Community Forums

YC1 · 08-22-2020, 04:00 PM

I have installed hundreds if not thousands of continuous duty solenoids and all seem to get extremely hot when not a latching type. Monaco had the right idea of reducing the control voltage after the relay is engaged.

If a serious heat sink was used they would hold up much better. But continuous duty may be the goal for some of the mfgrs but 24/7 for weeks and months on end just does not hold up in real life.

If you put your fingers on an old night light bulb they will burn you quickly. Those few watts just add up to heat that cannot dissipate well in a solenoid.

It is great that you keep on top of it and as suggested a simple jumper (with a fuse) is a great solution.

One cannot always re-engineer easily or within budget. The Blue Seas is pricey but sure looks like a great product.

I have used a (Yandina) product in the past when the bird board failed and there were none available. It is great for combining but not necessarily for jump starting. I have not looked at their products in a long time so they may have one. The Yandina worked great in my application. I keep mine as a backup to my now replaced setup.

Dutch Star Don · 08-22-2020, 08:21 PM

This what I used on my Monaco years ago. It was suppose to be the best.

https://www.amazon.com/Intellitec-77.../dp/B077YR1W55

Jyrocharlie · 08-23-2020, 08:14 AM

this is just for reference for future searches, this is a v32 2000 southwind BCC box with that battery connection relay inside.

YC1 · 08-23-2020, 05:49 PM

Mega TRIK-L-START Starting Battery Charger/Maintainer

This is a great product that I used many years ago on another RV. If you install this you can disable your BIRD control wire or the bird circuitry and let this do the charging. It is NOT for the emergency start function. It would be easy enough to disable the control function to the large solenoid and still leave the jump start feature in place. Your solenoid would last just about forever then.

cobia6620 · 08-24-2020, 05:09 AM

Thanks again to all. you have given me a short term and multiple long term solutions. yesterday we had to evacuate for the hurricanes and the vibration going down the road allowed the contacts rub together restoring dual battery charging. obvious the months with solenoid engaged during storage is not good. I'll install a new solenoid and take the old one apart and see if I can clean the contacts and reassemble. I'll install a toggle switch to cut BIRD power to the solenoid coil and another one to connect the chassis and coach battery terminals allowing charging with the solenoid contacts open (fused wire) for long term storage. I'll add this to my check lists to insure I restore normal operation before starting any engines. Might put a small LED indicator light near the step to indicate BIRD coil power is on or off. Removing the step to access toggle switches just takes a minute.

YC1 · 08-24-2020, 09:32 AM

One DPDT switch could do the job. One side could disconnect the control line and the other side could jumper the solenoid posts.

Fuses close to the solenoid would be a must. The control line would not need a fuse.

You would not need heavy wires for the charging wires. The fuses would protect the wires in the event that you forget to toggle the switch back to the normal position and then start the engine. It could try to draw a lot of current through the smaller wires. Inline resetting breakers are cheap and easy to wire with ring terminals versus fuses.

cobia6620 · 09-08-2020, 08:01 AM

Using parts locally available I came up with the attached. Allows for the solenoid contacts to be open and still charge coach and chassis batteries when connected to AC power. I just have to remember to put the system in Travel mode before starting engines. If I forget the circuit breaker (with manual reset) will trip if reaction time fast enough. Electrical compartment from Fleetwood could be larger to make things easier.