Battery problem

burlmart wrote:
ECones

tenbear means for you to measure the engine battery while it is running - its alternator should be hi 13 to 14+V, depending on engine battery charge state.

i am suspecting something in house is drawing a lot (maybe a short), or else the BIdirectional Relay Delay unit that controls when to charge both batteries at once. this BIRD turns a solenoid (switch) on or off depending on the charge state of either and/or both the house and the engine batts (this is what your quote was discussing).

the cheap $30 solenoid that BIRD controls notoriously can get stuck and cause all sorts of strange things

Thanks for the post. That's what I've done. I checked it with the engine idling and got 12.5 or so. I need to get my wife out there to rev it to about 2000 rpm and see what it does.

If it's not putting out 13.2 while the engine's running down the road, I'm thinking that could be the problem based on what I finally found in the book and copied above.

We've discussed it this morning, and she's been in the habit of plugging it in at home and turning the battery switch to "Store". Then on the road, in order to run the fridge* and radio/rear camera, she turns the battery switch to "Use". Then at camp grounds, she turns it to "Store" again when she plugs it in. If it never gets an opportunity to charge while plugged in and can't charge while on the road, it's no wonder the radio/rear camera and fridge* gradually pulls it down.

I put a new battery in it this morning and made a note of the exact voltage. I'm going to let it sit with the switch in "Store" until tomorrow afternoon and check it again. If it's dropped, I'll know I've got a short while in "Store."

Then I plan to put in in "Use" and let it charge off the 30 amp, which I know it will. I should be able to leave Thursday morning with a full charge. We'll run it in "Use" until we reach our destination a few hours later, and before plugging in, I'll check it again.

* For clarification, the fridge is either LPG or 110 volt. When running LPG it only needs 12 volts to start.