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Old 09-20-2016, 01:34 PM   #1
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Battery Circuit Breaker

Just for information,,,

My Mom called yesterday to tell me she had no 12 volt power in the coach. Figured it would be an easy troublshoot but i was pulling my hair (not much there) out after about 3 hours with no success. The battery was dead, down to 5 volts, so i attempted to add some charge via the chassis engine alternator. Found the chassis battery charging fine but nothing was making it back to the coach battery. Ok, figured i'd plug the coach into 120ac. Still, nothing to the battery and on top of that, still no 12 volt. No difference whether the battery disconnect was on or off. Very puzzling as i thought for sure i'd have lights via the converter.

During this time, i did find 3 high amp circuit breakers in the battery compartment. Red buttons on each so i tried pushing them in to see if this made any difference. It didn't.

Well, then i thought maybe i needed to get the battery up to a certain voltage before a relay/solenoid of some type would energize to make connection. Disconnected battery from coach and tried charging it with an external deep cycle charger. After about 20 minutes, found voltage barely at 12 volts with the charger connected. Disconnected and sure enough, voltage back down.

Had battery checked to be on the safe side and sure enough, it was a goner. Bought new and installed. Nope, nada, nothing. Took the converter panel off, no 12 volts to it. Back to the battery compartment, checking voltage at those 3 circuit breakers and sure enough, after getting a flashlight, noted the little "reset levers" pointing downward. Reset them and what do ya know, everything worked.

Yes, long winded here but i have to say, in the 30 years i've been RVing, i've never run across one of these. If you have one, picture below, then be sure to check on it before digging in too deeply.


Note, if you do encounter this, try to find out what tripped it in the first place. In our case, i'm fairly certain it was because of a combination of withering battery and trying to use it during an emergency chassis start. Or, those red buttons are similar to GFIC test buttons and i tripped them when i pushed them early on.
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Old 09-20-2016, 05:11 PM   #2
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They will indeed trip if you press the red buttons.
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Old 09-20-2016, 05:22 PM   #3
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Yep , required on power cable runs , within 3 feet of the batteries, on any un-fused circuit, coach and chassis on DPs , EXCEPT the starter cable . Hidden and hard to find on most coaches.

Found mine while replacing a muffler clamp.
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Old 09-20-2016, 09:06 PM   #4
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They will indeed trip if you press the red buttons.
Ok, so i did it to myself.

What has me curious, there are 3 of them. One 100 amp, another 80, and i didn't make note of the third. What all do they feed? Coach lights, hvac thermostat, refrigerator control? One for genset maybe?

Also, i didn't trace the wiring but it looks like these are in place to isolate the battery in case of short or overload. With coach plugged in to 120 volt ac and battery disconnect off, i thought the converter would have still supplied 12 volts. It didn't of course.

Anyways, i'm definitely learning as i go. Now to go out and check for these on my own rig.
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Old 09-21-2016, 09:50 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mudfrog View Post
Ok, so i did it to myself.

What has me curious, there are 3 of them. One 100 amp, another 80, and i didn't make note of the third. What all do they feed? Coach lights, hvac thermostat, refrigerator control? One for genset maybe?

Also, i didn't trace the wiring but it looks like these are in place to isolate the battery in case of short or overload. With coach plugged in to 120 volt ac and battery disconnect off, i thought the converter would have still supplied 12 volts. It didn't of course.

Anyways, i'm definitely learning as i go. Now to go out and check for these on my own rig.
Every coach/chassis, manufacturer, will do things differently , the two 135 amp. breakers , show up on my chassis wiring diagrams so I'd imagine that they come direct from Freightliner and protect the 30' run of power cables from the battery tray to the firewall, power studs, sized to handle the gen set starter draw.
Coach battery disconnect, off, will isolate all interior 12volt systems from all power ; battery or converter.
A third master C/B , could be for an inverter.
The master C/B's don't supply individual circuits ; lights , HVAC, fridge; they supply power to the fuse boxes and the individual circuits start at the fuse box.
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Old 09-22-2016, 12:54 PM   #6
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Every coach/chassis, manufacturer, will do things differently , the two 135 amp. breakers , show up on my chassis wiring diagrams so I'd imagine that they come direct from Freightliner and protect the 30' run of power cables from the battery tray to the firewall, power studs, sized to handle the gen set starter draw.
Coach battery disconnect, off, will isolate all interior 12volt systems from all power ; battery or converter.
A third master C/B , could be for an inverter.
The master C/B's don't supply individual circuits ; lights , HVAC, fridge; they supply power to the fuse boxes and the individual circuits start at the fuse box.
Yes, i realize there are fuses for the individual circuits at the converter panel. I was just thinking that only 1 of the high amp breakers would be needed between the battery and the coach. But then it did come to me that it was possible that one of the others headed off to the genset. This would still leave one but i can't think of what it would feed.

Also, i thought with the battery disconnect off, that the converter would still feed power to the coach. Boy, i better re-evaluate what i "think i know".

Thanks for the help!

p.s. I'm heading out the door now to see if i can locate these breakers on our rig.
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Old 09-23-2016, 09:41 AM   #7
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Turns out ours are a different type. There is a panel of about 8 of these, varying in amperage, next to the battery compartment. Didn't make note of everything they fed but did notice one was to the electric steps and another to the slide.

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Old 09-25-2016, 10:32 AM   #8
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Just note that MOST installations will have a protective device between the source of power and the loads and it USUALLY is before it goes into a hole but not always.

And it is sized usually to the wire unless wired larger for less loss.

So with battery at one end and converter at other end of a cable and both as sources of power that cable is likely gold to have a protective device at both ends.

A tricky one is a selenoid powered by the cable in that a short on that cable causes loss of voltage releasing the selenoid.
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