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Chassis Battery Explosion
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Dan, when I talked to NOCO, who manufacturers smart chargers, they were very clear that their chargers should not be charging while the alternator is charging. I would check with the charger manufacturer before using it with the alternator charging as well.
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I don’t have a smart charger for chassis batteries. As noted above, hardly ever use the charger that is there. And even if the charger was on when the alternator is running, it’s unlikely that a 120 volt source would be present for the charger to operate.
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Attached are pix of the charger setup I inherited with the coach and the exploded batteries. It was and plugged in so I had just left it that way, even after changing the batteries 2 years ago. Obviously an aold unsophisticated setup. My question is why didn’t it fail earlier? The batteries that I changed out 2 years ago were 3 or 4 years old.
The acid was a mess to clean up, but the batts sat in an impervious tray in the pan. They had two drain holes so there was minimal contract with the frame and the pan they set in. The cover shielded the rest of the engine. No damage beyond the batteries themselves. Installed new Delcos and all systems are go.
The folks at the battery place I bought the new ones at said they had never seen this kind of exlosion. Mostly they see cracked cases, but not blow outs.
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Wow…….It was cheap, it probably worked to charge a dead battery, and it was luck the explosion did not occur sooner.
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That sure isn’t what I thought you had when you said trickle charger. Glad all is well.
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I’d never seen anything like this hooked up, but then RV’s were completely new to me ca 2010. They don’t teach this stuff in High School. Or college. Nor do dealers go out of their way to educate people. And who hooked this up in the first place? And why didn’t Someone at _______n mention this was a bad idea?
“Buy the ticket, take the ride.” _ Hunter S Thompson
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Mike, you have a sophisticated coach made by a high quality converter. You also had a modification some schmuck added because he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. I hope that is not the tip of the iceberg and reflects other work on your coach that is lurking in the background.
My first reaction upon seeing that is that you had an old coach that has passed through many hands and all later fixes were band aid approaches. However your signature line shows a fairly late model coach so with luck that is the only dumb thing someone did previously to your coach. I would strongly suggest you spend the time and money to have a qualified company like Marathon to go over the coach with an intent to see if any other “cheap fixes” were done to the coach that might compromise your safety or the use of the coach.
With fresh batteries and no constant charging they should go months without needed charging and if they do not someone needs to find out why. Loads may have been added by someone previously and those loads, in addition to being a current draw might be on unprotected or poorly designed circuits with the potential to cause a fire or damage something.
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