-
Red Battery Light on Dash
I have been experiencing a situation where the red battery dash light illuminates periodically. After starting the bus it will start to come on about five minutes into driving. It begins by flickering and then after 15 or 20 minutes it will be glowing red. Once stopped it may stay on for a while or flicker or yesterday it went off. Then when I started coach again 15 minutes later it was back on. Here are the things I have done:
Adjusted alternator output to confirm it was within parameters
Replaced Vanner battery monitor
Checked all Battery terminals
Other than the light there doesnt appear to be anything wrong. It does seem to flicker when accelerating making me think a loose connection or ground but I wouldnt know wherer to begin to look. I am thinkin about once it illuminates to begin removing connectors off the Vanner to try and isolate it that way….any thoughts,should I just sell the coach?
-
22 Replies
-
Obviously selling the coach and getting a new one is the best answer. The economy needs all the help we can give it.
If I am recalling correctly the low (or high) voltage light on the dash is driven by the Vanner monitor. Assuming you can put the coach in neutral and go to high idle so you know alternator output will be around 27.7, you can check the input voltage at the Vanner monitor. The monitor has a low limit of 24 volts and a high limit of 30 volts. Exceeding either limit lights the annunciator light on the dash.
Unless the monitor is bad it is probable you have fluctuating input to the monitor or a voltage out of range. I would start there and chase the circuit until I found where the problem is. I can be anything from the alternator, regulator to the monitor or something as basic as you suggest as a bad connection.
Your options could be in ascending order of pain…….tape over the pesky warning light or remove its bulb……..actually fix the problem……..or just buy a new coach. We all can help you with the third option.
-
If you have a multi-stage electronic Xantrex voltage regulator, this might help. After much analysis, I found that heat was a factor. The regulator is not sealed. I removed the regulator cover and found a tiny amount of corrosion on the board. It appears that the heat created a resistance between solder areas. I cleaned the board with a small amount of contact cleaner. This appears to have corrected the problem.
Ed Roelle
Grand Blanc, MI
-
Granvil,
I have replaced several Vanner Monitors as you have done, but I did get a bad one. Vanner was great on the phone for trouble shooting and that was my problem. They had me do several checks with my meter while on the phone. Once you verifty the monitor is doing it’s job, then you can move on to the regulator and/or alternator as others have advised.
It does sound as though there is a connection problem based on your description of the light.
-
Mine will come on if I am running the engine and the generator at the same time as both are trying to charge the batteries. I have no disconnect at this time to prevent that, but I will have!!
-
The disconnect m ight be the equivalent of taking an aspirin for a brain tumor.
I don’t know how your coach is set up with respect to battery charging (chassis batteries), but your alternator on the engine and whatever charger is connected to the chassis batteries when the generator is running should both be capable of trying to supply a charge to the batteries, but their voltage regulators should limit input voltage to an acceptable level.
Since you don’t indicate your red light is lit when just the engine is running, I would look towards the generator powered charger which could be inverter(s), converter(s) or even the alternator on the generator.
Something is putting the wrong voltage into the batteries, likely on the high side, and whatever that is supplying too much charging voltage needs to be adjusted or repaired. If you put in the disconnect, when you use that device with the generator running only, the voltage is very likely still too high, but because the dash monitor light only functions when the engine’s key is on you are not warned of the problem. Start with a voltmeter to find out exactly what is happening and then chase the cause. Putting in a disconnect is like putting black tape over the light.
-
The 6-8D AGM house batteries are being charged by 2- 4024 inverters. There is a single cable going from the 24 volt tap on the center 2 8Ds to a 24 volt tap on 2 of the Group 31 bus batteries. There is no disconnect for this so the bus and house batteries are always connected. This setup also causes my equalizer light to remain on all the time. My assumption is this is due to the fact that the cable from the house batteries is attached to only one set of the 4 bus batteries. I had this same issue in the Eagle bus I had, but it had a disconnect between the house and bus batteries. If I would forget and leave that switch on and run the gen going down the road, my volt meter would peg back and forth like something was confused by 2 sources of charge. Turn off the switch and all was happy. I will get around to changing some of this setup someday.
-
WOW…….I am sure others may have a similar set up out in conversion land, but I have never seen of heard of one in which the house and chassis batteries are connected as you describe. It is not uncommon for coaches to have the ability to merge the two sets of batteries for an emergency situation, but not to always have them connected. I am still not convinced you do not have a problem with voltage on your inverter output because I can have my engine running and the generator running and nothing funky happens. A lot of coaches such as entertainer coaches and folks who do not have OTR run generators while going down the road.
