no charging voltage

There would be a battery disconnect switch, perhaps at the doorway. It will operate a solenoid switch in the engine compartment that actually is the disconnect switch.

In addition there might be a fuse or DC circuit breaker close to the house batteries on the positive wire.

BFL13, There are two disconnect switches at the doorway, one for the house batteries and one for the motor battery. Both have an indicator light to show the batteries are connected. When I disconnect the motor battery the light goes out, when I disconnect the house batteries the light stays on. I will look for the solenoid to see if it has failed "open". There is also a device (black box about 3 inches square) in the positive lead to the house battery. no reset buttons, no way to open it, a current rating of 85 amps. I checked both sides (in lead, out lead) for voltage, both show 0 volts.

BFL13, I can hear both solenoid open and close as the disconnect switches are turned on and off. I have checked all the fuses I can find, all have 12.3 voles on both sides of the fuse.

If you get no voltage either side of the 85amp breaker/fuse seems to me that one side of it is not seeing battery voltage of 12.x and the other side is not seeing converter voltage of 13.x. So no ground anywhere?

Maybe jumper the 85a thing and see what happens to the battery post voltage

EDIT. you do get 12.3 at the fuses so that must be battery voltage, not converter voltage so it is confusing you get no voltage in places as reported. Are you getting battery voltage at the DC panel? Are the batteries at 12.3 instead of 12.7 as new? If so they should be put on a charger until you can get this converter supply sorted out.

Now that you can hear the solenoid clicking, does that light still stay on? That might mean the solenoid is moving but not making contact.

Do you get battery charging via the alternator / isolator path with the engine running?

Did you put all the wires back on when installing the new batteries? :)

No idea what it is exactly, but some threads like this mentioned a BIRD some MHs have. If you have one, is it ok?

To be clear, the new house batteries are NOT attached to the system. I am looking for the charging voltage at the terminals that will attach to the batteries.
I have not looked for voltage with the engine running, but I will.
Sounds like the voltage I see at the fuses comes from the motor battery not the converter. I will disconnect that battery and see if there is still voltage at the fuses.
Not sure how to test the solenoid.

THe following are on the suspect list:

Wrong cable.. Only one of those wires will have power on it, the others are power suckers. (or grounds on the negative side).

Blown fuse (Probability low)
Tripped circuit breaker (Probability medium)
Disconnect set in STORE/OFF/DISCONNECTED (probability high)

Bad wire, OR connection.. I'd rate this medium to medium high (connection)

Have had all the above.

peteandpatty01 wrote:
To be clear, the new house batteries are NOT attached to the system. I am looking for the charging voltage at the terminals that will attach to the batteries.
I have not looked for voltage with the engine running, but I will.
Sounds like the voltage I see at the fuses comes from the motor battery not the converter. I will disconnect that battery and see if there is still voltage at the fuses.
Not sure how to test the solenoid.

If you see 12.3 from chassis battery at the DC house panel, that means you have closed the "isolator and aux/start relay solenoid" (which I believe is a dash button in a MH) so you should also get alternator charging if the engine were on)

IMO turn that off while trying to isolate the problem here why no converter voltage at the house battery.

Now, since the batteries are not connected, the 85a gizmo should not have battery voltage on one side but should have converter voltage on the other side ASSuming the solenoid for that set of batteries is closed. Since it clicked closed ( but the light stayed on?), and there is no voltage downstream at the 85a thing, that means the solenoid is still open even though it clicked.

However that leaves why not converter voltage 13.6 at the DC dist panel instead of 12.3 motor battery voltage

I am using OnaQuest's drawing of his MH set-up

http://d1.dropbox.com/u/15918372/Inverter%20Feed%203.jpg

Took off shore power, ran engine and measured voltage at the fuses got 14.4 VDC. Still no voltage at the terminals of the house batteries. Now trying to get some information from Intellitec Corp. they make the distribution box holding the battery disconnect. Everything seems to point to a bad house battery disconnect solenoid holding the house battery out of the system.

Tried to post earlier but rv.net no go today.

No shore power, set isolator so no engine battery to DC fuses. Install house battery. Is there house battery voltage at the fuses?

Problem is the report that converter is 13.6 but fuses see 12.3 engine battery. (or 14.4 alternator) But thing is the solenoid switch is letting that engine battery through to the DC panel. why no 13.6 at fuses????

Need to see if house battery voltage is reaching DC fuse panel to identify if that 85a thing is the problem. If no battery voltage at fuses then by pass/jumper that 85a thing and see what happens then.

There may even be a problem where you don't see any voltage with no battery, because those wires need to touch as when on the battery. If so, with no battery, then with no battery you have to clamp them together as though on battery posts.

Maybe this is related to the Thor Battery Control Center Recall.