Mystery Odor

[hillndale]

Hello,
When i walked into the garage yesterday i was immediately hit with a very strong foul smell. At first i thought the trap in the shop sink dried out and that it must be sewer fumes but checked that and it was fine. Then i thought it must have been coming out of the black tank vent pipe from the coach but the tank was completely empty and previously flushed clean. So after pulling it outside it seems like the smell is coming from the engine area near the battery bank. I didn't visually see anything that looked out of the ordinary with the batteries but something is definitely going on. Not sure what the next step is. Any suggestions appreciated.
Bob

[Toy Box]

Check the water in your batteries. If you have leaad acid batteries they may be overcharged, dry and need water. You may be smelling the batteries cooking.

[Coloradobus]

With the coach running, and things like OTR on, does you battery balance light come on? Do any of the battieries look swollen? Have you driven the coach, to see if the smell goes away or subsides, and then upon stopping at a light, the smell returns?? We had this happen in our H3-45 right after Katrina hit Mississippi. Luckily, there was an Interstate battery shop open near the Jackson Mississippi Airport so we bought 4 new chassis batteries. One was toast, another was swollen, and the other two seemed OK.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

I was thinking like Toy Box, but not many use lead acid batteries these days.

JIM

[Woody]

That smell is exactly like rotten eggs/ black sewer. Had it happen on the pike in my Vogue - cost me a fortune when everything blew.

Check batteries immediately, disconnect and investigate.

[garyde]

The Coach batteries will smell as well if they are going bad. Gel batterries will start to smell if they will no longer charge. Also, my generator battery which was a small 12 vollt Gel battery emits the same smell when going bad.

[BenC]

Hello,
When i walked into the garage yesterday i was immediately hit with a very strong foul smell. At first i thought the trap in the shop sink dried out and that it must be sewer fumes but checked that and it was fine. Then i thought it must have been coming out of the black tank vent pipe from the coach but the tank was completely empty and previously flushed clean. So after pulling it outside it seems like the smell is coming from the engine area near the battery bank. I didn't visually see anything that looked out of the ordinary with the batteries but something is definitely going on. Not sure what the next step is. Any suggestions appreciated.
Bob

If the smell is like rotten eggs, it is very likely a fault with the temperature compensation sensor to the house batteries. Vantare was notorious for placing them on different batteries, which seemed like a good idea, but results in the possibility of one inverter overcharging batteries. Also, depending on what alternator you have, the voltage regulator may be set too high, "cooking" your house batteries. The third possibility is that your Vanner Battery Equalizer for the house battery bank has failed, resulting in undercharging of one set of batteries, and overcharging of the other, resulting in the gassing, and relief valves opening, and the rotten egg smell. If you would like to further discuss, please give myself or Rick May a call and we can walk you through several diagnostic procedures to help determine the situation.

Sincerely,

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I'm with Ben on this one. Look hard at your batteries, and if you see them bulged you may also see a crack. The smell is when the batteries fail and at that point they are toast. They either vented or cracked.

The batteries need the proper charging and I suspect few owners set their inverters up to charge the specific type of batteries they have. Also, some chargers, such as those commonly found for charging the chassis batteries will "cook" them.

You don't say where you are, but if you cannot handle the battery replacement yourself and are close to Rick or Ben, or Truk, or Russell, or any of the other folks that service our coaches they all can help.

[hillndale]

Thanks for the help all! Definitely seems to be a toasted battery. Will be bringing it to Featerlite in Suffolk next week.

[gmcbuffalo]

Ben are you saying that the battery sensors from the inverters should all be attached to the same battery terminal?

[BenC]

Yes sir. If not, the inverter/chargers that are not will still overcharge and "fight each other" as to what each inverter things/wants to keep the bulk or float voltage value (which is based on what temp reading each is "seeing").