MH wont start on chassis battery. Has 13V
I have a 2008 Country Coach Affinity. It will not start (not even try to crank) on the chassis battery. Everything lights up on the dash OK, it even shows 13V on the voltmeter. Turn the key and not...
Forum Discussion
In case someone runs into this problem (healthy chassis battery that will not start up the coach, but it will start with battery/boost), here is the problem. Hopefully if someone does a google search they will find this helpful.
I called two mobile RV mechanics and they could not find it. One blamed the batteries ("there must be a bad cell") and the other said "everything is working fine. we have 14V at the alternator and 13V at the batteries -- 1V drop is normal for that big run". LOL. When I told him we had 13V before we turned on the engine ... so it didnt go up at all he just looked stumped. SO much for being an ASE certified mechanic (and he said he was the chassis specialist)
The problem is very easy -- there is a 600A fuse in the electrical bay. It is is in the way back and impossible to miss. It was blown. ohms reading didnt help determine it was failed (cant explain this -- but when removed ohms indicated it had failed), So I took voltage reading on both sides and found one side didnt have voltage. Once replaced everything worked again. I shutdown power each time I went back there because of all the high voltage in the bay (steps: shore power off, tripped the echo charger breakers, turned off both inverters, disconnected chassis batteries, turned off solar arrays, and then hit the disconnect switch in the coach).
If I had to do it again (and I hope I dont, but if so, not a big deal now), I would have the replacement in hand first so that you can do the swap once and not repeat the disconnect steps because of the poor location of the fuse.
I called two mobile RV mechanics and they could not find it. One blamed the batteries ("there must be a bad cell") and the other said "everything is working fine. we have 14V at the alternator and 13V at the batteries -- 1V drop is normal for that big run". LOL. When I told him we had 13V before we turned on the engine ... so it didnt go up at all he just looked stumped. SO much for being an ASE certified mechanic (and he said he was the chassis specialist)
The problem is very easy -- there is a 600A fuse in the electrical bay. It is is in the way back and impossible to miss. It was blown. ohms reading didnt help determine it was failed (cant explain this -- but when removed ohms indicated it had failed), So I took voltage reading on both sides and found one side didnt have voltage. Once replaced everything worked again. I shutdown power each time I went back there because of all the high voltage in the bay (steps: shore power off, tripped the echo charger breakers, turned off both inverters, disconnected chassis batteries, turned off solar arrays, and then hit the disconnect switch in the coach).
If I had to do it again (and I hope I dont, but if so, not a big deal now), I would have the replacement in hand first so that you can do the swap once and not repeat the disconnect steps because of the poor location of the fuse.
