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Frosty_s_Mom's avatar
Frosty_s_Mom
Explorer
Jan 26, 2014

Huh? Now what?

getting ready to head out from our winter lay-over to a weekend rally north discovered we had a dead engine battery and coach batteries. or at least, we think they were. doesn't make sense we couldn't start the engine using the auxilliary but nothing happened. even plugged in to shore power, slides were dead in the water. charge on the engine battery helped enough to get the slides in, engine started, and off we went. boon-docking, i sweated our charge, fearing 80 miles wasn't sufficient. guess it was; no further problems. i thought if we were plugged into shore power those slides should work. battery charge showed full on shore power; 2/3 off. what happened? some switch somewhere?
Class C

4 Replies

  • harley-dave's avatar
    harley-dave
    Explorer II
    Jan 27, 2014
    Our Itasca 31C is wired the same way. Dead chassis battery and not much works. We added a trik-L-start to keep the battery charged. On our rig the RV radio in the cab has a switch to power it from the chassis battery or house battery. It got bumped to the chassis battery and it discharged the battery in about 3 days. We always verify it's in house position now.

    Dave
  • lane_hog's avatar
    lane_hog
    Explorer II
    Jan 26, 2014
    Yes, my wiring diagram for our Minnie 31C confirms the slides and the pop-out steps are tied to the engine battery, not the coach or shore power. Run your slides out with the engine running, and you'll notice the difference.

    Always disconnect your engine battery in storage. We have a solar panel to keep the house topped off, but haven't bothered to tie in the engine yet...
  • Just_Jeff's avatar
    Just_Jeff
    Explorer
    Jan 26, 2014
    On many models (like mine, I think), the auxiliary switch is powered by the chassis battery. Since its purpose is to start the motor off the house battery, it doesn't make sense to power the switch off the chassis battery...but apparently many do. So if your chassis battery was dead, that may explain why the auxiliary switch didn't help start it.

    Did you check water levels in the batteries?
  • Beverley_Ken's avatar
    Beverley_Ken
    Explorer
    Jan 26, 2014
    The slides on the Winnebago c-class work off the chassis battery. Shore power does NOT charge the chassis batteries unless a trik-l-charge or other battery maintainer has been added after leaving the factory.
    Get out your multimeter and check the coach battery voltages. Also check the connection terminals. On our 29b, the batteries are located under the entry step, just ahead off the rear wheels and would always get dirty and good connections until cleaned. Finally covered the tops with heavy plastic garbage bag.

    Beverley&Ken

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