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Engine battery’s
Went to start the coach battery’s were dead. coach has been setting for about 4 months. Since I do not have a 24 volt charger I isolated the battery’s to charge each indivdiulay . Good thing I did found 3 of the 4 shout jumper leads with cracked terminal ends. I am in the process of cleaning and proper lableing of the cables and batterys. I will send an after picture later .
Craig
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11 Replies
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Craig,
Our batteries and associated wires, cables, and connections make our use and enjoyment and use of the coach a real joy or a disaster. Killing batteries by allowing them to become discharged definitely shortens their life and bad cable connections become a source of resistance and may actually affect everything from starting to charging.
I would suggest you load test each battery individually after each has been charged to float, and in addition to the cables associated with the batteries check and clean all the ground connections also. This applies to the house as well as the chassis.
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I agree with Jon. Too few a people ever think about tightening and inspecting battery connections and cable ends. And especially the maintenance-free group 31 batteries Prevost used to use for start batteries…the acids and vapors causes such corrosion…
Also remember the following: If you live in a hot climate or extremely dry climate, keep tabs on how old those group 31’s are because they are probably only going to last you 1-2 years. Being vented to the atmosphere, but lacking caps to check electrolyte level or add makes them disposable and in severe dry or heat, the electrolyte evaporates away very quickly. Put a bowl of water on a picnic table outside. Watch how fast in your area it drys up. Same is happening to your start batteries, just like the non-agm batteries of more “economical” coaches out there. But at least the owner can check and add to the level of the ones used on most of them.
Just a though.
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Oh My,
Our starting batteries were probably installed in March of 2014 when it left Canada, we took delivery in Nov. 2014. Wow, our battteries are over three years old!
They are located in the ‘clean’ electric bay just behind the passenger-side tag axle. I’ll have them checked at my next service.
Mark
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Good info on the starting batteries, at 3 years, get rid of them. Mine were just 3 years when I changed them last winter and although they never gave me any trouble, after removing and load testing, 2 were weak. It was just a matter of time before they failed.
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I’m not endorsing a battery brand because I have no way to compare, but I have used Delco 1150 (or the equivalent 1110) exclusively. I have them on a 5 year schedule. I have never had an issue.
Having said that I keep my coach in my garage when not in use and the temps range from 50 in the winter to just under 80 in the summer. I am very careful about the connections and if I had to guess shorter battery life could be due to the brand used and trhe temps the batteries lived in.
If I even got a sense my batteries were failing or near failing at 5 years I would revise my schedule in a heartbeat.
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Cleaned up the battery’s made new cables, load tested good. did not like the grey plywood battery cover made a new one. little paint and some polished stainless bolts, and polished aluminum.
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Looks good, nice job.
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Looks nice Craig,
My question is: Is there a mechanical or maintenance reason you made a battery cover for your chassis batteries, or simply aesthetics?
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Craig: Great job on the wire and battery labeling. What did you use to label them with? Are you thinking about adding a chassis battery charger?
Tim: Our coach came with a thick plastic cover for the chassis batteries. I probably wondered the same thing until I realized that a tool or anything metal dropped onto the battery cluster could create quite the fireworks. Also protects the batteries and connections if you have work in the engine bay. I like the apparent use of plywood versus the thick plastic (probably 3/16″ or 1/4″) I have; sturdier, stronger.
Does your battery hold down bracket have a place to fasten the cover with? Our coach’s battery hold down bracket has provisions just like Craig’s.
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Our 97 Royale has a 24v charger in compartment with the inverters or where every you want to put it. put in in motor compartment for easy install, I replaced the old 24v charger with a new 24v smart charger, and also Installed a Trik-L-Start DC volt 5 amp trickle charger to generator batt, I wired it in at the emergency start solenoid, so when my house batts are charging so is the gen batt.
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Our couch has a not so smart charger I installed this instead.
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