Walk od Shame. Long!

[D_E_Bishop]

Confession is good for the soul and I am confessing, I am taking that dreaded “Walk of Shame”.

When we bought our Adventurer I was surprised that the batteries were not holding a charge well, they were less than a year old and were clean and no sign of corrosion on the terminals. The problem was getting worse after we had to leave it in the storage yard for a couple of weeks. I thought that there must be an unwarranted number of parasitic drains and downloaded the schematics from Winnebago and tried to figure out what was going on.

When I would flip the disconnect switch, I noticed that the propane leak detector was not going off. I looked at the schematic and it showed the detector did receive it’s power downstream from the disconnect. Darn I thought, someone has messed with the factory wiring and I’ll have to figure out what was done and how much things had been modified. When I started looking at things I noticed that the radios (not OEM) never went off without pushing the on/off switch. I can understand the memory circuit staying hot and that is really a very slight draw and shouldn’t draw a fully charged set of GC2s down in 10 to 14 days.

Now I am frustrated and decide to do a search for other parasites. The disconnect solenoid is behind the entry steps, the battery box and a panel of 12VDC breakers. I finally get access to the solenoids and check the wiring, which looks okay and for whatever reason, I jumpered the solenoid coil to the hot side of the batteries. Nothing, no click, nothing. I did it two or three more times and suddenly, the armature and contacts started clicking and the power to the house was off and then on. I started turning the disconnect on and off using the toggle switch on the wall down by the steps and power was on and off as it should be.

A new 200amp solenoid and problem solved. But I couldn’t stop there, I had to upgrade the battery hold downs, check the water and clean the battery terminals and spray them with that red gunk and reroute a couple of cables to make checking the water levels easier. No big deal, eh!

Well here is where making “The Walk Of Shame” comes in”.

Always, always double check every bolt, screw and clamp you can see in the work area. Yep, you guessed it, a loose nut on the negative battery terminal there the series jumper was connected. High resistance connection, failure of the charging system that is putting out 13.4 to 13.8 volts to charge the batteries, flickering lights, having to run the aux generator in order to watch a moving and have the heater run all night. Not to mention about $175.00 worth of batteries I would need to buy.

At least when I started to remove the batteries and go get new ones, the loose nut was the second one I tried to take off. I didn’t know if I should cry with joy or blush with shame when I found it only finger tight. I did the later as I reconnect the cable. I gave the batteries a good charge for 24 hours, turned off shore power, took voltage reading, 13.7 volts. I took several more reading and in 24 hours, with the batteries disconnected, they dropped to 12.6 volts. Got the load tester out, checked the batteries, totally in the green.

Moral of the story, as my German Engineer Father said, Always, Always check all those nuts, bolts, clamps and other fasteners in your immediate work area, always David, always check twice.

[pnichols]

Kindof, maybe, possibly, related-to ... the same thing happened to us on a trip last year. :S

I have two fairly new AGM batteries in our RV. But the two cabled together in parallel weren't "acting right" ... the voltage was sinking too fast with use.

I opened the battery box, scratched my head, and checked the brass connectors and stainless steel bolts & nuts around the connectors. Everything looked OK. Then I checked terminal voltages of each battery - they read different - which is impossible with two batteries wired together in solid parallel!

Hmmmm ... then I noticed and remembered the little brass/plastic lug-box that I had installed inline in the negative cable between the two batteries. Ahahhhh ... a 50 amp fuse in that little box had blown I don't know when and I had forgotten that I had installed it as a safety measure in case one of the batteries ever suffered a catastrophic internal short. During normal use I didn't think more than 50 amps would ever flow BETWEEN the batteries - more than 50 amps out of the set of two in parallel, yes - but not a 50 amp differential current flow between them!

Now the two batteries are directly cabled together with no fuse - I hope that this never comes back to bite me. 😞

[ericsmith32]

I would laugh but the same thing happened to us on the last trip. I only neglected to check ONE connection. Thought the batteries were acting strange. Still worked until I went out a couple days after returning. Tried to start the generator and nothing. Going to redo the whole setup this spring.

[RayJayco]

j-d wrote:
The Germans have a term for German-Torquing on Nuts and Bolts.

GUTENTEIT!!!

:h I thought that was how they referred to maidens! LOL (Sorry, I couldn't resist that old joke!)

I have made so many of those walks, I have a star on the walk of shame! Perhaps that is why I always have so many 'extra' parts left over!

At least you found the problem before spending the money on new batteries and the maintenance was good to do anyway. Thanks for sharing!

[wa8yxm]

For many years now I have said "Many RVers have a few Screws Loose"

I have, in the last year or two changed that to
Many Rvers have a few Screws loose and there are many Loose Nuts in RV's as well.

Now,, Fact is, there are quite a few NON-RVers who agree with those statements

But I'm talking about the kind of Screw you tighten with a #2 Square bit (normally) and the kind of Nut you tighten with a wrench.

Oh, the screws.. A short list

Shore cord, outlet end (two RV's neither mine)
Power INLET on RV (mine)
Power distribution panel (Mine)
Battery Terminals (yours, and others)
Automatic Transfer Switch (other forum member)
and more.

[D_E_Bishop]

Phil I hope your right about mistakes in the future. By the way, I have about twenty pounds of SS fasteners. Even my hold down bolts are SS all-thread. SS and Monel are used extensively in Submarine equipment and I learned to love it while serving on a couple.

Thanks for the kind words and support.

[westend]

David,
Now that you have that one mistake out of the way, you should be good for ever, again. :B

Phil, good idea on the SS fasteners. I'm lucky, my local True Value stocks nearly everything.

[pnichols]

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Moral of the story, as my German Engineer Father said, Always, Always check all those nuts, bolts, clamps and other fasteners in your immediate work area, always David, always check twice.

..... and - even though electrical cabling itself should be copper - make SURE that nuts, bolts, and other fasteners anywhere around an RV's electrical system are stainless steel or brass and that stainless steel or brass lock washers are underneath all those nuts and bolts.

[Kayteg1]

I think you put too much blame on yourself.
Electricity can be very tricky and coming with mechanical background I learned lot of it the hard way.
One time had motorhome with build-in generator that with good batteries would not turn over.
It had good power when checking, but when pressing "start" all died.
Good thing it had slide-in railing as after days of frustration, I found that one of cable connection, looking very clean and torqued properly would allow voltage to pass at low amps, but would fail at high amp.
Took DW pressing the button and me with voltmeter going from one connection to other.
Those thing can be real nightmares.

[Byrogie]

Thanks for sharing...
Been there done that and now connections are the first thing I check when an issue arises.

[j-d]

The Germans have a term for German-Torquing on Nuts and Bolts.

GUTENTEIT!!!

[Stefonius]

I did the walk myself last year. I was having trouble getting properly recharged after boondocking, and I couldn't figure out why some of my electrics weren't working properly. Lo and behold, I hadn't tightened one of the negative battery cables.

[MrWizard]

'D'
You should not use Game of Thrones descriptors
I almost didn't thread this thread
I didn't want that picture in my head

[Tin_Pusher]

I check the easy stuff first, and if that's not it, I quit 🙂

[fyrflie]

Great story and great advice to everyone.

I can't tell you how many times I jumped head first into a problem without checking the easy things first.