chassis batteries draing

[sew0177]

I have an 04 fleetwood revolution which has a manual chassis battery cutoff switch. Since last fall I have started and ran the revo once a month for about an hour op through Dec last yr. However, since having surgery in early Feb i have not been able to. I tried to start it today and nothing. I took both batteries out and had them tested and charged... charged full and no bad cells.

Could there still be a drain even with the cutoff switch?

[MrWizard]

Sometimes the best place for a cut switch is in the main negative ground cable between battery and frame

[TZScales]

sew0177 wrote:
The batteries are relatively new, bought last Sept, but I'll clean them prior to reinstalling tomorrow.

Unfortunately the revo is stored in a storage lot so I can't keep it plugged in.

sew0177,

Our coach is in storage also and the most feasible route, for now, is that I remove the batteries and take them home to be put on battery maintainers. We are only 10 minutes away now.

May I suggest you consider this as a possible option. When our coach was stored further away (over one hour), it really was a pain and inconvenience to remove the chassis starting batteries; however, it was done in some cases and in others, I would just leave the batteries installed and if they were drained, I would start the generator to help boost the house batteries and, in turn, assist in starting the engine.

These batteries are quite heavy and one must be both careful and safe.

[Blaster_Man]

Call Fleetwood. Some of their coaches charge the coach batteries first, then when they reach a certain charge, the chassis batteries charge. If the coach batteries never reach the charge required, the chassis batteries will never be charged.

[Gjac]

You can measure the parasitic drains my removing your neg battery cable in setting your multimeter to the 10 amp scale and measure between the neg cable and the neg post. If you measure an amp or more that would draw your battery down. You can always just disconnect your neg cable for long term storage if you have two much draw. I do this over the winter months and the batteries are down maybe 40%. What you describe is not right, either batteries were not fully charged to begin with or something is drawing from you batteries.

[dsr27]

sew0177 wrote:


Could there still be a drain even with the cutoff switch?

Does the cutoff switch turn off ALL 12 V to the motor? Does the monster cable going to the starter go through that switch? If not, it's probable that your alternator connects to the battery lead on the starter. Alternators do sometimes discharge batteries if the diodes have failed.

Gary

[MrWizard]

all batteries have self discharge
although what you have mentioned is above normal
many RVs do not disconnect the engine/chassis batteries only the house batteries
did you install the manual disconnect on the chassis batteries

we had a pace arrow 454 on P30 chassis, that would drain the chassis batteris
some kind of leakage thru the starter solenoid
i put a manual disconnect on the chassis batteries under the front hatch,
used it anytime we parked more than one night

[sew0177]

The batteries are relatively new, bought last Sept, but I'll clean them prior to reinstalling tomorrow.

Unfortunately the revo is stored in a storage lot so I can't keep it plugged in.

[time2roll]

Are you plugged in? Install a Trik-L-Start combiner.
Or if you have some sun consider 100 watts solar on the roof.

[RLS7201]

Yes, there are always parasitic battery drains. One often over looked battery drain is dirt and acid across the top of the battery. It will cause a high resistance path between posts.

Richard