The next day the RV battery under the hood was dead. Replaced it for $169.00.
Then the house batteries would not keep a charge. The panel indicator lights showed that it would go from "charged" to "fair" overnight while parked in my driveway. So I took it to my neighborhood mechanic who checked the batteries and said they were fine. He asked if I had been checking the water levels. I replied that I thought they were sealed batteries which is what he told me a year ago when he checked them. He said no and proceeded to open the water intake area. These batteries were flat on top with no obvious place to put water. The cover to the water was flat on the battery and he had to use his knife to pry it open. I figured they were fried as I had never checked them in a year and a half. He looked inside and said the water level was fine.
So I really didn’t know what to do at that point. The dead motor battery that I had just replaced a day ago was a 2007 so perhaps these batteries are 5 years old as well. I also knew that the control panel lights worked fine and showed the batteries were charged fully when the generator was on, so they were not malfunctioning. I decided to go ahead and purchase two new batteries, the sealed maintenance kind. He ordered them and today called to say they were in.
Took the RV over and he replaced the house batteries. Once the old ones were out I checked the date and to my surprise they were only a year and a half old. Obviously put in when I purchased the coach in Florida. My stomach started to ache at this point. The new batteries were very expensive at $427.00 including labor. Did I spend all that money for nothing?
The new batteries are sealed maintenance free technology batteries, no leaking even if case is broken, shock and vibration resistant, light weight, and have a long service Life. What’s not to love, right? Once installed I checked my control panel to see if it showed fully charged house batteries and... it did not. It showed "fair" just like it did with the old batteries. My stomach started to hurt even worse.
I paid the bill and returned home and turned the generator on for 30 minutes. The control panel now shows "good" not "charged" as it should. At least it is not showing "fair." Waited 5 hours then checked again and it was holding the "good" status. This is all a mystery to me. Why would it not show fully charged?
If the control panel shows "fair" tomorrow then I tend to believe it is malfunctioning and needs to go to Camping World for repair. All this is coming out of my travel money for my D.C. trip in March. I sure hope I can afford to make that trip. I’m so looking forward to it.
When my RV was parked in my driveway for 5 months, I plugged it in occasionally to keep the batteries charged. Maybe something is on in the RV and draining the battery.
ReplyDeleteThere are usually things that will run the battery down if you don't plug it in regularly or have a disconnect switch. In mine I think it's the propane detector. It will run my batteries down in 3 days if I don't keep it plugged in or turned off. Have you tried running an extension cord from your house. It doesn't have to be 30 amp just to charge the batteries.
ReplyDeleteMartha
Are you in some kind of weird energy vortex? So strange that everything was battery.
ReplyDeleteRoxanne
The Good Luck Duck
Hi Teri... I sometimes do plug the coach into my house but right now I'm tryig to determine why the control panel is showing that the batteries are not charged when in fact they are.
ReplyDeleteHi Martha... I do have a Battery Disconnect switch so I don't think anything is draining the batteries. Also, this situation has just started. In the past, the indicator lights worked fine.
Hi Roxanne... Yes, that is exactly what is happening here. I'm sure of it. A powerful energy vortex sucking up all my battery power and bringing on geopathic stress which makes my stomach hurt, give me headaches, disturb my sleep, and cause anxiety which drains me of my prana (and money). If only it was positive but unfortunately the debilitating negative energy vortices, one of the main culprits in creating geopathic stress, far out number positive natural vortices. Seems like I can't win for losing.
Go to WalMart & buy yourself an inexpensive battery tester that you can test on the batteries. If they read good & your panel reads poor, then there's a fault somewhere. I had trouble with my coach batteries & found out that my converter was eating them. I replaced the converter. Did it myself, it was not difficult. The old converter ate 3 new batteries within months of each other till I found out what the real problem was.
ReplyDeleteWhen my batteries weren't being charged, or weren't holding a charge, I bought new ones, too. Even when I was hooked up to elec. at an RV park my batteries weren't being charged. Only when I was driving. I had the converter replaced, but still had problems until the auto transfer switch was replaced and everything has been fine since then. (Of course, once the solar panels were installed, I've been at 100% charge almost continuously - have you thought about getting solar?) This stuff breaks the bank, but I figure once it's all done, I'll be good for a loooong time - I hope!
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara... I don't think I want to go solar as I travel only part time and not sure for how much longer. The situation you had with the auto transfer switch sounds interesting. I don't have any switch labeled as such so not sure where mine would be. The batteries have always tested fine and are fully charged. The control panel shows that they are "fair" and not fully charged. If it were the converter draining the batteries they would not show charged when tested. I'm planning a trip soon and will see what happens while traveling. Thanks for the info. Hope you're all healed up and feeling fine.
ReplyDeletePlease post it when you get the rig in to find out what the problem is. I still haven't replaced my battery to see what the panel reads on a new battery. But last April when I put a new battery in, the panel read at the top level. It was through a matter of months that the battery read poor. A few short months! ARGH! Then I took the RV to PPL & they told me it was my converter that was either boiling the batteries or not giving them a full charge. So I still need to get a new battery to see how it holds up to the new converter. I'm plugged into shore power right now & am waiting till I leave to replace the current battery. My rig only has one coach battery.
ReplyDeleteHi TexCyn... I'm not in any hurry to take the coach in for repair. During the last week the control panel lights for the battery have not indicated that it has drained any further from "fair" to "low" which is the last indicator light on the panel. I'm thinking that the problem is in the control panel and I can live with the fact that if the indicator light shows "fair" when indeed the batteries are fully charged then all I have to worry about is if it goes down to "low" while boondocking. Then I would know that the control panel lights are not working properly.
ReplyDelete