[Archived]

George,

The chassis is 24 volt, so not sure what you have going on. You mentioned turning on the Quest charger and then asked about changing to a different Marinco, I assume they are one in the same. If the chassis is down, the only option is to charge with a 24 volt charger or by using two 12 volt chargers being careful to hook correctly. Usually a bad battery will keep the charger going indefinently as it can’t bring the voltage up and since the Quest is a 3 stage it won’t go to float.

You mentioned 12.3 volts, are you saying your Quest charger is using the two 12 volt leads instead of one 24 volt lead? Either way it’s hooked up, it should charge the batteries, but will take a long time. Why you lost power to the charger is another issue and you may find the Quest inline fuse to the battery leads have blown and that will shut the charger down and appear to be dead, even though you still have 120 power to the charger.

Not sure I’ve helped you much….

[TERRY]

George:

Is the Guest/Mariner (I think what used to be called Guest is now Mariner or vice-versa) plugged into a 120volt outlet in engine bay? If so, check to make sure the 120volt outlet is “hot”. It’s probably on a separate breaker that you should check. Do you have a receptacle checker like in the picture? If not get one, its great for checking outlets.

If the breaker is “on”, the dash switch you mentioned it “on”, and the 120volt receptacle that the Guest/Mariner is plugged into is “hot” then the charger should work. If it isn’t working, then as Tom says look for inline fuses as well as getting the owners manual for the charger out to troubleshoot. Are you sure the Guest/Mariner is hooked up correctly? Who installed it?

Jeff Rowe installed four new Interstate Group 31 12 volt batteries in our coach when we bought it as part of his zero out process. The install was done in April of 2014. In October of 2014 after only modest use of the coach I couldn’t get the chassis batteries to turn the engine over. The ancient (circa 1999) 24volt charger (not a smart charger like I believe your Guest/Mariner is) couldn’t charge the batteries. So I carefully pulled all four of them and took them to the Interstate distributor in Milwaukee. They charged each of them and load tested them. They found one of the “new” batteries had failed and replaced it without charge.

You could probably pull the batteries, charge each of them, take them to NAPA and have NAPA load test them (unless you have a battery load tester). Since they are NAPA batteries, I would think that NAPA would happily charge them and load test them.

If you decide to pull the batteries, please read my PC thread about pulling batteries and the safety precautions you need to take. You have MORE than enough amps in those batteries to weld tools and jewery to the chassis!

http://prevostcommunity.com/forum/threaddetails.asp?Category=Electrical&ThreadID=3436&ReplyID=30179

Edit: Was able to upload a picture today and found the link to my description on removing and replacing the batteries.

[Archived]

George,

If I had that problem I would do several things.

First, charge the batteries, either as a set or individually. If the bus mounted charger is all you have just verify it is working.

Second when the batteries are fully charged I would monitor the chassis voltage over time with no loads. If necessary I would turn off the master switch to insure no loads.

If the voltage starts to drop I would suspect a failed battery so I would separate them and test them individually after each has been fully charged.

If testing shows the batteries are OK I would try to find the phantom load. The fact you only went six weeks suggests to me a bad battery or batteries, or unknown loads. On all three of my coaches I could go for about 3 months before the chassis batteries were in the 24.5 to 25 volt range.

If you don’t like the charger or want to change it, don’t do it so you can keep it on all the time. That just masks other problems.

[Archived]

I did a little digging for you George and here’s what I found in case your charger is not wired correctly.

2607A 12 Volt only

2610A 12 & 24 Volt

2611A 12 & 24 Volt

2608A 12 Volt only

3. Neither of the

LED’s turn on

when the AC

power is applied.

1. No AC power available at the

charger

2. Charger failure

1. Connect AC power or reset the

AC breaker on the main panel

2. Return charger to the Guest

Service Dept.

[Archived]

Thanks for all the replies. My charger is the 2611A and has a dash switch. There is currently no LED lit. This was the first time I had used it other than a test when I got the coach to confirm it was coming on. Like Jon I don’t charge unless I have some need and I had never seen the charge this low. The CC dash switch simply reads 24 volt charger. My actual dash is a Silverleaf and gives the output in 12v so I have always just doubled it. I will test/check the charger input and if working try to charge the bank again. I have lost confidence in the batteries so when I have time I will test each battery separately also. Thanks for reminding me of your past post Dick.

[Archived]

George,

If you have typically parked the bus for extended periods, not kept a charger on the chassis batteries, and the batteries have kept their charge then something has changed if this time they lost their charge.

It could be a battery issue or something could have drawn down the batteries because you were unaware something was left on, like a light in the engine compartment. You will find out if you fully charge the batteries and voltage starts dropping, or if you separate them and a test shows an issue with one of them. Battery issues can be difficult to isolate and even though it is a lot of work separating them and testing individually is sometimes the only way to know if it is the batteries or some unknown current draw.

On my first bus I had a Racor water separator / fuel filter. It had an internal heater to prevent freezing. As it turned out it was connected to the chassis batteries and when the temps dropped as they did in western NY the heater kicked on and drew down the batteries. It took me months to figure out what was happening. Bottom line the only way to figure out problems is step by step.

[Archived]

Thanks Jon. I will report what I find.

[Deleted User]

First let me say thanks for all the responses, great information. This is the the update. First I determined the onboard charger had power and no fuses were blown including the ones in the charger connections themselves. I checked each battery individually ( all tested over 12v ) but did not load test the batteries. Purchased a replacement charger thru Amazon, a Marinco (Guest) 10amp which is the “new and improved” version of what was originally with the bus. It has 5 separate charge stages and was a direct replacement in every way. While waiting on delivery I tried to determine if I could locate any ghost draws as Jon had suggested and found none. Installation was straight forward and included cleaning the battery terminals I engaged the charger thru the 24 volt charge switch on my dash and monitored the charging process for the next couple of hours. All seemed to be functioning normally. My bus stays indoors but it is about a half hour drive from home and work so I did further checks as I could. After 12 hours the charger was still in progress. When I was able to return the next day the charger was on float and I let it run to check on day 3 to find still indicating float and the dash was registering 13.25v and almost 27.3v at the jump lugs in the engine bay. I disengaged the charger and it has remained off for the following 7 weeks. Today I checked again and had 12.4v at the dash. I also have concluded when I check the voltage at the jump lugs it is always twice the dash number plus approximately .5 volts higher. So today 25.3v at the lugs. Maybe someone who understands this better than I do can answer whether the old charger which was bad or going bad could have been the ghost load that gave me the original low reading. Thanks again for all the help. Another valuable learning experience thru PC.

[Archived]

Great job George, sounds like you got it all sorted out. Who knows about the old charger, anything is possible.

[Hugh]

Interesting! I, just yesterday replaced my chassis batteries after 7 years. Dated 02/09. 3 batteries load tested fine but 1 continually pulled all 4 down after several days. All good now.

[AL]

George, from your description it sounds like the coach does not have phantom loads and that the issue may have been solely related to the old charger.

If you sat seven weeks and your voltage at the batteries (posts) is what you describe you have no problems now. All batteries are going to have less voltage over time and one thing all our coaches have in common is DDEC is directly connected to the batteries to retain memory. That is a slight current draw.