simionsen wrote:
I have a 2007 Itasca sunova 35J
house batteries charge when on shore power as well as when the generator runs, but not when driving. I've looked through the web and found that it's possibly the solenoid? There is a click when I push the auxiliary battery button....thoughts. Thanks!
simionsen,
Not knowing your SPECIFIC electrical layout pertaining to charging I will tell you how our ITASCA is laid out and works. They may, or may not be the same. Ours is an Itasca Horizon, 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT. There is no battery control center or anything like it. What there is, is two large solenoids, in electrical/shore power compartment (again, may or may not be anything like what you have or where).
One of the solenoids is the House battery shut off. That one terminates all 12V power to the house appliances, lights etc. The other solenoid is a dual duty solenoid. It's first duty is to provide a connection between the chassis batteries and the house batteries, in the event that the chassis batteries are two weak to turn that big CAT over. You control this by pushing on the "Battery Boost" switch, on the dash.
When you push that switch, you send a signal to that large solenoid and, it "clicks" (internally connects) and, that links both battery banks together.
Now, it's second duty is, to link the engine alternator to the house batteries, for charging. That operation is done automatically after the engine is started. A signal, much like the one you send it when pushing the battery boost switch, is sent to that same solenoid and, it's SUPPOSED TO CLOSE, automatically. And, when that happens, your alternator is now charging both the chassis and house batteries.
But, if your system is even close to the same as ours, the "click" you're hearing, may be that same type of heavy duty solenoid but, just like it's happened on many, many other Winnes and Itascas, especially of that era, that solenoids internal contacts, can become corrodes and or, pitted with a form of carbon. When that happens, the solenoid is working but, the contacts are not permitting 12V charging power to travel across them.
Some of us, not many, have taken that solenoid completely apart and, cleaned the corroded terminals/contacts and, reassembled it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this. I did ours over a year ago, and, have put a few thousand miles and hours on it and, it's working flawlessly.
Most will simply replace the solenoid with something equal or, the same one.
Now, again, all that I've said above may, or may not apply to your system. You'll have to determine if your system is the same or not. There are electrical wiring diagrams for Winnes and Itascas in IRV2s forum. You may be able to simply go online to obtain the same ones to see just how your system is laid out. Good luck and please post what you find as a remedy.
Scott
