

Eugene2 · 10-31-2014, 02:08 PM

The battery voltage is measured with a certain amount of load. Depending upon the Discharge load, your voltage reading will indicate different SOC. The higher the discharge rate, the lower the voltage will read for the same SOC %.

I use this article to try to figure what the voltage is telling me in regard to SOC.

http://scubaengineer.com/documents/l...ing_graphs.pdf

From what I can determine, we have about a 400 amp hour battery bank so 10-20 amp loads would be considered the C/20 line. Capacity/hours to discharge fully. C/20 = 400/20 = 20 amps. Summer running of Residential Fridge and some lights might be 10 amps on the average. Watch your control panel to see what your inverter is drawing.

dshelton · 10-31-2014, 05:17 PM

Sound like Thor needs to have a recall, too many folks with the newer Tuscany's have a problem with the bi-directional relay. I am having mine replaced also.

Jimmyb12015 · 04-03-2015, 06:07 PM

When I first picked up the motorhome my house batteries weren't charging when driving. While in the house battery/shore cord compartment I remember the demonstrator pushed the breaker (battery cut off). I checked it and sure enough he didn't completely reset it. When reset correctly it has a definite click and the charging panel will show that the batteries are taking a charge. Simple fix but evidently easy to overlook.

Big Dude · 04-07-2015, 02:33 PM

I had the same problem and got no help from Thor but thanks to a friend who is an RV electrical guru, he determined that it was the Bi-Directional Isolator Relay Delay that controls the Trombatta solenoid (next to each other in my coach) - bought a new one (00-00362-100) for $68 from RV Power Parts Plus, replaced in 15 minutes and now working fine. One thing he told me was when plugged in to shore power or running the engine, the Trombatta solenoid should be warm if things are working properly.

camato5 · 04-08-2015, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Dude

I had the same problem and got no help from Thor but thanks to a friend who is an RV electrical guru, he determined that it was the Bi-Directional Isolator Relay Delay that controls the Trombatta solenoid (next to each other in my coach) - bought a new one (00-00362-100) for $68 from RV Power Parts Plus, replaced in 15 minutes and now working fine. One thing he told me was when plugged in to shore power or running the engine, the Trombatta solenoid should be warm if things are working properly.

I have a 2014 Tuscany, could you attach a pic so I can locate it in mine in case I have trouble with mine.