I started to smell this rotten egg smell and after a lot of crawling around I traced it to the chassis battery. It was really hot and giving off that terrible smell. I disconnected it and took it out side and it took about 3 hours to cool off. I put a new one in the next day. I talked to someone later that told me to keep the aux battery switch off while Im connected to shore power because it over charged the battery? Or was there some other reason this happened and why only the chassis battery? The book says always keep the switch on unless your going to be hooked up to shore power for a long time while in storage. I have had the switch off since I put the new battery in for about a week now. Any ideas?

Batteries fail. Generally 5 yrs is max but some 6VDC last longer. Anyway, my guess is your battery failed internally and cooked itself. Follow your manual's advice. Check your batteries monthly to ensure water levels are up. Also, if you have a battery bank, one weak battery will drag the others with it....Dennis

Normally, as your battery charges, it develops resistance to charging and the charging current drops to zero. When you have a battery that has a cell that has collapsed inside, the current in that cell merrily runs along, but it sees the battery as not charged, so it throws the maximum charging current through the battery trying to charge it. The result of this current flow is an off gassing, and cooking of the battery. What I did was I got a very cheap ($3.00) (Banggood) two decimal point voltage meter and put it across the battery terminals. Now, I just need to look at the meter to determine my battery voltage. I can monitor the amount of usage over time by checking the voltage. I can also monitor the drop in voltage when I hook up a big load like the furnace motor.Keeping an eye on your battery and understanding what is normal, and what is not becomes a habit, and after a while you just glance at the voltage and know everything is OK, or something is wrong.

Last year battery in our Factory Edge failed.Wife was driving down the road and smelled what you smelled. Pulled over cut the engine off opened the hood but didn't know what was wrong. Found a small reapir shop down the hill. He saw the battery was hot and boiling and about to explode.Replaced it with a NAPA which would not hold enough charge to start the car first of this month,result in cascading visiting Ford Dealers in Russelville Ark, Shawnee Oklahoma, and Camping World, in Oklahoma City, and For Dealer in Texas.New Battery, radiator fan, rewiring the car at CW, and water pump in Texas.Take too long for all the details but about $4,000.00 from a bad new battery!

It takes a LOT of current to make that happen.The most common cause is shorted contacts on the starter solenoid, keeping the starter running (or trying to) a lot longer than it should.The second most likely cause is a short inside the battery itself.The charging equipment in an RV is generally not capable of pumping in that much current, unless it has had a massive failure internally.EVERY RV OWNER NEEDS A VOLTMETER.Then.....turn that switch back on and see what happens.AFTER you get a voltmeter so you can monitor what is happening.IF your chassis battery was cooked by the charging equipment in the "house", then your house batteries should be toast too.

I'd check the charger to make sure it's charging the new battery correctly.

Fried battery | Good Sam Community

Artum_Snowbird
Explorer
Sep 22, 2019
Normally, as your battery charges, it develops resistance to charging and the charging current drops to zero.

When you have a battery that has a cell that has collapsed inside, the current in that cell merrily runs along, but it sees the battery as not charged, so it throws the maximum charging current through the battery trying to charge it.

The result of this current flow is an off gassing, and cooking of the battery.

What I did was I got a very cheap ($3.00) (Banggood) two decimal point voltage meter and put it across the battery terminals. Now, I just need to look at the meter to determine my battery voltage. I can monitor the amount of usage over time by checking the voltage. I can also monitor the drop in voltage when I hook up a big load like the furnace motor.

Keeping an eye on your battery and understanding what is normal, and what is not becomes a habit, and after a while you just glance at the voltage and know everything is OK, or something is wrong.
Executive45
Explorer III
Sep 22, 2019
Batteries fail. Generally 5 yrs is max but some 6VDC last longer. Anyway, my guess is your battery failed internally and cooked itself. Follow your manual's advice. Check your batteries monthly to ensure water levels are up. Also, if you have a battery bank, one weak battery will drag the others with it....Dennis

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