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Draper55 · 01-16-2022, 03:01 PM

I'm 7 months into owning this 1999 American Tradition 40TVS. My wife & I are full timing and mostly boondocking. Right after I purchased this unit, I was performing routine maintenance to get an idea of how it was taken care of. I found the house batteries in bad shape, both terminal corrosion and extremely low on water. In fact, the four six-volt batteries took a full gallon of distilled water to top them off. I charged them by being plugged in to household 20amp service for about 4 days. The three-step charger seemed to be operating properly, red to yellow to green as the batteries were charging. Using a temperature correcting hydrometer, I tested all four batteries after that and found two borderline good and two a little less than borderline. I decided to run them until they were unable to deliver proper service. It's been cold during the nights even though we are in St. George, UT so I turn the 7500-watt generator on for about an hour while I run both furnaces to heat the coach and then turn them off until it gets too cold for comfort. Last week we experienced a problem with the generator running, the light on the charger stayed red constantly and the 'charging bars' went from green to yellow followed by loss of a/c power from the inverter.

I tested the house batteries again and found all four to be bad. I replaced all four with equivalent items and now when looking at the charger panel with the engine off and the generator off and no shore power connected the yellow light (normal) is on and green bars show on the charger panel indicating good battery voltage. However, as soon as I plug the shore power in the charger light turns red and stays that way throughout the entire night. If I unplug the shore power and start the generator the charge light immediately goes red and stays that way. If I turn the generator off and start the engine the charge light goes back to yellow and the green bars on the charger panel are green, and they even go a couple of bars higher indicating that the engine's alternator is charging very well.

I have rechecked the battery cable routing and there are only two minor wires hooked to the positive and negative terminals and they are not hooked up improperly. I'm not sure what to check next. Any help will be appreciated.

wolfe10 · 01-16-2022, 03:21 PM

Welcome.

First off, "indicator lights" are an extremely poor way to monitor battery voltage.

Get a 'DIGITAL VOLTMETER' and tell us the readings.

If the batteries are deeply discharged, a smart charger or smart inverter/charger will not charge them (it assumes a significant battery problem).

If the batteries are indeed good, but deeply discharged, you may need to either use a "stupid charger" or run primary engine or jump from another vehicle to get voltage up to where the smart device will take over.

Iceclimber · 01-16-2022, 04:08 PM

Good advice above. In the absence of monitoring gear, a good old fashioned charger like this is very revealing - they are not dumb really. Whenever I am unsure, I hook this up.

https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-BC15B...s%2C126&sr=8-3

What kind of charger does your coach have ?
Also not sure how you are testing but the definitive test is take to any battery place or even Walmart and they have proper testers.

Draper55 · 01-16-2022, 04:14 PM

These house batteries are now brand new. I'm just trying to figure out why the 3 step charger is not working like it used to.

sbleiweiss · 01-17-2022, 06:59 AM

Charger may be bad. Sounds like your alternator is charging but your charger isn't.

wolfe10 · 01-17-2022, 07:03 AM

Without the voltage readings, we are just guessing.

Voltage at the house batteries with no shore power or generator:

Voltage at the house batteries with either shore power or generator:

5 minutes work and you will know!

Draper55 · 01-17-2022, 09:28 AM

Standing voltage on the house batteries (all together as I didn't separate them) is 12.18 Standing voltage on the chassis batteries is 12.7 With the generator running the voltage at the house batteries is 12.18 still. So obviously no charging. There is a bright silver solenoid on the back side of the electrical box that has 12.7 volts at the bottom terminal and 12.18 at the top terminal, so I'm assuming this is the 'Auxiliary Battery Connect' solenoid. I'm not sure where the converter/inverter/charger is located.

twinboat · 01-17-2022, 11:39 AM

If you have any other wires on the terminals with jumpers between 2 batteries, they dont belong there.

Send a picture.

andy29847 · 01-17-2022, 12:08 PM

First thing to do is reset your inverter/charger. I reset mine by turning the inverter breaker off in the main AC panel.

Iceclimber · 01-17-2022, 12:40 PM

Can you please share what model inverter/charger you have. Don't say Xantrex 2000 lol.

Draper55 · 01-17-2022, 08:18 PM

Can anyone tell me where the charger/inverter is located on this 1999 American Tradition 40TVS?

mr.tommy · 01-17-2022, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draper55

Can anyone tell me where the charger/inverter is located on this 1999 American Tradition 40TVS?

I don't know where their located on your coach or whether there separate units or a combined unit, but you need to read up and install a digital battery monitor. The light indicator type level monitors are worthless. You may also need to install an up-to-date 4 stage SMART convertor (which is aka the charger BTW)