Troubleshooting Coach Battery Issue

Returning as promised. After a frustrating search to find the problem, including digging into where I probably shouldn't have been digging, I was about to resign myself to taking out all my life savings and taking the rig to a repair shop. As a last ditch effort, I called Pleasure-Way and spoke to a tech issues guy named Michael, eh?

He told me that it was most likely that the converter circuit breaker was tripped. Now, I was trained as a house electrician, but have little experience with DC, and DC breakers look nothing like house breakers. He told me to look for a "little button sticking out" and to push it back in, because sometimes when shore power is disconnected, the breaker will trip. I peered at the bloody thing for several minutes without seeing any button, then happened to lean in a little further to where the other side of the breaker wasn't in the flashlight's shadow, and whaddya know: there it was! Reset the breaker, plugged shore power back in and immediately saw 13.8VDC at the battery.

So all is well again and I was able to avoid a second mortgage for repairs. Thanks again the the help.

Sometimes toggling the battery disconnect switch on/off helps - also look for a auto reset circuit breaker often located near the battery. When those go toes up it disconnect the battery from the rig.

j-d wrote:
Have you found the 120VAC Breaker Panel and 12VDC Fuse Panel? Converter/Charger, Inverter if applicable, Transfer Switch if applicable, are likely to be nearby.

I'm going out to check things out today, and try some of the offered suggestions. I'll come back to this forum when I find the problem. Thanks.

“Recently, I plugged in the shore power cable to make sure the coach battery is fully charged...”

Recently? As in last month the house battery was fine when I checked...voltage and water?

Have you found the 120VAC Breaker Panel and 12VDC Fuse Panel? Converter/Charger, Inverter if applicable, Transfer Switch if applicable, are likely to be nearby.

moved from technology corner

KarlV wrote:
No idea where the inverter/converter is located on this rig; .

Highly likely that there is no INVERTER involved anywhere. The standard charging unit is a converter/charger.

P.S. Letting batteries sit in a discharged state for very long makes them AGE much faster. They need to be kept near to a full charge when not in use.

It's not the original battery; I had to change it out a few years ago. And yes, it has a battery switch. No idea where the inverter/converter is located on this rig; perhaps under the rear seating, which is a PITA to access. I'll try some of the suggestions and see what's up.

With a 2010 your batteries... If Original.. Are approaching end of life (7-10 is average 12-13 if you are very very lucky)

Hook a DIGITAL voltmeter to the batteires, unplugged, and note voltage.
Plug in and note voltage

IF you can measure current in a wire without disconnecting (Clamp on DC ammmeter. yes there is one sitting beside me, DO SO and report findings back

Possible issues
Battery: Shorted cell (low voltage standing, may be OK plugged in, HIGH current plugged in

Battery: High resistance, VOltages look OK plugged in but any load. even just the assoted alarms will take it down fast. LOW current plugged in

Converter toast (NO Current plugged in all voltages likely low
Or if you have an Inverter/charger... That's the toasty item.

Have you had it load tested?