[Ken]

Tully,

What batteries are you using, 4D or 8D and are they AGM or wet? As Andre pointed out, make sure your chargers are not the problem. If you have a bad battery in the bank, the charger will continue to charge and never reach the float stage and the overcharge could or has destroyed the others in the process.

[Jerry]

Tully I don’t thinks so.

If you have one battery bad you can take that one out the bank and work with a bank with one less battery. When you do buy, buy all at once as you were told. If I were you I would contact Truk4u and get AMG’s and upgrade to a Inverter/charger. What part of the country are you in? Maybe some on this Forum is close by to help you. The best option is to take you coach to someone like Jeff and have the battery/inverter/charging system upgraded.

I just reread you original post and you have a Freedom 2500 inverter it should have charging capablity. If you put your meter on the inverter leads on the batteries what does the inverter output read?

[Larry & Diane]

I have 8-D group battery. I originally had (4) 8-D Batteries. When we switched them out I wend to to 8-D batteries. As mentioned- either shore and genny power is used.

I am 40 minutes South of Chicago.

I will put a meter on it on Friday when new batteries are intalled.

Anyone close to me?

Tully

[Archived]

Tully,

You might want to think about visiting Panterra, they’re in Angola, IN. Panterra

If you need new Lifeline Batteries, contact me direct. I hope you not using wet cell Interstates!

[Mike & Brigitte]

Tully…

Tom is your to go to guy for batteries… fastest service at the very best prices…. every member on her will tell you that.

Being a newbie you should talk to him if you need anything battery related.

You can just click on his name on the top right hand side in the above post from him.

Hope it all works out for you.

Cheers, Diane

[glen]

I know the correct and best way is Tom and I plan on that when my funding is a little better.

My situation as it is will only allow me the Interstate way for now at $1790 a battery. Yes,

I know you get what you pay for.

The bus is sitting and will need to be moved and would like to get at least a couple small

trips in before the end of the year.

My situation is what it is a present and I have to deal with reality.

Tom, if and when you have time- certainly send me some pricing for the LifeLine 8D battery

@ tullygarrett@msn.com

For the time being- Im in limp mode and just trying to get the first layer of the onion off so to speak.

Will update everyone after the install and will check voltage from Inverter and update.

Thanks for all the help- I like this site and seem to get much more response than the site I had to pay $100 for.

Tully

[Archived]

Tully had the same problem with my 1991 coach converted in 1992, when I bought it several years ago. Went though 2 sets of batteries (4) 8d’s with one set being Chinese agm’s. Had a Mariner Type Inverter and a stand alone charger. It was frying the batteries. Had a Magnum ME 2512 (around $1200) Inverter/Charger installed a couple years ago and no more problems. I never dry camp and just have 3 type 31’s in there know just to keep the fridge on a few hours if i leave and don’t have it plugged in to 50 amp or genset running. I found out if you don’t use a battery bank, you don’t need the extra weight or the cost. Apparantly the new coach’s need the big banks and ours would to if you wanted things nice and quite for a while with no generator noise. I bought a meter but until that thing can talk and tell me what’s going on, I’m lost. Hope you find the problem.

glen

[Ken]

Update:

(2) new batteries put in. Nice clean 12 volt power. They bench tested and said batteries were bad as if some surge of power took them out.

I was hoping that I would be able to run everything (including the 12 volt interior lights) with just the genny. Well it is not to be. I get everything but the interior lights on the genny. So for the time being I will to flip my Domstic 12 Volt batter switch on in the cabin for lighting.

I will have to really look over the Freedom 2500 inverter to see where the re-set breaker or fuse is to make certain that it is not tripped. The inverter appears to be working according to the idicator lights with a solid green light showing it is on and a blinking green light showing it charging.

There has to be some type of breaker or something I blew that is not allowing the 12 volt side to be brought into the coach using the genny.

Further proof of a possible surge- Back A/C roof top unit not turning on. The thermostat has good battery and it calling for air. When I switch over to fan- it does not even come on… Maybe the surge toatsted the capacitor? Will have to get an HVAC person up on the roof to look at.

As well my DVD theater surround sound system is toast. It no longer turns on.

So, batteries, a/c unit and theater system – toast.

Lesson learned- do not let a friend use bus to going camping over the week-end. Have no idea what he did or how he tried to hook up to shore power.

Damage is done- now trying to work through this one thing at a time.

Long day…..

Tully

[Archived]

tully do you have a manual for the inverter? My inverter a freedom lites blink green when on standby and solid green when working.

Is this your unit?

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-converters/freedom458_290x230.jpg

You say lights don’t work with the genny, do they work with shore power?

[Jim]

I had this problem a few months ago. The problem was fixed when we re-set the breaker at the end of the power line coming out of the inverter and into the solenoid. Between the two there is a breaker and mine is labled DC Solenoid.

It is a very different type of breaker. This is a picture of it. When it is tripped, under the red button a stem or breaker arm will stick down. You have to push it back in and re-set it. I have one for the DC side coming out of the inverter and into the DC Solenoid.

If you look at this picutre you can sort of see the arm flush with surface. It will stick straight down when tripped.

[Archived]

I have the Freedom 2500 series. The lights do show the unit on and charging. It is not in stand-by according to the lights. I do have the manual.

The lights do not come on with genny or shore power, only when I flip the domestic 12 volt battery on/off switch inside the coach on the dash.

I will be back out at the bus on Monday to see if we can trace down the breaker/swtich you have pictured as well as seeing if there are any other breakers / switches.

At this point it looks like it is just a matter of finding it…..

Thanks for all the great replies.

Tully

[Peter]

[Archived]

Below is a picture of the breaker tripped with the arm pointing down. When I re-set this breaker my DC system went back to normal on shore power. I had never seen a breaker like this before. You might look at the power system flowing out of your house batteries and see if you have this type of breaker in the system. This may be the problem.

[Davy]

Tully,

If you don’t have the manual for your model inverter they are available on line. I put mine on an iPad I use in the bus but also printed a hard copy. Just google your model and it will pop up. There is a Freedom 2500 inverter and a Freedom 2500 inverter charger model. Good luck with the fix.

[Archived]

Tully,

First the disclaimer. I have no specific knowledge of CC coaches of your vintage. Worse, the inverter was an after the fact installation so what our collective knowledge is can be totally wrong because changes to the electrical system can vary from well thought out to poorly conceived.

On our coaches we use inverters as battery chargers. We have no other means of maintaining a charge when the engine is not running for our house suystem.

When your coach was built it may have had an inverter, but it could likely have had an inverter only, not a combination inverter charger as is the 2500. Your coach likely depended on the converters for charging. They had to be monitored or they would over charge or boil the batteries.

If I was in your situtation I would start by determining if the 2500 is now your only source of battery charging. If not, and the converters are still active I would determine if they have been left on. If so I’m surprised your batteries lasted as long as they did.

It has been mentioned that if you have converters to swap them out for “smart” converters and that is excellent advice, but before you consider that the question that has to be answered is with a 2500 why do you even need converters?

If you wish we can walk through how I would do tests to figure out what is going on.