[Joe]

Steve, depending on the output of your charger it could take a long time to restore the batteries. There is a lot of capacity that has to be restored.

How old are the batteries? My initial reaction to your description of the problem was old batteries, one going bad, going dead and then loading it by trying to start was the final straw.

You might need to separate them, charge them all to float individually and then test them.

[Alvie]

July 2014, they have always been good. Leaving the key on was the first time I have had any trouble. I was worried about leaving the charger on over night.. It says 35 amp, mounted to ceiling of the engine compartment

[Walter]

Be careful Steve, that charger is probably dumb, just charging full tilt until it’s shut off. I would do as Jon suggests, charge them individually, load rest to be sure their all good, then hook them back up and you should be good.

[Archived]

Tom,

Would the battery’s get warm if they were being overcharged, I have kept an eye on them all day and the are not charged yet and not even warm to the touch…

[Edward]

I experienced a similar situation a few years ago. Turned out to be a bad connection at the battery post. Check your connections. Hope this helps.

[AL]

When my new (installed in April/May) chassis batteries wouldn’t start the bus in October of that year, Jeff Rowe had me try to charge them with the huge Liberty installed (I presume) charger on the ceiling of the engine bay that should have its own separate circuit breaker on the panel. When I went to start the engine, all I had gotten was a click, click. If I recall correctly, Jeff said in 45 minutes to an hour that big charger should charge the batteries enough to start the coach. It didn’t. I left the charger on for two hours. I got the starter to turn the engine over about half a revolution. Eventually we tracked the problem to a failed chassis battery, but only after carefully pulling all the batteries, taking them to Interstate, having IS charge them, and load test them.

Jeff told me to remove the charger for the reasons stated above, calling it a boat anchor and replace it with a Guest/Mariner which is what I believe Liberty puts in the new coaches. Maybe Mr. Mark could confirm that for us.

A couple of quesitons:

1. Do you know if the circuit breaker to the chassis battery charger was left on inadvertently? (possibly damaging the batteries)

2. How long did you leave the key on?

3. After you’ve charged the batteries whatever approprirate time you think was enough to charge them, did you check the “Engine” voltmeter for the number of volts? How high was it?

The frustrating parts of having a failed chassis battery is (a) you don’t know which one of the four it is, (b) you need to unhook the batteries to individually charge the batteries, (c) you’ll probably remove the batteries from the engine bay, (d) then charge them individually and load test them, (e) determine which one was the problem, (f) now mull over whether you should replace all four of them or just the bad one (mine were only six months old so I replaced just one, but I’ve heard opinions both ways as to whether just one should be replaced or all of them replaced), and (g) reinstall and hook back up again all four batteries.

If you do need to remove them, I suggest you follow the process I documented in another thread which was based on what the do’s, don’ts, precautions, and bad things that Jeff Rowe explained to me.

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

Please make sure to remove all jewelry before starting this process and properly protect your tools from shorting out.

Its just a very time consuming process. You might (emphasis on might) be able to find the bad battery (if that is really your problem) by first checking the voltage of each battery individually once you have them separated. If one is significantly weaker, that could be your culprit. But I probably wouldn’t just stop with that one. Another could be a problem. There is probably no short-cut for properly charging and load testing each battery.

I can tell you from experience, when you get the batteries all charged up, installed, turn the key and DD fires right up … that is a very satisfying feeling.

[Richard]

Dick,

My understanding is that we have a Guest charger. (I’m not with the coach at the moment).

Mark

[Dan]

Earlier Liberty coaches had a converter for a charger. It worked well but had to be monitored. Later versions use a three stage charger which will automatically go to float.

I should have asked this question earlier. What is the voltage of the whole battery set? If the batteries were charged the problem could be corrosion at the chassis ground behind the batteries. That is common.

[Kirby]

Morning All,

Last night I started the bus, the batteries worked exactly like they should. It took the Liberty charger 12 hours or so to charge them back up. When I went to the barn, before I tried to start the bus, I felt the batteries and they weren’t even warm. I figured they were still dead.. Wrong fired right up.

I would post a picture of the charger tag but I can’t post any pictures any more..

Steve

P.S. Dick, I left the key on for a week!!! Another dumbass move…

[Archived]

l

Here we go… Figured out the pic thing!! I’m a little slo……

[Dan]

That’s the converter I mentioned ealier Steve. It is a good charger, but should always be monitored because if it is lefton for too long it can damage the batteries.

There is no question about whether they work or not, but you just cannot forget to turn it off when the batteries are charged.

[Archived]

Here is a picture of our charger…

Mark