Are Engine and House Batteries Connected?
On a long trip home, after stopping to get gas, I turned the key to start, and the dashboard went dark. After a bit of panic in the 95 degree weather, I tried the "battery boost" switch, and feeling ...
Forum Discussion
The battery boost/charge relay is a high failure item.
Note that the steps and the slide outs are powered by the chassis battery. Logic here is that if you can start it, they want you to be able to retract everything. If they were off the house batteries, you might have run them dead, but still be able to start vehicle and drive away with stuff extended.
I suspect your 2010 Itasca Cambria 30C has many of the same components and wiring logic that my '07 View has. There are two relays, one is a black one with two fused in holders made into it. It is the house battery relay. It stays in whatever position it was driven to by the solenoid, even if you disconnect the batteries, it will stay in its last position, it does not have a normally open or close position.
The other relay is a silver cylinder with two large terminals and one small one. This is the high failure boost/charge relay. Every time you start the engine, and the alternator begins to put out voltage, this relay is automatically closed, to allow the vehicles alternator to charge the house batteries. When the alternator voltage drops off (as in shutting down the engine) it opens back up (spring loaded to open). If you use the boost switch (and the house battery switch has to be on for this to happen), you are manually operating this same solenoid to connect the house batteries to the chassis battery to boost a weak chassis battery and keep you from being stranded.
My View has about 19K miles on it, and the boost/charge relay was receiving control power to the small terminal, everything else was normal, and it was simply not passing current thru its contacts. It would neither boost nor charge, but from all outward appearances (till I took a volt meter to it) it was working. I replaced it with a nearly identical Cole-Hersee 24213 200 amp relay. The major difference is two small terminals rather than one. The old relay had the solenoid windings grounded internally, while the Cole-Hersee has to have a separate ground wire run from one of the terminals to a good ground, most likely one of the solenoid mounting bolts.
Everything is fine now, and when I start the motor, I see 14.1 volts on the HOUSE batteries AND the CHASSIS battery, and if I disconnect the chassis battery ground, turn on the house battery switch by the door, and hit the boost switch, I get house battery voltage at the positive chassis terminal (when measured to a chassis ground). This proves the solenoid is working properly.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005K2429I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Charles
Note that the steps and the slide outs are powered by the chassis battery. Logic here is that if you can start it, they want you to be able to retract everything. If they were off the house batteries, you might have run them dead, but still be able to start vehicle and drive away with stuff extended.
I suspect your 2010 Itasca Cambria 30C has many of the same components and wiring logic that my '07 View has. There are two relays, one is a black one with two fused in holders made into it. It is the house battery relay. It stays in whatever position it was driven to by the solenoid, even if you disconnect the batteries, it will stay in its last position, it does not have a normally open or close position.
The other relay is a silver cylinder with two large terminals and one small one. This is the high failure boost/charge relay. Every time you start the engine, and the alternator begins to put out voltage, this relay is automatically closed, to allow the vehicles alternator to charge the house batteries. When the alternator voltage drops off (as in shutting down the engine) it opens back up (spring loaded to open). If you use the boost switch (and the house battery switch has to be on for this to happen), you are manually operating this same solenoid to connect the house batteries to the chassis battery to boost a weak chassis battery and keep you from being stranded.
My View has about 19K miles on it, and the boost/charge relay was receiving control power to the small terminal, everything else was normal, and it was simply not passing current thru its contacts. It would neither boost nor charge, but from all outward appearances (till I took a volt meter to it) it was working. I replaced it with a nearly identical Cole-Hersee 24213 200 amp relay. The major difference is two small terminals rather than one. The old relay had the solenoid windings grounded internally, while the Cole-Hersee has to have a separate ground wire run from one of the terminals to a good ground, most likely one of the solenoid mounting bolts.
Everything is fine now, and when I start the motor, I see 14.1 volts on the HOUSE batteries AND the CHASSIS battery, and if I disconnect the chassis battery ground, turn on the house battery switch by the door, and hit the boost switch, I get house battery voltage at the positive chassis terminal (when measured to a chassis ground). This proves the solenoid is working properly.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005K2429I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Charles
