Dodge sportsman vogue 77 electrical questions

Welcome to the forum.

The secondary battery is your House battery. It will operate the inside lights independent of the starter battery.
You should have a switch inside the coach to turn the battery(s) on/off.

Make sure your house battery is charged and terminals are clean before starting to diagnosis your electrical problems.

THIS sub-forum is for problems with the forum software.
I think the owners should seriously consider changing the name.....as a LOT of technical RV questions show up here by mistake.

You would get MUCH better answers if you specify exactly what kind of RV you have.

If you bought it new, ask the dealer.
If used, ask the previous owners for the manuals that came with it.

Moved from Forum Technical Support

Sam Spade wrote:

You would get MUCH better answers if you specify exactly what kind of RV you have.

Read the title of the post. Dodge Sportsman Vogue 77, I understood it immediately.
But, I like vintage RV's.

All that means is he bought a 1977 class c (dodge sportsman)

The battery in back can be inferred as being the ' house battery'

Because the engine battery is normally under the hood for that year

Thanks everyone! So I hooked the battery up and it hissed after awhile. Where do I find the voltage regulator for the house battery?

I also was unable to find a switch that isolated the batteries completely but could that be due to the voltage regulator being bad?

Also could a minimally corroded wire show similar signs of a bad voltage regulator?

NO regulator
there IS a 'converter' aka battery charger, it is behind the DC fuse panel
all part of ONE assembly, but usually removable form that box, when you take things apart

it charges the battery when you plug into shore power

battery hissing means bad battery, or the converter is bad and voltage is too high
in which case you just cooked the battery

unplug, remove battery , get it tested
if battery is ok, get a digital volt meter aka multimeter and check the voltage from the converter when plugged in

A corroded connection or terminal isn't good for anything. Clean it up. Your vehicle alternator has a regulator. A '77 Dodge product may still use a ceramic ballast (don't remember when they discontinued that). If you want to maintain the house battery and keep the chassis battery in good health, a battery isolator is the thing to have. It separates house and chassis battery so that the house battery won't drain the chassis battery, leaving your vehicle dead-in-the-water.

Measurements of voltage and what is being powered by what is necessary to diagnose electrical issues. Got meter?