Electric Step Power - Engine Battery?

reading thread below, i may have discovered that the kwikee yellow wire goes into the chevy fuse box under driver seat. it goes into a place called 'auxillary high current relay'

this is an older kwikee thread

ron.dittmer wrote:

Oldme wrote:
Not unusual to be chassis battery.

You will also have a safety override that keeps ypu from driving off
with the steps down.

This is often one of the Parasitic Battery drains that will kill the battery
in a couple of weeks.

I frequently reach under it and unplug the steps if camping for awhile
without moving to protect the chassis battery more.

Interesting.

Because of where our rig is parked at home, it is easy to unhook the chassis battery and therefore I do because the chassis battery drains down quite far in a month's time. Maybe yours is the reason why.

I solved that problem by installing a Trik-L-Start. Now the chassis battery is protected from draining not only from the step, but from every parasitic drain. Since I have a PD4655V converter/charger, I leave my MH plugged in 24/7/365.

Personally, I want the step to retract any time the ignition switch is turned on, regardless of whether the house battery is disconnected or not. The ONLY exception is with the house door actually open, so you can safely step out of the RV. It is highly unlikely that I will drive anywhere with the house door open.

it's easy to confuse yellow wire to ignition with step's primary battery hookup. i would think most builders would use house batt, so that WHENEVER PREPARING TO HIT THE ROAD, leaving house disconnect in USE, if you always turn step on and then, shut door before cranking engine, chassis batt does not need to act except maybe send an ignition wire signal.

where many of you see chassis battery draining is more likely faulty BIRD and its entanglement solenoid relay. it toasted my year old interstate (kirkland) chassis batt.

on trail lite, it looks like step is connected to house.


from snowman9000

top box is entanglement relay for BIRD

bottom box is house disconnect relay

Oldme wrote:
Not unusual to be chassis battery.

You will also have a safety override that keeps ypu from driving off
with the steps down.

This is often one of the Parasitic Battery drains that will kill the battery
in a couple of weeks.

I frequently reach under it and unplug the steps if camping for awhile
without moving to protect the chassis battery more.

Interesting.

Because of where our rig is parked at home, it is easy to unhook the chassis battery and therefore I do because the chassis battery drains down quite far in a month's time. Maybe yours is the reason why.

i think on ours, if the house disconnect is toggled to STORE, step will not work when turning its switch (with a white light) to ON. but chassis ignition with door closed overrides all this and step goes in.



*** EDIT CORRECTION ***

i think on ours, if the house disconnect is toggled to STORE, step will not work when turning its switch (with a white light) to ON. AND, turning on engibe with door closed DOES NOT overrides all this to force step to go in.

but w/ house disconnect toggled to USE, and step is OFF (no white light), turning engine on w/ door closed will force step to go in.

Not unusual to be chassis battery.

You will also have a safety override that keeps ypu from driving off
with the steps down.

This is often one of the Parasitic Battery drains that will kill the battery
in a couple of weeks.

I frequently reach under it and unplug the steps if camping for awhile
without moving to protect the chassis battery more.

My 07 Winnebago Outlook has the step powered from the engine battery. That way, even if the house battery is disconnected, the steps will retract when you start the MH engine.

Using similar reasoning, the generator cranks from the house battery. That way, as long as one of your batteries is charged, you can start SOMETHING. Either the generator so you can power a battery charger, or the MH engine. A single dead battery won't leave you stranded.

There IS a battery combining switch, but it is powered from one of the batteries, so if THAT battery is dead, the battery combining switch won't work either. I don't know, offhand, which battery operates that switch.

Every mh I've ever owned had the steps powered by the engine battery. You should have a switch inside the door that turns the steps off while parked to keep it from opening and closing every time the door is opened. I leave mine off all the time as it will retract when I start the engine, and extend the next time I open the door.

Phoenix Cruiser electric steps are powered by the chassis battery because they are tied to the ignition switch. They automatically fold up when the ignition switch is on so you can't drive with the step out. It is wired such that the entry door will rule over it so with the engine running you can still walk in and out with the step. But closing the entry door folds up the step regardless of the position of the camp-site over-ride switch.

It's a nice arrangement.

If you are plugged in, just add a Trik-L-Start combiner.