Someone school me!

[Lostwander16]

I have a “new to us” 2005 Fleetwood bounder gas motor, Chevy to be exact. And we have taken off on our first trip. This is our first motorhome. We have had several 5th wheels. So it is our second night, we stayed in a campground last night. Got up this morning and the battery is dead. The battery is 3 months old. Is there something I should be turning off when the engine is off? Please someone school me on motorhomes! I would greatly appreciate any information! I have 1.5 hours to wait on AAA

[Texan10]

Is there a switch on your dash that connects chassis battery to coach battery? It will be a momentary switch. Press it while you turn ignition key to start.

[Lostwander16]

I did try that with no success

[robertj1979]

Most motorhomes have a button on the control panel to turn the Battery Charger/ Inverter off and on. Make sure you have not accidentally turned off the charger/inverter which should be active when plugged into shore power. Also check all of your breakers to make sure the inverter/charger is not turned off. Hopefully the pedestal you plugged into for shore power was "active" as there are breakers on the pedestal box that are usually turned off when you first plug in to avoid a surge. There are at least two separate batteries on most motorhomes with one being chassis and the other house. If you can check the voltage of both to see if both banks are dead. The coupling switch on the dash as described by previous poster will allow you to use your house batteries to start your engine. If both batteries are dead you will either need a booster or AAA. Am assuming you do not have a generator but if so you would be able to use that to charge back the batteries if there is enough juice to start it.

[RVPioneer]

Quick fix, try jump starting the coach.

Next, find out what loads are draining the chassis batteries.

[Lostwander16]

Originally Posted by RVPioneer

Quick fix, try jump starting the coach.



Next, find out what loads are draining the chassis batteries.

Yes, AAA is on their way to get me jumped.

Apparently my house batteries are pretty weak as well.

[Lostwander16]

Thanks to everyone’s advice. I learned a lot however turned out it was just the starter. So I’ll get that replaced!! Thank you again

[CountryB]

With the Magnum and Xantrex brand Inverter/Charger, when you turn off the Inverter at the remote panel, it does not turn of the Charger.

What brand Inverter/Charger do you have?

Do you have a generator with "auto start", if so it can be programmed so that it will startup and charge the batteries when the battery voltage gets too low?

Perhaps your battery isolater (i.e. Big Boy solenoid) is not working so it is not switching over to charge the chassis batteries

[Solo_RV_Guy]

If both batteries are down... you have a couple of different things going on. First, your chassis (starting) battery shouldn't have any parasitic loads on it if the ignition key is in the off position. Note the conditional word "Shouldn't"... It's possible that a previous owner has run some load(s) directly to the chassis battery (or a relay powered from the chassis battery). Look for extra wires.


There are a number of things that run off your coach/house battery bank - all your interior lighting, the propane detector, the furnace blower motor, the furnace/air conditioner thermostat, the refrigerator controls (even on shore power), etc.


As both your batteries are down I suspect that you have a defective battery isolation system AND that your charger/converter/inverter (if so equipped) is either turned off, disconnected or failing IF you were plugged into shore power when this happened.


Let us know what you find.

[Waiter21]

Two issues that were not related happened to me that caused the chassis battery to go dead:

1) Make sure the dash radio is turned off..

On my 1999 Southwind, the dash radio gets its power from the chassis battery. The radio can be turned on/off remotely from the bedroom or the kitchen. If the volume is turned down, Its not obvious that the radio is turned on unless you look at the radio and see the lights are on.

2) Normally, my BCC would charge the chassis battery when I'm on shore power. However, because I had a bad isolator solenoid, the chassis battery wasn't charging.

Combine #1 and #2, and the chassis battery would go dead overnight

[sbleiweiss]

Originally Posted by Lostwander16

Thanks to everyone’s advice. I learned a lot however turned out it was just the starter. So I’ll get that replaced!! Thank you again

That shouldn't have run your house batteries down. You or the cg pedestal might have another problem too.

[okcnewbie]

Originally Posted by Lostwander16

Thanks to everyone’s advice. I learned a lot however turned out it was just the starter. So I’ll get that replaced!! Thank you again

Often times a "bad starter" is really just voltage drop in connections or bad cables. It's best to verify there's no voltage drop before changing starter.

[bamaboy473]

As part of the bare essentials of tools, get yourself a simple battery charger, a simple volt-meter, and a Kil A Watt.

These will allow you to never have to wait for AAA again, if your batteries are weak and your on-board charger isn't working the charger will top them off.

The volt meter will give you voltages for batteries as well as telling you what outlets are hot. The Kil A Watt will tell you exact voltage coming into the coach so you don't cause problems because of a campground's low voltage at the pedestal.

All three of these things should cost less than $100, total.

[Alpine36]

[moderator edit]
So back to the issue at hand, although your starter apparently took a dive do not rule out your batteries, charging system, cables etc...
Bad batteries will take out a starter/solenoid/relays in short order.
Low voltage=high amperage=heat=arcing contacts=calling AAA.
Do yourself a favor and check everything over, or have someone show you how. Study up on your inverter/converter operation, familiarize yourself with everything electrical on your rig.