House battery charging problems/solenoid locations

[rvnizzo]

Originally Posted by Sbrownstein

VERY TELLING OBSERVATION
Check the ground connection between the house bank and the chassis. make sure it is clean and tight. Check the lugs on the house bank and make sure they are clean and tight. The boost start switch merely parallels the chassis and house battery banks, it does not circumvent the disconnect switch. However, the chassis battery has its own dedicated ground connection...don't ask how I know this.

By the way, running the engine and alternator on most rigs...fires the boost start solenoid all by itself...

the coach batteries wont run the house lights. that is one of the issues we are having.

[Sbrownstein]

Originally Posted by rvnizzo

the coach batteries wont run the house lights. that is one of the issues we are having.

That's right...but the boost switch and chassis battery will (of course and the engine and alternator) Only two places to look. The house bank isn't putting voltage into the DC panel...it isn't electrically there. Either the ground is loose or the positive connection is poor. The disconnect switch is currently connected there just isn't any battery voltage being applied between ground and the DC bus through the disconnect switch.

[sibe]

Originally Posted by rvnizzo

we have tested basically every wire.

all wires are live that we have checked except those leading to the disconnect switch. the switch works we have tested that but there is no power leading to it.

we have checked every fuse we can find even replaced the big on on the front battery.

12v lighting system will not operate without shore or generator unless i push in the auxiliary start button (still have no idea why that happens)

that picture is the exact setup i have but not my actual setup. looks 99% the same though.

we just can not find the actual battery disconnect solenoid. have searched everywhere and will continue searching for a second and third time once the temperature goes down (AZ is hot)

we have traced the big red wires but we cannot find the solenoid.

the converter is working because it converts the 110 to 12v.

to our knowledge that means it should be good to go and we have also tested those fuses.

disconnect switch.. is this the salesman or "on" switch that powers solonoid... ????

you can not find the actual solonoid..

SO no power to switch , is that a small 14-12 guage wire or a big red,,, if it is small wire , start looking why not power to it.. if that swtich feeds solonoid, then soloniod will never work..

sorry but something small is being missed here..

If one of the big reds feeding sloniod is dead, trace back to batteryies, etc..

[Sbrownstein]

Catch-22! On most coaches the disconnect switch will not function without house battery voltage. Fortunately the OPs switch is NOT disconnected. Bet it will work if they hold down the boost switch at the same time!

This may be the wrong year but it is a pretty common design.

[rvnizzo]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Agree, now with that info, it has be between the positive terminal and where the chassis battery ties in, and thats before the disconnect or the ground cable connections of the house battery.

Stop looking for the disconnect solenoid for now and concentrate on the battery cables.

Maybe send some pictures of them.

i will take pictures if needed. but with 2 new batteries and testing all of the connections leaving the batteries (all which are good) i do not think this is the problem.

[rvnizzo]

Originally Posted by sibe

disconnect switch.. is this the salesman or "on" switch that powers solonoid... ????

you can not find the actual solonoid..

SO no power to switch , is that a small 14-12 guage wire or a big red,,, if it is small wire , start looking why not power to it.. if that swtich feeds solonoid, then soloniod will never work..

sorry but something small is being missed here..

If one of the big reds feeding sloniod is dead, trace back to batteryies, etc..

we just looked over the rv inside and out again for about an hour, still cannot find the solenoid. have checked connections of all 3 batteries (house and engine) all connections are good and hot.

we figure it is something dumb and small but we are still relatively new to the game.

that is why we have double and triple checked areas of where this could be.

[rvnizzo]

these are pictures of my:

Coach batteries
Engine battery
Something on the engine that is the only thing that even resembles a solenoid but not actually connected to the coach batteries.
And the auxiliary start solenoid along with wires in there.

we traced the battery (house) positive all the way to the engine battery and find no solenoid.

As i said we spent an hour underneath the RV and could not track anything down or see any solenoid.

[rvnizzo]

Originally Posted by Sbrownstein

Catch-22! On most coaches the disconnect switch will not function without house battery voltage. Fortunately the OPs switch is NOT disconnected. Bet it will work if they hold down the boost switch at the same time!

This may be the wrong year but it is a pretty common design.

thought this was a good idea... tried that and did not work.

the house batteries do work and will charge off of the engine battery.

but will not charge from shore or generator

[twinboat]

Follow that blue circled cable to its chassis connection point.

Check it, or run a jumper from there to the chassis.

[twinboat]

Forgot picture. Here it is.

[rvnizzo]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Forgot picture. Here it is.Attachment 298604

i will go check it now again thank you everyone for the help.

i think if everyone in the world was as nice as rv forums....we would have world peace lol

[rvnizzo]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Forgot picture. Here it is.Attachment 298604

that one is the negative and goes to a ground about a foot away.

[rvnizzo]

Found it underneath the stove in the vent

[rvnizzo]

But there is power on both sides. We can't seem to figure out the problem of why it won't click. Engage our disengage