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Battery Issues
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I’m sorry, when we had the inspection done the batteries were fine. The battery only swelled up this week, when the coach was pluged in to start the floor work. I am not saying anything negative about Marathon Grand Prairie as they were upfront about everything they found. Everything they found has been corrected, but at the time the coach was not ours and I had no authority to have the batteries taken out at the time. The deal was finished last week and I was out of town when I received the call about the battery issue. The shop wraped a blanket around the battery and got it out of the coach and gave me a call.
Mark
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I thought there was more to it then you explained. Glad to hear they tried to help.
The way Marathons are wired if your chassis batteries do get depleted after sitting or running them down while camping between the generator and boost switch your chances of being stranded are minimal. You need to find out what pulls your chassis down, bay door lights and other small draws will do it.
Stay with what they designed and don’t change it. Get some Napa Group 31’s for your chassis and some Lifelines from Tom and make sure your generator battery is good and you’ll never be stranded.
I have been seeing a lithium battery 12v jump gadjet sold on Amazon for a little over 100 dollars. If I am ever in a pickle that is all I would need to get started if my chassis, house and gen batteries were all dead.
Welcome to the Bus world, there’s nothing better when they work.
Later
bv
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That coach I think was for sale at Legacy coach in Texas is that were you bought it from???
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My coach has six AGM 4D batteries,we dry camp alot and have no problems keeping the batteries charged using the auto start generator mode.I am quite sure 6 – 4D batteries were standard on our vintiage Marathon coaches.
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Peter, yes that’s the one. Being new to these, i hope I didn’t jump off the deep end. Thats why I had Marathon inspect it, which they gave a good bill of health, execpt the items that i spoke about above. I think all wireing issues have now been addressed and almost every single item that Marathon noted on their inspection report.
Mark
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Gary, that’s what my manual said also, that it came with 6 batteries, but I was looking at lifeline’s website and it shows the only difference is that the GPL-4DL’s is 2 inch’s more narrow than the 8DL’s that are in my battery bay. I don’t think that gaining only 2 inch’s would allow me to fit two more batteries in the bay, but i will measure it and see. Thank you for the information.
Mark
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You will get it all working , just take it to people who are the best Jeff Rowe does great work maybe the best , prevost does good work too but not on the converter side , marathon does good work too ,good luck you will get it all worked out
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The one recurrent thought I have had in reading the posts on this thread is that a new purchaser with no previous Prevost experience is in a very difficult situation. To put it in the simplest terms that new owner does not know what he does not know. That new owner is blameless. He has no prior knowledge that is going to trigger questions or enable hime to recognize when something might not be 100% correct.
That situation is not limited to new owners. I have no experience with most conversions so if I am looking at a Marathon or a Vantare, or a Millennium I likely would not recognize some problems. Some things are obvious. I think if I noticed batteries under the bed I can expect to question that because of the location. But I can fully understand if a new buyer saw the same thing, and the converter did not make it clear that could be a problem I would accept that information as correct. I would not recognize the fact chassis batteries were being charged at the same time house batteries were being charged unless and until I lived with the coach for a while. And a new owner would never question that modification even if he was aware of it.
This means purchasers of a coach really need to do a very comprehensive inspection, ask many questions, challenge answers that are not reasonable, and if possible enlist the aid of as many people as possible in investigating a coach. It sounds scary and like a lot of work, and in fact it is. But from this forum alone we all have seen posts by folks that have been forced to pay for repairs on a newly purchased coach that had issues that they either were not aware of, or worse, had issues and the seller lied to them when questioned.
So to all prospective new owners be aware that a purchase is likely to be a great experience, it is going to provide you with a great coach, but on rare occasions there can be a coach that has problems. The best and only way to treat any purchase is as a project that requires a lot of preparation, a lot of study, perhaps help from forum members and experts like the converter or reputable service shops.
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Mark,
I’ve not seen a Marathon XL with 8D’s, someone must have done some modifications on the battery tray/compartment. A call to Leon can verify how it left the factory.
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Mark,
I’ve not seen a Marathon XL with 8D’s, someone must have done some modifications on the battery tray/compartment. A call to Leon can verify how it left the factory.
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Jon, you are 100% correct. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I learn really quickly and as you pointed out, will start asking more informed questions. I did realize that the engine batteries most likley could not take the charge of the inverters could put out, and asked for this to be corrected, also when I got a look at the batteries that had been installed under the bed I noticed that those batteries did not have the wire and pad attached that said trace on them. I assume that this is a temp sensor to control the charge rate, which would also control battery overheating.
Tom, I think you are also correct, I looked at the dimisions of the 4DL vs the 8DL which are about 2 inchs more narrow and there is some extra space in the battery bay, which would hold 6 4DL’S. Thanks to everyone for the input, I hope in the near future to be able to enjoy the coach as well as gaining considerable more knowleadge with the systems in the bus.
Jon, one last question, is your background in Aviation? Its just that the phrase you used about, you don’tknow what you don’t know, is one that is used in Aviation often.
Mark
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Hang in there Mark, you’ll get there and you can count on this site to help you.
There are many of us Pilot’s here also.
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I never flew professionally, but flew extensively for business purposes.
ATP, sold my plane a P210 a few years back and will no longer fly.
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My coach (2000 Marathon) has 6 Group D’s sitting on the rack above the right rear wheels. That was an expensive lesson my selling dealer taught me!!!
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Jon…I had a P210 also….have to do a bit of hangar-flying at Bella Terra! Great airplane..i loved it..ty
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