Can jumping the chassis battery ruin anything?

[ponytail_mom]

Hello RVers,

My apologies for the newbie question. I just inherited an RV, a 2009 Simba Safari. When I went to start the beauty, the engine would not turn over. I jumped it with my portable charger. It started instantly.

But then I noticed the electric car seat and the radio were not getting power. They didn't work, although everything else (lights, turn signals, etc) I drove it for gas and on the way back the turn signals stopped working.

Could I have damaged anything by jumping the chassis battery??

Any and all comments are appreciated. (And I'm enrolled in a class to understand my electrical systems better through good Sam!!)

Cristina

[time2roll]

You can 'see' the charge with a voltmeter. 12.5+ good, 12.0 or less bad or needs a charge.

Once running the alternator should begin charging all batteries. But this could take many hours. Best to get the RV someplace where you can plug in. If it has an onboard generator you might get that started and let it run a couple hours.

The 12 Volt Side of Life

[DrewE]

The turn signals are probably quite unrelated, a fuse or other wiring problem.

The radio very well may be powered by the house battery or have a switch to choose which battery it gets power from. This varies quite a bit with various RVs. I would be surprised if the electric seat is powered by the house battery, but I suppose anything is possible.

If you'll generally be leaving your RV plugged in (and thus the house battery charged), one easy way to ensure the chassis battery also stays charged is to install a Trik-L-Start unit. This is a little box that "steals" power from the house battery charger for the chassis battery when needed, and is the sort of thing you install once and then can ignore for the rest of your RV's life.

[ponytail_mom]

Hello Fred and Everyone,

Thank you for the details! Thanks to you I now understand that "off" doesn't mean not drawing power, and power from both coach and chassis batteries. I do not know if house batteries are dead or not. I was preoccupied with the car seat and radio power.

Could the electric car seat and radio run on the coach batteries rather than the chassis?

I will return to the RV in two days to check RV. Is there a way to "see" the charge in the coach batteries? If the RV starts welI will have confidence the battery is ok.

The battery was (is) new and this incident would have been the first time it drained. It started instantly when jumped from hand charger and it only charged for as long as it took me to climb into the RV. It sounded like a good start, no struggle, no rar rar rar if you know what I mean. 😄

Now the turn signals stopping working WHILE I was driving has me worried as this might be related, but with an added problem like poor wires or ... Well quite honestly I have no idea. Fuse?

Thanks to you all in this forum. I can't believe what an awesome resource this is. I am just a newbie (does the RV world have a name for us?) but I am already envisioning spending my years RVing!!

Cristina

[time2roll]

No. Those items were already broken.

Now you need to devise a way to keep the batteries charged including the House and the Chassis.

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

Sometimes it is possible to damage a alternator by not having the battery charged when you hook up to it. Read a warning sticker on all replacement alternators and it will say "Warranty void if battery is not charged prior to installing".

DOn't know if you damaged the alternator or not. You can also damage your alternator when jumpstarting a friend's car too. It has to do with connecting to the 10 volt battery, and having your car alternator put out the maximum amperage for say 5 minutes while jump starting the other vehicle. It is much better to do what you did, and use a jump start portable battery pack.

When I jump start a friend's car, I hook up the cables with my car running for about 5 minutes, then shut mine off just before telling them to start their car. Then the battery will get about a 10% to 15% charge over that 5 minutes, then use both batteries to get the amperage to start the car.

Plug in the RV to 120 volt power, you will need to charge both the coach battery (that runs things while camping) and the engine battery. You might be able to use both of them again, if you can charge them for say 24 hours on a 10 amp portable charger (the coach battery will charge fine on the built in charger).

If the battery will not hold a charge, then replace it. Consider it like a tank of gas, something you have to replace every once in a while, and more often if you let it sit long enough to discharge the battery all the way. You do not replace the battery each time it discharged all the way, but it only takes about 10 - 20 times discharging the battery all the way to destroy a otherwise should have been good battery.

Keep the RV plugged in if you can, or install a 100 watt + solar system, so that the battery will stay full. The RV will consume about 35 amp hours daily to run the CO meter, propane leak detector, and refrigerator. Most CO meters have two inputs, and are connected to both the RV coach battery and chassis battery. It can discharge both batteries.

So manufactures started installing 'master shut off switch' to disconnect all power from the battery to the RV. If they are off, then that should protect the battery - even if unplugged for say a month or so. Any longer, and you will still need to charge the engine and coach batteries.

Many recommend starting the RV once a month for say 10 minutes, to both recharge the batteries and lubricate everything. Keeps the seals from drying out and leaking.

Good luck,

Fred.

[ponytail_mom]

Hi Jerry and Noel and Betty Johnson and Everyone!

Thanks for jumping in! You know the battery was replaced just two months ago (brand new) reading from the owners manual, I see the chassis battery should have been switched to "off" while sitting for more than 48 hours. It sat for the two months.

It was plugged into a 50-amp outlet while it sat. I guess I'm worried because the electrical system is so very complicated. I am still getting my head around when to switch to house batteries, or perhaps I should have tried to battery boost from the house batteries, etc. instead of a jump.

In my automobile experience, I've never created a problem when jumping the battery (usually only solved a problem--ha ha).

The new battery was quite $$$ and I'd hate to troubleshoot by buying a new one. The RV starts fine now. I'm hoping I didn't screw things up by a simple jump.

Cristina

[Johno02]

Sounds like you are a smart person to think about the class. In this case, it sounds like you may have some other fuse or wiring problems. Unless you got a reversed connection and drew a big spark while trying to jump it, the jump start should not have caused any problem.

[Mandalay_Parr]

I would start with a new battery.
You probably did not damage.