Chassis Battery Isolator switch not activating Chassis

You are welcome, Danny. BTW, I carry some fine sandpaper and a small set of fine files I use to 'refurbish' solenoid contacts. Doing so gives much longer life to them then just spray cleaner.

Good luck!

Well Guys thanks for the great feedback on this problem! As it turned out the Arcing was in fact being caused by the Generator Battery...Who would have thunk? It also has a relationship of sorts back to the battery Distribution Box so that needed to be done. Thanks to Gary again for letting me know about that as well. Although I do have a Solar Panel it apparently didn't cause the Arc. I finally solved the Coach Relay issue after some frustrating troubleshooting. As it turns out the two Relays that were sent by PPL were "Fused" with two 5 amp plug in fuses. When I ordered both the Relays for the Chassis and Coach from PPL RV in Houston I asked Gary in tech Support if I would know the difference between the Chassis and Coach Relays because they look identical. He said the Chassis Relay would come with the two Fuses so I said well then that's easy enough....., So I completely forgot that after the successful Chassis relay install and I unpacked the 2nd relay for the Coach and it was a Relay that was fused as well......Not thinking about it I went and removed the old "non-fused" Relay and put in the newer fused Relay. After all ....all...the work in disconnecting Battery Cables, needing miniature hands in that Box. Had to get my wife to help out on some of those crowded bolts, wire connections and screws : ), etc. also, this time the Generator battery cables had to be disconnected as well so we did not Arc up the box again. After everything, no Bueno on the Switch for the Coach Batteries! No light,,,Nada. So at that point I remembered that Gary had said only one relay would be Fused and that would be for the Chassis. Eureka! Well Maybe. They must have sent me two Chassis Relays instead of one each and I installed the wrong Relay for the Coach. So yet another call to Gary to tell him both relays were identical. He said no worries just pull the 5 amp fuses from the Coach relay. Once again, seems easy enough..Said thank you to him and then tried that. No Good. So,,, I decided to de-install the new one and somewhere on this thread a helpful person mentioned that he cleaned his Relays by opening them up and it worked for him. So I de-installed the Coach relay again with ample frustration and much patience. Took it off unscrewed the plastic housing that contains four (4) screws looked inside. It was grimy a bit and had some sediment and light corrosion on the contacts. I was grasping at straws at that point so I got some cleaner/degreaser cleaned it up, said a Prayer :), re-installed it yet again...hooked up the battery connections, yet ...again :) Got up and rubbed my back a few times, said another prayer, hobbled into the Rig went to the cabinet closed my eyes hit the Coach side switch, let out a deep breathe opened my eyes and EUUUURRREEEEKKKKAAA! lol. Only thing left to do now is call Gary in the morning send back that Relay for a refund and help spread the word that those Relays can be Cleaned of corrosion and they may still give you a few more years. Thank You Guys!

Ah HAH! Solar. Forgot that one, good catch CA Traveler. Bet it was the solar panel power causing the arcing.

If all battery banks are disconnected and shore power is unplugged and gen is disabled and solar is disabled that should eliminate all power.

@Dannyhawk101

Without knowing what kind of RV you have, we'd just be shooting in the dark but if it's a Class A, I've only heard of Gensets being powered by the onboard batteries, either the house or chassis set and usually the chassis. So if you've disconnected both the house and chassis battery negatives, you'll not get an arc.

That's not to say a previous owner (you don't mention an age of your RV either) didn't install a separate battery just for the genset for boondocking reasons.

However, if you were still plugged into shore power, then yeah, you'll probably get an arc from something in there.

Well as of 12/20/15 I replaced the Chassis Solenoid/Relay with a new one shipped from PPL RV and it now WORKS! Replacing the old with the new was a bit of a spacing challenge as my older relay did not have the 5 amp fuses as part of the relay. But it fit with some careful relocating of the wires. However, after the Chassis Relay install I now have the same problem with the Coach Side Relay which was working albeit a bit sticky prior to the Chassis side going completely out. Now its dead as well. LOL. Don't know if has anything to do with an Arc I caused in the Box when I was installing the Chassis Relay. Or maybe it just was looking for an out during the install. LOL. The Arc surprised me because all the Chassis and Coach Battery cables had been disconnected with the exception of the Generator battery which I ASSUMED had no relationship to the Intellitec battery Distribution Box!On the Cover of the Intellitec Box it says to disconnect all battery cables and I did that???

Fortunately, Gary from PPL told me to replace both Relays so I had two shipped. Just didn't want to do them both at the same time if I screwed up. Now I will need to go through with the install again for the Coach. According to Gary these only last a max of 15 years so they both needed to be replaced I guess.

Question is before I go ahead and open the Box again to replace the Coach relay with all the Battery Connections disco'd how did I get an Arc in that Box? Was it from the Genset battery? Any input is appreciated.

I guess I'm lucky. Mine have been cleaned once and are at least 22 years old.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
The battery disconnect solenoids are easily opened and the contacts cleaned. Assuming you have the top hat type solenoids in your BCC.

I found this out also when I replaced both solenoids with new ones. I took the old ones apart and cleaned the contacts with a nail file. You could see where they were burned from arcing. So now I have two spares. Both of mine went within a year of each other at 15 and 16 years old, so replacing/cleaning old ones are good preventive maintenance.

The battery disconnect solenoids are easily opened and the contacts cleaned. Assuming you have the top hat type solenoids in your BCC.

Spoke with Gary over at Tech Support for PPL RV in Houston. Very helpful, knowledgeable person. He suggested I replace the Chassis Relay/Switch in the Intellitec Battery Control Box. He also said it would be prudent to do the Coach Relay as well considering the age of the RV. So he has two on the way out to me. Will update after the install.