[Archived]

You ask if four batteries will suffice. Before answering your question you have to ask yourself some questions, and in doing so you may have your answer.

How are you using the coach? Will you be doing a lot of dry camping? If the answer is yes will you run the generator continously so you can use all the lights, air conditioners, heaters, etc any time you want or will you be dry camping on battery power, with the generator used only for recharging?

How long do you want to be able to go before the generator starts, or don’t you care?

If you are not dry camping will yoiu be hooked up to shore power? In other words from the questions you need to figure out how you will use the batteries and how many will be required for your purpose.

In the extreme if you run from shore power to shore power one battery is all you need. At the other extreme, if you intend to dry camp a lot, 20 batteries might not be sufficient. Obviously the answer is some form of compromise.

I have 4 8D batteries and I can shut down for the night, and with normal current draw such as the refrigerator all night, some TV watching, the use of lights, but no heat or AC I can easily go all night long without recharging.

Don’t overlook the availability of the generator. Its use allows you to live in great comfort without sacrificing heat or AC or the use of lights, etc.

[Bernie]

Hi Jon, I’ve been reading your posts for a few months now and realize you have considerable knowledge with these buses. Yes you are correct as to the usage of the bus, I’m guessing at our usage from past usage with other RV’s, and for the most part we will have shore power and if not, we will would not be shy about using the generator. I’ve been reading our Marathon manual and it states that we should have 6 8D batteries, but upon looking in our battery bay, it will only hold 4 batteries. Being new to the Prevost I am wandering if you could, say watch tv, run some lights and run the heat at night if needed, without having to run the generator. Thanks Jon for your insight.

Mark

[Peter]

Mark,

I am afraid for you. If I found 2 batterys under my bed I would be asking myself what did I do. The previous owner had to jimmy rig the system to even do that and the result is 2 charred batteries that could of exploded and you could of been hurt.

I worry what else did the idiot do to the bus? What else is wired wrong. I am not trying to bring you down but you need help with this.

Also if Marathon DFW did the PDI I would get in a room with Bob and ask him who did it? What did they check.

I know what some people are trying to unload out there and you have to do your homework. BA looked at 5 or 6 buses and spent probably 4k in air fare before he found something even exeptable in the 12 plus year range and had the seller put a ton of money in it before it was even ready to go out the door.

I wish you luck, there are many people on here that will help you.

Later

bv

[Dick]

Mark here’s my thoughts, I use my coach 40 weeks a year I drive about 2000 miles a week , for the three days I drive if the temp is pefect outside I will let batteries do there job and get up and coffee shower then drive, if it’s cold out or hot I run the gen shut off when I start the bus motor , I have 4 8Ds when I get to the the place I do my work again if temp is perfect I run gen in morning and then at night until I go to bed I am not in coach during the day, if temp is not pefect I run the gen , it will go all night on batteries with fridge ,lights , tv Maybe 20 weeks I have power for the 4 days of work , it works good for me , we have nice coaches and if you use it with what it comes with it will be good for you , I do not want to stay in it with one light on and be hot or cold inside if no power pole around so I start the gen , sometimes I change the gen oil and filters every 10 days but that’s what it’s for to use , I do not go power pole to power pole I don’t have time to look for a campground when moving for the three days, it works for me. Hope this helps this is my 30th year of doing this

[Jim/Chris]

Mark: One battery had expanded and the other battery was OK? What kind of batteries are those (make and type of construction)?

Maybe a knowledgeable battery person will chime in and give us some insight into what might have caused the battery to expand like that.

[Archived]

I don’t know for sure but here is my take looking at the pictures. The battery was probably fine under bed compartment in the beginning but I question the mind set of the installation.

Due to the heat generated by the engine it slowly cooked the electrolyte out of the battery to a danger level once it went under the top of the battery plates. I do not see any filling holes on the exterior of the battery case. There are vent caps under the top roll over shell.

At some point when the liquid level goes danger level below the plates we now have a cooking battery which gets hot. The temp rises to the point where the case is expanding as it cannot vent the gases produced.

Why these did not explode is the $64000 dollar question. Luck and having a lot of it prevented an explosion and then a fire.

You are very lucky to find this time bomb before it changed your life. Over 14 years of RV’s and buses this has to go right to the top of the list of odd and “what in the hell was someone thinking ” ?

Bernie, raises a good point to look at everything after finding something like this.

Mark, Is there a aftermarket battery charger installed on starting batteries ?

