Dead Batteries

[Bailey_Travis]

I have an Airstream Interstate 2014. It has been in storage for 3 months and the batteries are all dead. The ignition key will not turn indicating the chassis battery is dead. I have connected the outside shore power cable to our home's electrical outlet (110 volt) for 24 hours without any progress. I was told by Coach Net, the road service that comes with the purchase of the Airstream, that because the RV is in storage and the engine is not directly accessible by another emergency assist vehicle, that it may have to have the transmission disengaged to allow it to be towed back out of the storage area to gain access to the engine compartment for jumping it. I should have disengaged the engine battery cut-off switch but stupidly didn't. Any thoughts?

[charles]

You can also buy a portable power pack battery jumper. You can reach anything with one of those and simply plug it into a electrical outlet to re-charge the power pack after using it.

Nick

[2oldman]

Davydd wrote:
You can also jump start it as well that way with jumper cables.

Do that. No reason at all to mess around with moving the coach for a dead battery. That 'road service' you have is avoiding your problem.

[jjson775]

Davydd makes sense. If you are not in a hurry to move the van, I would buy a trickle charger and use it to charge the engine battery until you can start it. That way, the next time you don't plan to drive it for a while, you can leave the trickle charger on the engine battery. You should have a disconnect switch for the house battery, it should be switched off whenever you aren't using the RV. 120 V household current will charge the house battery. I wouldn't replace the batteries until they fail a test. Good luck with your predicament, let us know how you make out.

[coolbreeze01]

Deal of the day, 20% off all batteries today at Sears. Jumper cables also on sale. Good luck.

[1775]

Why are they not coming to the engine with a portable jumper battery? If it is so far gone so that will not work, then pull the battery out of the engine, buy a new battery and put it in - or have someone come and put it in for you. Since this is the engine battery, it should not be hard to find a guy in a gas station who will do this for you for a price - still better than disengaging the transmission!

[senf]

How about a couple of floor jacks under the front axle and a service vehicle hydraulic lift under the back and ease it out backwards. Easier than messing with the transmission

[wincrasher65]

Don't most vans have a switch that allows you to start the engine on the house battery?

[Mandalay_Parr]

I would put in all new batteries and go from there.
The old ones are probably toast from sitting discharged so long.

[Davydd]

Your shore power will not charge the chassis battery but should charge the auxiliary house battery. To charge your chassis battery you need a portable charger to connect to the positive connection which you can see under the hood that looks like a red button plunger and negative to your frame. You can also jump start it as well that way with jumper cables. Your chassis battery is under the driver's floor but you do not connect to it that way to charge, so there is no reason to access it. The information is in your Mercedes Benz Sprinter owners manual.

Edit. Should have read closer. If a service can't get to it then jumper cables are out. My advice to get a portable charger still stands since you can get to it with an electrical cord with 115AC. I've gone through this and it works. 3 months is a long time to let it sit and the battery will most likely drain enough not to start but that does not mean it is dead and you need a new battery. It does mean that such abuse will shorten the eventual life of the battery.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

For most motorhomes plugging in the shore power does not charge the Chassis battery.

I would use an external battery charger on the chassis battery.

Best of luck with this.