electrical confusion on 08 bus
We don't have power in storage. When we picked it up after 5 weeks, the house batteries were dead, but the rig started up fine. It has a batterykeeper... Soo... does that keep the chassie battery cha...
Forum Discussion
crappie_fisherman wrote:
When we first got our coach in the fall of 2012...I stored it in an area without 120V.
I mistakenly believed that if I flipped both battery disconnects in the battery compartment (one house and one chassis) that I was actually DISCONNECTING the batteries...I was WRONG.
As mentioned previously...the inverter in many of these coaches is directly wired to the coach batteries and this is because of the residential fridges...so I had to physically DISABLE the inverter to insure that was not adding a load to the batteries while in storage.
I also had a battery "minder" on the coach for the chassis batteries...I'm not sure if Tiffin installed this or Custom RV (next to Tiffin in Red Bay) did...but this particular battery minder actually will impart a parasitic draw on the batteries too unless they are plugged in you will be draining your batteries...
So I had a small learning curve...insure that the inverter was DISABLED and the battery minder to the chassis battery was DISCONNECTED from the batteries via the quick connnector...
Once I figured these two items out...I didn't have any more issues.
My Tiffin Phaeton has two big rotary disconnect switches in the battery compartment in addition to the flip switch at the door that the OP is talking about.
Good luck...it took me some time to figure this out...now thankfully I have my coach in a barn that has 120V to run TWO battery minders (one for chassis and one for coach)...but I still make sure the battery disconnects are turned and the inverter DISABLED.
Joe.
They do NOT wire the Inverter direct to the batteries because of the residential fridge. NOT NEEDED AT ALL. The reason a CORRECT Inverter/Charger install (larger than a 1000 watt model) is wired direct to the batteries is simple---
1. The cable run needs to be as short as possible for the most efficient transfer of current
2. The electric battery disconnect solenoids on the RV;s are rated at 100 amps total. They do make a 200 amp solenoid but that is used for chassis alternator charging. The AMP draw of an Inverter can draw upwards of 150 to 275 amps current which will overload the rating of the battery disconnect solenoid.
3. I have NEVER seen a Inverter/Charger run thru a electronic battery disconnect system from a OEM. I have seen a Manual battery disconnect used on some installs, but it is very rare. Those type are rated at 250 to 350 amps depending on the model. Doug
