Motorhome won't start

I don't know if the Aerbus is set up the same as ours, but we have a 1999 Rexhall Vision which we bought last year. On our first trip out, we drained the house batteries, pdq. We happened to be near Lancaster CA and stopped in at the factory. They told us someone had put start batteries in for house batteries, so they swapped them out. Within two weeks we had the same problem of the house batteries draining (we'd been parked for a week and started the generator occasionally to keep the batteries charged). We were in Custer, and managed to hook up with a very good mobile technician. He diagnosed the problem in about 10 minutes - on our dash there are three switches, two are rockers and one is a momentary switch. The momentary is to start the generator, that was pretty obvious. The middle switch is for the little dome lights on the driver and passenger side, and the switch on the far left is to start the motor with the house batteries. What we didn't know is that it has to be ON while driving in order to keep the house batteries charged. I understand that in some rigs the alternate start switch is a momentary switch similar to the generator switch. The stairs are supposed to retract when the engine is turned on - sometimes ours don't retract fully, but it doesn't seem to lock out the engine. We did note that the chassis battery will go dead quite quickly from just sitting in the driveway, so we installed a trickle charger, which we can plug in under the dash when we are on shore power.
We were on the road for just over 6 weeks (just got back) and had no battery issues. We did blow a spark plug on the V10, but that's another story altogether! I hope you enjoy your Rexhall, ours is great!

I guess they are not all the same I can move my MH around with the slides out if I want, I have done it. I can also drive with the steps out, I bent them bad enough to need replacement, The first turn I came to. That was not suppose to be able to happen.

imadtchmn wrote:
Steps not retracting all the way will cause a no-start. Its a safety feature to keep you from destroying your steps. Same thing with slides and levelers on some models.

Thanks we are thinking that was the problem. Me pushing on them may have been enough to trick the sensor. I guess we will find out down the line.

Steps not retracting all the way will cause a no-start. Its a safety feature to keep you from destroying your steps. Same thing with slides and levelers on some models.

Vet Man wrote:
I do not own your brand, but on mine "Itasca" when you turn on the ignition key the step comes in. Never heard of it not starting with the step out. Do you have 2 switches one for Chassis and the other for coach? Mine are on the side of the entrance steps, get kicked to the off position when entering and exiting the coach.

Yes we have those, they were fine. The steps can be locked in the out position, but if not, when you open the door they come out and when you shut the door they come in. The are very very dirty right now, Motorhome was out in the country, dirt roads, the motor replaced a couple of years ago for steps. They are only coming half way in now. We are going to clean and lube before anything else where they are concerned. Could be a faulty ignition switch or something, going to have it checked out. Thanks

I do not own your brand, but on mine "Itasca" when you turn on the ignition key the step comes in. Never heard of it not starting with the step out. Do you have 2 switches one for Chassis and the other for coach? Mine are on the side of the entrance steps, get kicked to the off position when entering and exiting the coach.

Thanks everyone for getting back to us, I am sure we will have millions more questions...lol. We can deal and will take everything else as much as we can in stride, just please let the engine start and get from A to B..lol. As it is used it is being checked over this morning, trying to cross all our T's and dot all our I's

Congrats on your new coach and hopefully less stressful as you move forward!

Burwoods wrote:
IT STARTED...yeah. The only thing I did (Sally) was open and close the door a couple of times, the stairs are giving us a problem, Bob is going to clean and lube hoping they will go all the way in with no trouble. Hoping this was just a safety feature. I mean really to just pull in the driveway from picking it up and not have it start..lol. Feeling better.

and learning about your new to you motorhome, awesomeness right there

IT STARTED...yeah. The only thing I did (Sally) was open and close the door a couple of times, the stairs are giving us a problem, Bob is going to clean and lube hoping they will go all the way in with no trouble. Hoping this was just a safety feature. I mean really to just pull in the driveway from picking it up and not have it start..lol. Feeling better.