[Wilton]

Mark,

Your battery configuration is non standard at best. I’m your Lifeline Battery contact and I have never seen this configuration in a Marathon. Further, if you have Trace 4000 inverters, 4 batteries will not do the job if your going to be using two of the A/C’s off the batteries.

Bernies dead on, you need to figure out why the standard battery configuration has been modified.

If you need Lifeline help, contact me off line.

[Mike]

Mark, The other guys have raised some valid points.

As to going the night with heat or air on batteries, not with 4. Maybe not with six because the AC units or kick space heaters have enough of a current draw you will likely not get all night long.

I think batteries are great for getting us through the night when the coach temps are comfortable and that is what I do. But once it starts getting hot or cold, I just run the generator all night. Lightly loaded it probably will consume less than 1/2 gallon per hour so there is no benefit to not enjoying all the comfort the coach provides.

Most of our generators will never wear out. As a rule few of us run them hard enough or long enough. In fact they can be expected to have a 30,000 plus hour life and do best when heavily loaded. Battery life is compromised by deep discharges and charging cycles so I tend to protect mine by not relying on auto-start, but trying to insure I recharge them when they are discharged to around 50% which is about 12.2 (24.4) volts. That is why I prefer to not attempt to go the night if I am going to draw down the batteries with heavy loads but instead just use the generator. That keeps both the batteries and the generator healthy.

I’ll leave the issue of your 2 underbed batteries as a discussion between you and Marathon. Something there doesn’t seem right.

[Archived]

You need to determine what device was charging those two batteries and if the same device is charging your other 4 house batteries. It looks like the red batteries were severly over charged, overheated and expanded. If it is your inverters that charged the red batteries, check the charging settings in the inverter. Have you visually inspected the other 4 batteries to make sure they are not swelled up?

[AL]

We also have a 1999 Marathon XLV. We have six 4D batteries in the small compartment on the passenger side just ahead of the engine but behind the tag. No problem with dry camping as long as we run the generator 2 hours in the morning and evening.

[Paul]

Your Marathon Coach was originally designed and built with a quantity of 6, GPL-4DL Lifeline batteries. I do not recognize the red batteries that you show in the pictures. I strongly recommend having the original Lifeline batteries re-installed. Also, make sure that the temperature compensation sensors are installed and functioning properly after the battery changeout. This will get you the orginal longevity and performance out of the system.

Skimping now, as a previous owner did gets you nothing but problems. Cheap “knock-off” batteries, or incorrect type of batteries, installed in unsafe locations like inside the coach interior, can be not only illegal from a vehicle manufacture and service standpoint, but also for very good reason could result in personal injury or worse. take the time/expense now to get the batteries back to original configuration and type. You will be glad you did! Just my two cents worth….

Ben @ Parliament/Coachworx

[Davy]

wondering if there was any info to Bernie’s point about a Marathon PDI, and what Marathon skin there is in this. this certainly makes an un educated / experienced person concerned with the mentality of purchasing from a builder as a newbie as a better option because of their backing and knowledge.

Less it be a marathon bought thru marathon.

[Gary]

Can totaly imagine them being missed in a unusal location(being nice) . Can just imagine the smell from them when malfunction . Not to forget the gas released will set off your fire alarm/carbonoxide detecter. Really don’t think those would have been installed by a professional conversion company. Would not assume this is NOT the norm for any company. Found out the bat gas would set off alarms a few years ago=those were actually in bay. Hard to find when you assume it would be LP or electrical origon. Just my observation. Bob

[Peter]

Yes Marathon did see the batteries when they did their inspection saying that it look like a good installation but wasn’t the norm. I wasn’t big on the idea but thought I might be able to live with it since the last owner had. The other items Marathon found, was that the jump start feature had been disconnected and the previous owner had some wiring put in, to charge the engine batteries when the bus was plug into shore power. Since the batteries were not being temp compensated for, they were cooking themselves and boiling off the water. This was all corrected before we bought the coach, and the jump start feature as well as the other wiring items was put back to factory, at quite an expense to the previous owner. I think that we will be ok after this fix, just at my expense. I won’t try to run the cruise air’s of the batteries even thought the manual says it can be done. All of this will have a steep learning curve, but with help of the experience and thoughtful people here, we are going to figure all this out.

Thanks for all the input.

Mark

[Kenneth]

Jeez, your saying Marathon looked at 2 batteries under your bed that were half blown up and said the install looked good? Oh my.

Did you by chance get his name? That way when I pull in there I can run from him.

This just screams the previuos owners mentality, he thought he could wire it like a plastic coach with an Echo charger or BIRD.

Later

bv