House Batteries

How frequently did you check the water level in the batteries?

Tom

We never have checked water level. The house batteries are located under the steps of motorhome. The way they're wired it's hard to get to.

17 months - perhaps if the batteries were inexpensive, poorly made and not taken care of, then they could be dead.

If you trust the mechanic and that the batteries are indeed dead and not coming back to life, then I'd ask the mechanic to help me figure out what's killing the batteries.

Start with what kind of batteries are in the RV? How do you charge them and how often? Do you use a volt meter to check them? We need a little more information to help.

MH is at the mechanic's shop so I don't know the brand of batteries. We're going there tomorrow morning before they replace anything. When we bought the unit 17 months ago the dealer had to replace the batteries when the generator didn't work. Now the same thing has happened.

I would bet that if you have a disconnect switch, it is not working or you are not disconnecting the house batteries from the 12V distribution. The parasitic loads will draw the batteries down to nothing. After a few of these cycles, the batteries will be dead.
This is something that is not mentioned too often when buying an RV.

Do you ever store the RV without power and let the batteries run down flat?

I didn't know there was a disconnect switch so that may be the problem. We store our RV without being connected to power.

How was your Outlook used during those 17 months that the batteries went dead? Was it sitting most of the time in storage, or being driven to/from camping spots, or being driven a lot between different camping spots while on RV trips?

Our 2005 Itasca Spirit could have had the same thing happen if I hadn't hit upon something that would have caused our situation to be the same as yours:

Your Outlook has a "solenoid" (big switch) that - whenever you turn the key on and start the main engine - automatically connects your main engine's alternator to the coach batteries so as to charge them strongly as you drive along.

This solenoid has failed twice in our motorhome since we bought it new in early 2006. The first (orignal) one failed about 2 years after we bought our motorhome new and the second one failed last fall. We are now on our third solenoid.

Finding out if this solenoid has failed, or is failing, is tricky ... as it can fail in two different ways ... and one of the ways it can fail is very subtle and tough to determine.

When this solenoid no longer is doing what it's supposed to do, your RV's batteries are not charged correctly - or at all - as you drive along between camping spots, so your batteries can get more and more run down as you move from camp to camp. This running down of your batteries is not fully corrected by the stock built-in battery charger ("converter") when camping with full hookups, either. Full charging of your batteries on camping trips in a Class C motorhome (unless someone has had a better charger installed to replace the stock converter for better charging when on full hookups) can best be done by the main engine alternator when driving between camping spots - if this solenoid is operating correctly and in good condition.

Since your motohome is a 2007, I recommend that you have it's alternator-to-coach battery interconnect solenoid replaced, just in case. You might get much better battery performance on camping trips if you do! It is not a large expense to have it replaced.

You said you never checked the batteries in 17 months ?? Dis you ever think they mite have ran dry.
Heres a fact,.......
If you store the MH w/o any power to it, the batteries must be disconnected, either thru a disconnect switch, or removing a battery cable. If not, the batteries will be dead in 2 weeks

Another few facts,........
If your batteries ever get stone dead, and set for a month, thay are junk.
And if they go stone dead more than twice for even a short time, they are probably junk.
Batteries have to stay full charged whenever not being used, or they will be short lived.
And if they ever run out of water while charging, they will be junk.
You should read "12v Side of Life"