Electrical woes

DrewE wrote:
There's more than just a bad transfer switch, though that may well be the root cause. It sounds as though your chassis battery may be discharged or dead as well. (A transfer switch in and of itself would not cause any engine starting problems, since that's all 12V systems.)

Question: Can a bad transfer switch cause engine starting problems
Answer: In the case of a motor home YES.
Question: HOW???? Since the transfer switch is a 120 volt HOUSE device and the starting system is an independent of the house 12 volt system?
(Actually this is a very good question).

Answer: Motor homes often sit for long periods of time without being driven.. This allows the CHASSIS battery to self discharge to the point of deceased, I do not mean dead (run down) I mean DECEASED, (unable to take and hold a charge) (I have seen this, once, in a car).

Now in many MODERN Motor homes (My 2005 for example) the Isolator (The device that allows the engine to charge the house battery) is bi-directional (It also allows the house to charge the engine battery if shore/generator power present) If the transfer switch fails. then the house has no power, and the converter does not convert, and thus the hosue can not charge the chassis, and over time the battery runs down from self discharge and parasitic loads.

The case of the car.... My Mother-In-Law had Alzheimer's and when it comes to driving was getting kind of dangerous. Now it is kind of hard to tell that to an Alzheimer's patient, Dangerous in fact, so what we did is my Wife, Daughter and I conspired to take her everywhere she wanted to go, Shopping, Hair and Doctor appointments, We were always there to do the driving... Well after a year or 3 of this her car would not start, would not even take a charge, I could start it with a Jump Pack but that's the only way.