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House Batteries toast or not
I keep my coach about 20 miles from my home in a covered/ 50 AMP RV storage lot.
I keep it plugged in with the A/C’s on to reduce humidity, keep fridge on, but shut most other electrics off at the breakers. House and engine battery charges are on too.
Went to check on coach today and she was completely DEAD! Last check was about 3 weeks ago. The touchpads all dead.
I was able to get engine to start, and within 15 seconds the whole coach lit up ( I mean every light in the whole coach) with the alternator output from the engine. Touchpads back to life and able to get genny started and producing power for A/C’s and inverters showing charging. Now the coach was still plugged into 50AMP, and with genny going I shut engine off……….everything dead again expect the genny was still running. Touchpads not working again to shut off genny, so I restarted the engine and magically everything back on, back bed airlift goes off, and so does the entry step cover.
So now I let engine run, genny on, and go check the 50 AMP service. I got 50 AMP on the wall so not the line from storage lot. So about 10 min goes by while I am checking for breakers / inverters in the electric bay and do not see anything out of sorts. I have the Heart Interface inverters and they are not tripped. No breakers in coach panel tripped either. So I shut engine off and again the whole coach goes dead with the genny still running.
Start engine back up and back come the lights and bed goes up again, and step cover comes out. Resigned now that I am going to have to make a trip to Stuart to get what I assume is my transfer switch repaired after being damaged by potential power surge sometime in the last 3 weeks. ( we get a ton of lightning in south Florida this time of year) Go to touchpad at breaker panel and shut off genny, lights stay on, AC on, and the line input showing 120 without the genny. Shut off engine and everything stays on.
I have 3 year old coach AGM batteries. Obviously they were completely discharged by inverters trying to keep the fridge going. I do not use my generator watchdog while I have the coach parked in storage.
So the question becomes ……are my AGM’s toast due to the complete discharge?? I know that don’t like to be totally discharged.
Is the transfer switch powered by the coach system??
Was is due to lack of 24 volt until the generator got some voltage into the batteries that the transfer switch stayed on?
Sorry about the long post but appreciate any responses.
William Jensen
2001 Liberty XLII
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4 Replies
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I did the same thing to our Liberty 24 volt coach … twice IIRC. I don’t think your batteries are toast, but they were likely damaged a little by happened.
When I did this to our coach shortly after buying it, Jeff Rowe at ETLC told me the batteries have to have a small amount of power in them otherwise neither the interverters nor the big alternator on the Detroit will charge them. So Jeff walked me through how to put a charge into your house batteries using a 12 volt automotive battery charger
Call me and I’ll walk you through what Jeff told me to do. 262-365-9088.
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Update on my own post:
I received a call from Patrick Collins who owns the coach before mine, and currently works at Liberty in Stuart, Fl.
The culprit in this is the Allen-Bradley system. (AB) What he surmised is that when power was lost to coach being plugged in, the inverters were keeping the refer on. Voltage started to drop and without the watchdog being turned on the house batteries got below 22V. When it hits below that threshold the Allen-Bradley system shuts down the whole coach, inverters and all. So when AC line to coach came back on the Allen-Bradley system did not come back up,as it did not sense DC voltage greater than 22V, thus no inverters to recharge the batteries.
So when I started up the coach, AB received the necessary 24V to turn itself back on from the alternator voltage and turned on all the lights and allowed the inverters/chargers to come back on. But when I shut off the engine and kept the genny running, the house batteries were not up to the 22V yet, and thus the AB system shut everything back down. Starting the engine back on then again provided for the DC voltage to get above 22V. And all things working again.
As I was checking systems with both engine on, and genny on, inverters were charging up batteries to the point that they got above the 22V mark and now the AB system and inverters are not shutting down.
Thus the batteries never went to zero , but did get below 22V as some point. Once they went below 22V then did not discharge but just sat static at the lower voltage. This is then why when in about 30 minutes the batteries came above the 22V mark and the AB system stayed on.
He also told me that there are back up batteries to the AB system just like the back up batteries for the Zip Dee awning control box. I have not seen them in my power bay, and he states they may be in the battery compartment which is a genuine PIA to get too.
Lesson learned. amazing coaches.
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Batteries do suffer from deep discharges. The situation you describe is a deep discharge and even if you fully recharge the batteries it is probable the life of the batteries has been compromised to an extent.
If you have gotten used to how long your batteries can go before recharging, such as when you dry camp, you can get a sense of if the discharge of the batteries has had a significant impact on their condition.
One serious problem with remote storage is a loss of power can create the problems you describe, but short of installing a device to alert you of an issue the only other alternative is to totally shut down the coach. The problem with that of course is a closed up coach, often exposed to high interior temps can end up with potential damage more expensive than a set of batteries. Heat can cause delamination of cabinet surfaces and high humidity can create issues with mold and mildew.
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If it was me I would get a decent 24v battery tender shut down everything and plug in a dehumidifier in coach and even if you lost power, batteries would be fine because they are shut off. Run a couple of cords from your 50 amp service put a small surge protector on if you want and power your battery tender and dehumidifier. Then you won’t have to worry as much.
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