Chassis battery won’t charge from converter
I have a 2000 Coachman Catalina 330 mbs and the Chasis battery is not being charged by the converter all of a sudden. I have had this coach for3 years and it has always kept all of the batteries charg...
Forum Discussion
As a work around while you're figuring out what's wrong:
Had the same problem with my '94 Bounder, which had that big BCC (Battery control Center) I priced out and found it was very expensive. Plus I didn't know if that was the problem.
What I did, to hurry things along so I could enjoy the RV rather than immediately start fixing or replacing major components, was to install a Schumacher Float Charger. Back in '04 they were only $20, and the Bounder's battery compartment had a nearby electrical outlet in a basement compartment I used to power it. It was a set and forget kind of deal because it was permanently attached to the battery and once I arrived at a campground, plugging into shore power would keep the chassis battery charged.
As a result, I didn't get around to trying to figure out what was wrong in the BCC until years later. Having too much fun traveling so never got 'round2it'. Turned out my Bounders BCC wasn't involved with charging the chassis battery except for controlling the puny solar charger on the roof and passing the charging current on to the chassis batts. Which is typical for millions of RVs.
When I bought this '02 Journey, I soon checked the voltage on the chassis batts when plugged into shore, and sure enough, voltage there indicated there was NO trickle charging going on. In this case, there wasn't a handy 120V outlet nearby, so I installed the Trik-L-Start. This device just borrows some power from the House batts to keep the chassis batts charged up.
What I'm saying is that it's often easier to just install a Trik-L-Start or some other inexpensive charger for the chassis batts than to track down and fix a non-functioning charger. And often much less expensive.
Had the same problem with my '94 Bounder, which had that big BCC (Battery control Center) I priced out and found it was very expensive. Plus I didn't know if that was the problem.
What I did, to hurry things along so I could enjoy the RV rather than immediately start fixing or replacing major components, was to install a Schumacher Float Charger. Back in '04 they were only $20, and the Bounder's battery compartment had a nearby electrical outlet in a basement compartment I used to power it. It was a set and forget kind of deal because it was permanently attached to the battery and once I arrived at a campground, plugging into shore power would keep the chassis battery charged.
As a result, I didn't get around to trying to figure out what was wrong in the BCC until years later. Having too much fun traveling so never got 'round2it'. Turned out my Bounders BCC wasn't involved with charging the chassis battery except for controlling the puny solar charger on the roof and passing the charging current on to the chassis batts. Which is typical for millions of RVs.
When I bought this '02 Journey, I soon checked the voltage on the chassis batts when plugged into shore, and sure enough, voltage there indicated there was NO trickle charging going on. In this case, there wasn't a handy 120V outlet nearby, so I installed the Trik-L-Start. This device just borrows some power from the House batts to keep the chassis batts charged up.
What I'm saying is that it's often easier to just install a Trik-L-Start or some other inexpensive charger for the chassis batts than to track down and fix a non-functioning charger. And often much less expensive.
