Dead Chassis Battery

Solving the problem of charging the chassis batteries from the on board charger in a motorhome is a problem for which the solution seems to have escaped many RV design engineers. It's not difficult to do, but they seem to fail on a regular basis. I think the theory they operate on is that the on board charger will charge the house batteries whenever they are discharged however, the on board will charge the chassis batteries only the first time they are discharged, and then basically ignore the chassis batteries even if they totally discharge. Their assumption is that you will be driving the RV and your engine alternator will do the job. That's fine if you drive frequently, but if you just sit for a while, the theory breaks down. Rather than fight it, get a Xantrex echo charge for about $110, hook it up and forget about that ever happening again. I did it several years ago because of just this problem and have never looked back. Trying to argue with RV design engineers will just get you frustrated. After all, those guys don't use RVs, so why should they have to understand how they actually work? :B