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Old 05-21-2005, 01:47 PM   #1
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Hi, My DH and I are very new to owning an RV. We brought our new to us 1989 Dolphin home about 2 weeks ago, plugged it into 110 (our house) with the idea it would help keep the house batteries charged. My DH could not start RV yesterday. He tried the emergency start switch and it would not start the RV either. The coach lights, AC, fridge etc. all work when connected to our house. He put a charge on the RV battery and it started, but the emergency start still not working (from house batteries). If you could give us any suggestions, it would really be appreciated. We are so new. Have read and re-read manuals but no help. Thanks
jo
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Old 05-21-2005, 01:47 PM   #2
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Hi, My DH and I are very new to owning an RV. We brought our new to us 1989 Dolphin home about 2 weeks ago, plugged it into 110 (our house) with the idea it would help keep the house batteries charged. My DH could not start RV yesterday. He tried the emergency start switch and it would not start the RV either. The coach lights, AC, fridge etc. all work when connected to our house. He put a charge on the RV battery and it started, but the emergency start still not working (from house batteries). If you could give us any suggestions, it would really be appreciated. We are so new. Have read and re-read manuals but no help. Thanks
jo
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Old 05-21-2005, 03:18 PM   #3
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Since no one else has replied, I'll toss in a couple of cents. The emergency switch usually energizes a relay to allow the house batteries to help the chassis battery. I had one coach that you had to hold the emergency switch in while you cranked. I had another one that you push it in and you got one cranking. You had to push it each time you wanted to crank. I don't know how yours is wired.

In any case you should be able to trace the switch wires to a large relay the allows you to temporarly cross connect the batteries. Make sure this relay does work when you push the emergency switch.

Also sounds like you need to run a trace and see where you have some parasitic loads to drain the batteries. I always disconnect our batteries when we get back from a trip. The propane and CO monitors are a small drain on the bateries.

Ken
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Old 05-21-2005, 05:28 PM   #4
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Jo,
In addition to what Ken has said; some manufacturers wire the crossover relay (emergency start switch) to be energized by the house batteries, and some wire it to the chassis battery. I found out the hard way that if you have a dead cell in the chassis battery it will draw down the house batteries enough that the engine will not start, at least on our Bounder. In this situation, see if the generator will start; if it will, let it run for a few minutes and see if the engine will start (while the genny is still running). On an '89 your converter probably will not charge the chassis battery, so you may have to hold in the ES start switch while the genny is running. This all depends on how your rig is wired, and I don't know this, so all this may not help at all
My advice is to charge all the batteries and do a load test first, just to make sure they are good, then proceed to test the rest of the circuits.
If you (or your DH) is familiar with wiring you may be able to trace the wires and determine how it is wired.
You may be able to get wiring diagrams from Dolphin (isn't it made by National?) by contacting customer service. I know Fleetwood will do this at no charge.
A word about converters: the ones used up to the last few years sometimes over charge the batteries when left plugged in while stored, and then some will not fully charge them either! Suggest you check the voltage at the house batteries when plugged in to 120 AC, if below about 12.8 volts they will not charge all the way; if above 13.4 the batteries will probably be cooked. What I used to do is plug in for a couple of days every two or three weeks to keep the batteries up on our old converter which put out 13.6 volts.
Hope all this helps a little
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Old 05-23-2005, 03:29 AM   #5
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Thanks Loren and Ken for your quick help. My DH took the coach batteries in to a place and they said they where completely dead. We have a battery disconnect switch in our rig but when we plugged into 110v(our house) we where not able to get the light on the diconnect switch to turn off. We left the fridge in the rig running because we thought as long as we where plugged into 110v that it would be okay and not run the batteries down. Boy, this is hard. I so want to get things figured out....and go Rv-ing. :O) Hopefully, my DH will get new batteries today and things will work again. We have unplugged the RV from 110 (0ur house) and turned off the fridge. Question? How would you camp at a campsite with electric, run the fridge and NOT run the batteries down? Sorry, this so long.
jo
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Old 05-23-2005, 06:52 AM   #6
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">when we plugged into 110v(our house) we where not able to get the light on the diconnect switch to turn off? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
That is quite common with some types of converter because they must have the battery on the line to act as a buffer from the output of the converter. The reason is that most converters have very little voltage control and the battery will buffer it to prevent major variations in voltage.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">We left the fridge in the rig running because we thought as long as we where plugged into 110v that it would be okay and not run the batteries down. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
You are correct about this. The refrigerator does require the availability of 12V-dc power to operate the control circuit board since that is how it knows if gas or 120V is available. But the converter will supply more current to the system than the refrigerator uses and it will keep the batteries for the coach charged, but not for the chassis. Of course, the batteries must be in good condition in order to accept the charge.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> We have unplugged the RV from 110 (0ur house) and turned off the fridge. Question? How would you camp at a campsite with electric, run the fridge and NOT run the batteries down? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
There is no need to disconnect anything when you connect the shore power to supply all of the RV's loads. The system is designed to operate either way. The reason that your battery isolator is wired to close when you plug in shore power is because it could cause problems with your electronics and the fact that things like your refrigerator must have 12V power to work. This design is an effort on the part of the designer to keep you from creating a problem. We are fulltime RVers and our motorhome is wired just like yours in terms of the battery isolator. If you converter voltage is set to a proper voltage, it will not cause any problems with the batteries. I have my converter voltage set to 13.5V and we have had the same house batteries now for five years. I do plan to replace them soon as they have to be on borrowed time.
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Old 05-23-2005, 09:08 AM   #7
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Thanks so much to all of you.I feel kind of like a "ninny" but your answers have really helped. I read this forum all the time but rarely post. I'm a fairly "smart" person when it comes to "some things" but there is so much to learn when starting out to RV. Someday, I would love to go full-time, but so far can't convince my husband it's a great idea. I was hoping to get him hooked on the lifestyle by just getting him out in the great outdoors. Still hoping, he'll love it when we finally get our first trip under our belts.
Thanks again,
jo
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