Forum Discussion

retiredtraveler's avatar
retiredtraveler
Explorer
Nov 05, 2013

House power mystery

My wife and I purchased a HR Endeavor this spring. On our second trip out we got a beep-beep from the front and a low dc reading on the fridge. This was while on shore power. I started the engine and things came back to normal. I did this 2-3 more times on that trip to keep the house running. I brought it back to the dealer and he replaced some "Magic box"
We camped several weeks during summer/fall and everything was normal.
The last few weeks the coach has been parked on our neighbor's property. No shore power. This Sunday I wanted to do some work inside that required 110 volt. Cranked up the generator, no problem. Monday was fairly chilly and since it was going to be below freezing at night I decided to run the furnace for a while. We turned on some lights inside and I went to start the generator. Lights dimmed and the beep-beep again. Started the engine and let the furnace run for a while. Tried the generator again, same result.
This morning I moved the coach to our driveway and plugged it into shore power thinking maybe the house batteries were low. After 4 hours I unplugged and tried again,, Beep-beep.
Thinking the charger was not working I checked the voltage at the batteries while plugged in, 13.9v. I unplugged and checked voltage on the batteries, 12.7v.
Any ideas to a newbie from you old timers?
Thanks in advance
Keld
Class A

18 Replies

Show More
  • I_rv's avatar
    I_rv
    Explorer
    Nov 06, 2013
    i had similar problem i found battery cables slightly loose at inverter/charger,you could see blue on cable end from resistance heat build up. good luck
  • Matt_Colie's avatar
    Matt_Colie
    Explorer II
    Nov 06, 2013
    Keld,

    You have a lot of good advice here, but a little bit needs to be more specific.

    Even if you bought the HR new off the lot, that does not mean that everything was done properly and all of you symptoms point to either a bad house bank or bad connections to a house bank.

    Do you have a hand held - stand alone VOM?
    If NO, go get one. It needs to be able to read to 0.1 volts at ~12.
    Disconnect from shore power.
    Put your head in the battery box, put the probes right on the battery posts (not the cable connections and there is a reason).
    Now, have DW crank the APU (genset).
    If it does crank, well, it is tough to diagnose what is working....
    Does the battery voltage disappear? (Like go real low?)
    => The bank isn't charged or is defective. Try charging for a day and then try again. It can take a day to recover a really dead bank.
    Does the bank voltage stay or drop just a little when the APU doesn't crank? (This is directly on the battery posts.)
    => Then you need to disassemble and clean all the connections to the batteries. And, then try the test again.

    I used to work on boats before the depression and I saw this sort of thing all the time. Usually cleaning the battery terminals was a quick, but not cheap fix (if I was getting paid for it).

    Matt
  • tinkerer's avatar
    tinkerer
    Explorer
    Nov 06, 2013
    The first thing to check is the connection on all of the house batteries. Not long ago I posted about a similar problem with a Discovery. As usual I expected the worst but a Fleetwood technician set me straight. I had a bad connection on one of the house batteries.;)
  • wny_pat1's avatar
    wny_pat1
    Explorer
    Nov 06, 2013
    Just check and see how much the batteries have gone down tomorrow before discharging them any more. If they are not holding the charge, then you have problems. Have you checked the electrolyte? What about checking them with a battery hydrometer. That will tell you real fast if they are bad!!!

    My coach stays plugged in all the time. If it isn't plugged in, there are parasitic devices that draw power all the time. In the cold temperatures (17 last night) they would become discharged very quickly. The coach has a 4 stage microprocessor-controller charger that knows more about keeping the batteries up than I do
  • retiredtraveler's avatar
    retiredtraveler
    Explorer
    Nov 06, 2013
    Thank you for the replies.
    Tomorrow I'll check the voltage at the batteries while DW tries to crank the generator. Should give a clue if the batteries are dead.
    Again thanks to all who try to help.
    Keld
  • wny_pat1's avatar
    wny_pat1
    Explorer
    Nov 05, 2013
    I think you need to find a dealer who is more forthcoming!!! A magic box, come now!!! But your discription sounds like you have a parasite voltage problem drawing down you house batteries when not hooked to shore power. You still have things in your coach that use power, like the smoke detector, LP leak detector, Carbon Monoxide Detector which are all operating. These items draw down your batteries.

    And "Thinking the charger was not working I checked the voltage at the batteries while plugged in, 13.9v. I unplugged and checked voltage on the batteries, 12.7v." That sure sounds like it is working to me. 12 volt deep cycle lead acid batteries should measure 12.6 to 12.8 volts when fully charged with charger not operating! How long it can hold that 12.7 vdc is the question!!
  • Sprig's avatar
    Sprig
    Explorer
    Nov 05, 2013
    sch911 wrote:
    If I read your description correctly it sounds like possible bad house batteries.


    That was my first thought also.
    But, if I re-read, I see some inconsistencies.

    Might be interesting for the OP to start the genset, the way the "beep beep" thing happens while someone monitors the voltage right at the coach battery terminals.

    With no prior voltage measurement to use as a baseline it is hard to say what is going on.

    OP, I'd try your start with the genset, the way you did as described in this post. THEN, after the start attempt, check the battery voltage.

    If the battery voltage is still about 12.7, then you probably have a connection issue.

    If the battery is lower then about 12.2, then you probably have bad batteries.

    Hope this helps.
  • sch911's avatar
    sch911
    Explorer
    Nov 05, 2013
    If I read your description correctly it sounds like possible bad house batteries.

About Motorhome Group

38,738 PostsLatest Activity: Jul 26, 2025