Newbie Mistake - It's Not My Fault

[Jerry Winchester]

This may be painful, so here is the Reader's Digest version.

Because I am such a smart guy, I picked my coach up a year ago last June with little instruction or knowledge of the systems in our Prevost. This included, but was not limited to, the house batteries.

After months of abuse that took the shape of running them down too far, charging them up too fast, boiling the acid out of them, not maintaining the correct water level in them and not paying much attention to the inverter, I basically torched a relatively new set of lead acid 8D batteries. They wouldn't stay charged for half a day.

So, not figuring I will live long enough to make all the mistakes, I turn to AGM Lifeline batteries and a smarter inverter. The old one had grossly overcharged the old batteries and that led to a plethora of issues.

Now I have been diligent to watch after these batteries even though they really don't need much care (other than to not charge them too fast) and to make sure that I am always aware of their voltage and if it is possible for them to run down or if I need to hit the master disconnect and remove the possibility of inadvertently running them down. If you decode all this, it means if I am not in or near the coach when it is running on battery power, I will either have the generator on, have it plugged in to shore power or disconnected.

I launch out for OSH last week with all my ducks in a row. After trying to get some work done and my OSH stuff stored, I circle back by the coach which is in a hanger on the other side of the airport. When I pull up, something is wrong. A new tenant has moved in beside me and.........unplugged my bus

The whole thing is dead and I am in the process of recharging the $2000 worth of virtually new AGM house batteries. There can be several outcomes to this tale and most are not good.

I am committed to charging the batteries back to the float position, then load testing them individually and then collectively with the inverter over time. If they don't return to their original performance, then the new tenant will shortly know how expensive a mistake it is to unplug something and toss the cord back up under the coach.

I post this in the interest of all who are either destine to make this mistake or have already made it and need reminding. Unless you have an endless supply of LewBucks, you had better know what’s going on with your house / coach / generator batteries and they need to be treated with more respect than we give the Mooney pilots.

[truk4u]

Not to worry of great flame snuffer, draining them down to dead one time shouldn't kill the batteries. Oh and by the way, you have far passed the newbie title and with all your wrenching, you are now a supreme, wise old timer!

[Kevin Erion]

Jerry, I feel your pain, I take the bus to storage and they park it for me. Life has been good, but now I am turning the master breaker off to make sure that when I plug in I look at the little green lites that Marathon has provided to check whatever.
So this time I forget to tell AJ the parking god and 5 days latter he calls and tells me that a beebing sound is coming from inside. I knew I forgot to tell AJ to throw the switch. I think they have come back to full strenght, I did not do all the load test stuff, lots of work and I don't have the tools for that.
Kevin

[Jerry Winchester]

Phase I

Well after charging with the inverter for 24 hrs at +/-15 amps, I fired the generator up this evening for a little 50 amp action. I am up to about 13 volts and everything has restarted or reset. Of course the coach batteries were dead as I had the 24v charger on them and when the power went out the DDEC computer and associated parasitic power draw pulled them to under 20 volts.

An hour of charging at 45 amps cured that and the coach started fine. And even though the air bled off the tag axle, the front of the coach stayed up and still didn't lean. WooHoo.

But my OTR AC only cools down to 50 deg. What's up with that?

Kevin, Bus valet parking? Only on the Left Coast

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Jerry,

I am not real familiar with Royale so maybe someone who is should respond here, but on both my coaches when I turned the key off there was zero drain on my bus batteries. I can go months and the batteries hold the charge.

You might want to find that current draw.

[Jerry Winchester]

Jon,

I wish it was the same with me, but there are a plethora of things running off the coach power with the key off starting with small things like the back up camera power switch (illuminated), two clocks, toad brake system receiver (wireless) and on to bigger things I can't see. If I need to leave it for a month and expect it to start, the 12V disconnect on the dash or above the coach batteries must be activated.

But the good news is that the house batteries are charged back to peak as are the coach batteries and so far everything is okay. I spent the day cleaning the engine, air compressor / AquaHot area (after you ripped me about it), installing a new toggle switch on the shore power alarm, cleaning the aux air condensate drain, reinstalling the wood trim in the compressor bay and checking the air in all the tires. In 98 deg heat and 98% humidity, I was sweating like Lew at a weigh station.