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Dow12's avatar
Dow12
Explorer
Oct 13, 2019

House Batteries are fully charged but acts like they are not

I have a 2010 Class A Georgetown ForestRiver. Electrical works fine when plugged into shore power. When I took it off shorepower, generator would not start, steps would not come in, interior lights would not come on and jacks would not come up. Thinking the house batteries may be dead, I took the house batteries out and had the checked. Was told they were fully charged and was told everything was fine with the batteries. I put the house batteries back in and left the RV running for about 20 minutes. The Generator started and got the jacks up. Left generator running while I drove the RV for about an hour. When I stopped, I turned the general off, and just to see what happens I turned the interior lights on and they stayed on for about 5 minutes and then went off. Everything is acting like the house batteries are dead, but I just can't figure out why that is and what is wrong. The chassis battery starts the Rig up just fine, and not sure if that would have anything to do with it anyway.

Anyone have any suggestions on what could be my problem and how to fix? Thank you in advance
  • It seems that there is a mode of battery failure in which the battery will show the full 12.6+ volts of a full charge, and even be able to deliver a small amount of current for a short time before collapsing completely, only to show full charge moments after the load is removed.

    I had the battery on my TT fail in this way. Meter checking voltage only showed full charge. But it would only keep a couple house lights on for a few minutes. Took it to one of the auto stores and their volt meter also showed full charge, but a load test revealed the truth: it had almost no capacity to deliver.

    I wound up having to replace that battery. I still don't know how, exactly, it came to be in that state or what I could have done to prevent it.
  • It has 2 12Volt batteries, I cleaned the terminals. I checked the battery shut off and still nothing.
  • Do you have a battery shut-off for the house batteries that is not turned on?
  • Bad connection on coach battery system
    Verify voltage on each side of battery disconnect.
    Check battery connections
    Are these 12 volt batteries or 6 volters?