House Batteries Not Charging

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Tuga,

Again I am offering an opinion with no specific knowledge of your coach.

If you have an equalizer the odds are it is a Vanner, and the odds are equally good that it will be adjacent to the chassis batteries. I am making an assumption here that you have both chassis and house batteries.

If you have an equalizer it will only be because you have loads on the chassis batteries that are 12 volts. If your whole chassis is 24 volts, including lights, DDEC and anything else powered from the chassis side then you probably do not have an equalizer.

The only reason I bring up the fact you may have an equalizer problem, that may have created a battery problem is because the two batteries in series have such different voltages. An equalizer will work to keep both batteries equal (duh!), and that means all the way down as well as up in voltage.

Look for a reset button on the bottom of the equalizer and charge the batteries independently. My guess is that 2 volt battery is dead. I don't know if your coach came equipped with a Vanner monitor, if it did it should have alerted to a battery imbalance.

[gmcbuffalo]

Tuga
In your set up are you pulling 12v off of one battery and then 24v off of the two, in other words do you have 12v draws and 24v draws off of the starting batteries. I you are not pulling 12 and 24 volt draws you may not have an equalizer is the circuit.
GregM

[Pete]

Tuga,
If you do have bad batteries, please let Karen do the supervising during the change out this time, she should not be lifting the batteries again...I don't want anything to hinder her craw fish pie making!
Pete

[Coloradobus]

Tuga, If you're changing out the batteries, be sure to take off you watch and ring. I have experiences that will curl your hair and fry your fingers

[merle&louise]

[QUOTE=Jon Wehrenberg;58619]Tuga,

Voltage is only one indicator of a battery problem. Obviously a battery reading as low as 2 volts has a problem. While four years is not a very long time in battery life it is much closer to the end of life than the beginning.

Not knowing your coach I don't know if the batteries are used as 12 volt in parallel or 24 volts in series. It makes a difference because if used as 24 volts apart from the battery problem there might be an equalizer problem.

Yest terminals need to be kept clean, the top of the batteries also so voltage doesn't leak to ground through a trail of corrosion.


Jon,

My entire coach is 12 volt.

I was wrong, the batteries are wired in parallel (jumper from #1 batt neg to #2 batt neg and jumper from #1 batt pos to #2 batt pos). I'll learn the difference one day; I've been hanging around DANSS too long.

I purchased a specific gravity meter to test each cell. One cell in each battery tests bad. Looks like new chassis batteries are in my future.

I read the owner's manual for the Link 2000 monitor and inverter/charger control. It explains how to EQUALIZE the batteries using the Freedom 25 inverter/charger. I do not want to do that without talking to Newell first.
The manual warns to turn off any DC sensitive loads before equalizing; since I am not sure how to do that - I'll just pass for now.

I'll try to explain how my coach is wired. All of the DC accessories are 12v.
My coach has 6 - 8D Lifeline Concord AGM glass mat batteries for the house. The 2 - 8D chassis batteries are wet cell batteries connected in parallel. There is a BATTERY MERGE switch which allows all 8 batteries to be charged. When the BATTERY MERGE switch is on, the house batteries are charged first, then the chassis batteries are charged. When dry camping; the BATTERY MERGE switch is turned off. When the generator is started the BATTERY MERGE switch must be turned on in order to charge the house batteries. The BATTERY MERGE switch in the off position prevents the chassis batteries from being run down so that the generator or engine can be started to charge up the house batteries.

I also have a separate Heart Interface echo-charge; it has a red wire labeled starter battery, a red wire labeled house battery, and a black wire labeled ground. The only warning light on it is a red thermal shutdown. It is NOT lit. So I would think that the echo-charger is working properly.

Today, I disconnected both batteries, cleaned the terminals, and tested the voltage. #1 tested 11.4v #2 tested 12.7v So I guess #1 battery is a dead battery; and the #2 is not much better.

Jim,
Thanks for the warning; I don't wear any rings or a watch.

Pete,
I'll let her man-handle those 8Ds. She can still cook while installing the batteries. The girl is talented!

Greg,
Sorry I can't answer your questions. I'm not good with electrical systems.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

12.7 is an OK voltage and 11.4 does not mean the battery has pooped. It may not get a charge due to corroded terminals.

I would charge it up and see what happens.

I need to see how your bus is set up, but it sounds like instead of an isolator to allow automatic charging when the engine runs you have a manual switch arrangement.

[merle&louise]

Jon,

My coach will charge all 8 batteries (6 house & 2 chassis) from the alternator thru the ignition switch when the engine is running. If the generator is running or if shore power is connected the BATTERY MERGE switch must be ON to charge the batteries. Actually, the only time I turn off the battery merge switch is when I am dry camping. Then when we start the generator, I turn the battery merge switch back on to let all of the batteries charge up.

I spoke to Newell this morning and they advised me to just buy 2 new batteries. The logic is if each battery has a marginally bad cell it will only get worse. Better to have strong fresh batteries than marginal ones. They don't recommend equalizing the starting batteries.

Is it still recommended to use wet cell batteries for starting? I remember reading that the heat from the engine is not good for gel cell batteries.

[Alek&Lucia]

Tuga,

Get two brand new, wet cells 8D's, from Interstate, and you will be happy for few or many years to come.
Had similar problem many Moons ago with my Holiday Rambler Limited with CAT 3208T.

Alek