[Archived]

You should have a release for the drop down door for the power cord to the left of the bay if like older Marathons…Then on many of the cord reels there is a release on the back side of the reel to get the power cord out. If not you should be able to get enough out to get a extension cord plugged in.

Battery charger might have charged the gen battery, however the control of the gen must be made at the gen, not through the switches inside the coach. Will the coach start? You may be able to start it and it will take a while however the alternator can charge the house system, then you can get it plugged in and the inverters can begin to charge also….I would leave the main engine running for a while after getting coach plugged in and everything charging to help bring up the batteries..

[Harry]

Marathon has factory techs on call 24/7. Leon, is the head of the help line and should probably be called to bring the systems back on line in proper order.

Which battery system was your bus built with ?

I was under the impression you could check bus condition with an I-phone anytime. Just asking …or is that another option ?

AL

[Jim]

Bus will not start, I am going back out now to re-connect my battery charger to the gen battery. after 3 hours last night, I tried the start switch at the gen, the eng starter would only bump

[Archived]

would it not make sense that starting the gen would be my best option

[Jim]

Call Leon. He is waiting for your call.

[Archived]

If your chassis batteries are still up, start the and run on high idle for a few hours to get stuff going as Jeff suggested. The gen battery solar panel will help once outside.

[Corey]

working with him now,

[Archived]

Leon, was fantastic. Here we go, for when you loose ALL batteries, understand the word all, even gen battery.

Disconnect the large 250mcm jump start cable connected to the jump start relay in the engine compartment. This is a 24vdc cable. This is the relay your jump start rocker switch controls from cock pit if chassis batteries are low. Once disconnected re-connect to the other side of the terminal, thus a hard connection between chassis and house batteries. At this time you need 2 strong 12 volt car type batteries. Connect these in series to produce +24VDC , connect the positive to the 24 Vdc post designated by Prevost in the engine compartment, the negative to the designated chassis ground post. Your engine should now start, after about 10 to 15 minutes the inverters will wake up and start charging. At this time carefully re-connect the jump start cable on the relay back to normal position. I then allowed the bus to run for 2 hours. During which I started the generator. I then was able to drop down my shore cord door and reel the cord out. I shut the generator off and plugged in to shore. The inverters did their job. I then shut down the bus engine and all is now well.

also thank you all who responded intelligently.

[Andy]

Great information Jim and very instructional

Everyone should learn the important lesson here and that is to learn and understand the bus starting procedure when batteries go dead. I am sure there are variations between converters and if you do not have instructions in the owners manual it is important you learn. This is especially true of those with the greatest risk such as those whose coach is stored in a remote location. A tripped breaker at the storage facility can lead to dead batteries so try to have a plan in place for dealing with situations like this.

In fact it is not a bad idea to write down all the potential issues you could face such as a failed alternator to a bad water pump and determine how you will cope with or deal with such a problem. That way when a problem arises you already have a plan.