At the very least I would urge you just consider an isolator between the house and chassis so when the engine is charging batteries you are not getting feedback making your hi-lo and imbalance lights finction properly. That not only should cure the problem, but it also keeps one set of batteries charged while the other may be depleted due to use or a problem.
An isolator can be as simple as a high amp relay or solenoid that closes when there is engine alternator ouput, or an isoilator as is commonly used on coaches.
-
You can find a lot of interesting things in these older coaches!! I have several electrical changes to make when time permits.
-
I’m going to play curmudgeon here. You may already be dealing with an owner created problem. Generally speaking professional converters do an excellent job of making everything work and work well.
But as coaches age and things start to go wrong things get fixed, changed, repaired, or otherwise modified, not always in a manner that represents good engineering principles. Then the next owner has a problem and wonders why his coach has a characteristic unlike any others might have.
Playing with electric on a coach is serious stuff and you have already indicated something is wrong. Yet you did not ever mention when the red light comes on or the imbalance light stays on what the actual voltages are. You cannot solve a problem until you know the problem. Please proceed with caution. And get vital information before you decide your course of action.
-
Curmudgeon!
-
Tom has an issue, and this old grump would like to see him make the problem go away, but safely and done properly. I cannot get excited if our coaches have problems with stuff that doesn’t affect safety, but an electrical problem that is lighting warning lights goes into unchartered territory and has the potential to be dangerous.
Quit picking on me. I am very sensitive.
-
Tom,
Tell us what you have for the alternator setup? Sounds like you only have one, instead of the normal two, one for the house and the other for the chassis. I was going to make some suggestions, but need to know what you are dealing with.
-
This gets a little lengthy but this is what I have. First of all I do have an understanding of DC and AC systems in general and am quickly becoming familiar with the DC and AC systems in this coach and do realize I need to make some changes. To answer Tom’s question, I only have the one coach alternator. I do know that some things have been changed since Hoffman did the conversion, but not sure which ones. All of the 12 volt, even the house lights & water pumps, works off of the Vanner equalizers on the coach batteries. I do not know if this is from Hoffman or was changed when the 2 4024 inverters and the 6 8D AGM batteries were added. I am also assuming this is why the coach and house batteries are tied together since the previous owner boondocked 4 months of the year. To fix this I will add another Vanner equalizer attached to the house batteries and move all the house 12 volt to that. This will allow me to connect the coach and house batteries when I want to for topping off the coach batteries while parked or charging the house batteries while driving.
The part that bothers me most is the AC. It starts with a 75 foot 50 amp cord that is hardwired and stored in the passenger side engine compartment and uses a Glendinning cord reel to curl it on the floor of this compartment. This area is dirty and the reel stand gets in my way working on the 8V92 so I am going to move that to the center bay driver side. This cords runs from the back of the coach to the center of the coach with no visible disconnect or breaker which NEC code says must be within 18 inches of the entry point. The cord then runs to the inverters with one leg of 110 volts going to the AC1 input of the top inverter and the second leg of 110 volt going to the AC1 input of the bottom inverter. The generator cord does the same except the 110 volt legs go to the AC2 inputs of the respective inverters. The top inverter feeds 110 volts to the right leg of the AC breaker panel that is located in a cabinet behind the driver’s seat. The bottom inverter feeds the 110 volts to the left leg of the breaker panel. The concern that I have with this is all power goes through the inverters and if something goes wrong with one of these I lose all power to half of my breaker box. I would like to take that out of the equation by installing another breaker panel that is fed by the shore power and the generator via an auto switch. I personally do not like auto switches but it is the only way that I can use the auto generator start feature of the inverters in the case of low battery due to shore power failure.
To add one more wrinkle, there are also 6 solar panels on the roof that are supposed to be charging the batteries but I have not traced that yet. That is a job for another day.
I will get all of this corrected it just takes me time since I still work full time!!!!!! Of course working helps me afford this hobby and or sickness.
Thank you for all of your responses to the questions that I have had so far on this coach. You have all been most helpful.
-
Tom you bring up a good question “where do our coaches get their 12 VDC?” Yes from the house batteries for house use and the 12VDC breaker box. Until now I have never thought of where it is tied into the house batteries.
-
Tom,
Someone created a system that clearly was not well conceived. You have identified some issues and I’ll bet if you get into it you will find more.
I would suggest you get in touch with folks who own various conversions and see how their converters have set up their systems. There are several ways the systems have been set up so you will get a good idea of the options available to you. Look at conversions done from the mid nineties on because by then everyone was using automatic transfer switches, dual inverters, and multiple equalizers (one for house, one for chassis).
Don’t rule out contacting Hoffman Coach. Both Don and Margaret Hoffman have passed away, but their children are still running the business and they also can offer good advice.
Log in to reply.