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Kpaglia · 11-04-2021, 04:56 PM

Ok so we drive a 1982 Chevy leisurecraft and temporarily it’s our daily driver and our home. We have the marine battery and also a converter that we only use when the battery dies. Seems like every time we turn her off she struggles to start again. Sometimes she does it beautifully and sometimes she won’t crank over so easy and the longer we have to try and crank, you can hear her slowly get weaker in the cranks until she dies. We plug in to shore power (👏🏼 I’ve been doing my research lol) and she still does it sometimes. We just had Autozone test it 10 mins ago and they said 100% charge but bad battery? It’s a new marine battery, is that a thing? Or can you further explain what might be causing parasitic draw? One other thing, sometimes if wet you get small zaps when you touch the metal around the door frame could that be a red flag for our problem? Please help it’s cold in Michigan and only getting colder quicker 🥶

HarryStone · 11-04-2021, 05:14 PM

Welcome. First, check your grounds, especially for the chassis battery. Make sure battery connections are both clean and tight. Get a meter and monitor the battery voltage. Not sure if your rig charges the chassis battery from shore power or not, or if it does, that circuit is working. If the battery isn't up to it's cca, then it's bad, and that is what Autozone may have been trying to say. Cold weather is really hard on batteries, and if it's low on CCA, then it's just much worse. Your second problem has to do with AC power, not DC power, and it means you have neutral and ground touching somewhere. It can be dangerous, so it needs to be fixed.

Xmcdog · 11-04-2021, 05:15 PM

Sorry to hear you are having problems. It's cold here too so I understand your concern.
With a unit that old your problem could be a combination of several things. I would start with a battery test which you have done. Might be blood to get a second opinion. Then check all battery connections, including to the starter solenoid etc and ground. The next step is the starter.

The shocks you are getting suggest a grounding issue with your 120 volt panel. Suggest strongly you have an electrician check.

Hope this helps.

spierce617 · 11-04-2021, 05:23 PM

Are you using a marine battery as your primary battery to start the coach? I thought that you need a regular battery for the coach and a deep cycle/marine battery for the lights and things in the camper.

bigb56 · 11-04-2021, 05:46 PM

1. Letting any lead acid battery go dead will ruin it in short order, do not let your batteries go dead, plug in and use the converter for the house batteries and a charger on the chassis battery if necessary. Common rule of thumb is don't let battery discharge below 50%.
2. The shocks are caused by either a hot wire touching somewhere with no grounding wire connection (which would open the breaker) or a neutral touching somewhere in conjunction with a compromised neutral connection. This is very dangerous and those "zaps" you feel are likely 120 volts which, under the right circumstances (ie bare feet) could kill you by stopping your heart. Hopefully someone didn't "lift" the ground tp keep the breaker from opening. By ground I don't mean anything to do with the earth, I mean a wire that connects to the metal of the coach and goes to the 3rd prong at the outlet you are plugged into and from there eventually to the utility transformer. Do not try and fix a shock situation by using a rod pounded the earth, it won't work and all you will do is create more energized metal to kill someone.

HarryStone · 11-04-2021, 05:59 PM

It's called hot skin.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hot+...earch=irv2.com

Mark_K5LXP · 11-05-2021, 07:07 AM

Batteries are never intermittent. If it works OK sometimes and not others, it's not the battery. First check is all cabling and connections. Connections that look OK may still have hidden corrosion or are loose, so the most sure way to assure that's not the problem is to disconnect, clean and secure each one. There aren't that many in the high current (starter) path. Batteries expected to source high transient currents (starting) need to be fully charged. It sounds like you're using your starting battery to operate house loads which is a double whammy for both performance and operating life for a starting battery. So a review of your charging and house supply system is in order, your starting battery needs to be separate from the house loads.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

Kpaglia · 11-30-2021, 07:22 PM

There’s a switch for the chassis battery can we turn that off and keep the charge held? The guy who sold it to us didn’t explain much but there is a switch he said to turn off when either plugged in or for storage purposes?