CHASSIS BATTERIES not charging from shore power

[STRATFORD]

After a two month stay at a lovely place in Tucson Arizona, connected to 50amp shore power, the Mrs and I were ready to leave. All departure projects complete, key in the ignition, turn key, nothing but a click. Shouldn't the batteries be charged? Called road service, nice guy and two hours later, we are jumped and on the road. Lesson learned. How often should I start the bus during long stays? Why should I even have to worry? I thought I had a trickle charge to my batteries. Where can I take my Country Coach converted bus to have this electrical problem corrected? I am currently in the L.A. area with no bus repair near me and starting the bus everyday to avoid being stranded. Help

[Gil_J]

What year is your CC? I don't believe CC supplied chassis battery chargers. A dedicated charger is an easy install for any good RV or marine electrical tech. Most buy a marine rated unit designed for wet environments. Here's one that is commonly used, http://www.marinco.com/en/2720a.

If you need wiring help, I'll do a drawing for you.

[Joe Camper]

The bay door lights burning any time a bay was open , that's what schnookered ya. Same thing happen to me on the first extended stay with my XL.

[Joe Camper]

If you have a country coach conversion the clue for whether or not they built it with chassis battery trickle charger is there will be a circuit on the AC breaker panel that will be marked chassis charger and that breaker Powers up an outlet in the engine bay that they'll have it plugged in to.

If they didn't put a chassis battery charger they still had an outlet in the engine bay and the block heater will be plugged into it andthat breaker on the AC panel will probably be marked block heater that powers up the outlet in the engine bay.

[Dtjoint]

On our CC the outlet in the oil reservoir fill door was no longer available. The only indication of an external charger for the chassis batteries was a 120vac plug hanging down from the ceiling of the engine bay. When parked for long periods I run an ext. cord from a shore/gen outlet in the tool bay. Be sure you plug into an outlet that is only hot when plugged in and not powered by an inverter. On ours, we only need to plug the chassis battery charger in for a day or so every three weeks so it is not a big deal. I never have been able to find a plug in for an engine heater.

[Gil_J]

Jerry,

That sounds like your block heater outlet. As for putting in an outlet for the battery charger, it was easy on my 99. If was a straight shot through the engine bay ceiling from the TV cabinet in the bedroom into the bay directly in front of the engine bay. I, at the time, had an IOTA 24V charger that was not wet environment rating. It worked well in that bay on the sloped floor above the tag tire.