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Stranded in Wisconsin
Hello all. We just picked up our new to us 2001 Marathon H345 and drove it 2.5 hrs. away to our first campsite and everything went great. Connected to shore power and again no problem.
Turned on the ignition today and dash is dead, no lights…nothing. It’s as if the chassis batteries are completely dead. Tried looking at techlink screens but they only give readouts for house batteries voltages and such.
Obviously can’t start the coach at this point so looking for any guidance to resolve this issue.
One clue might be I left the ignition key in the far left position when we got to the site and left the keys in there over night. Went to remove the keys today for a quick trip to town and couldn’t take the keys out of the ignition till I rotated one click clockwise. Don’t know if having the ignition in the far left position puts a drain on the chassis batteries but thought that might be helpful troubleshooting information.
Need to be out of this site on Friday so hope someone out there can help.
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14 Replies
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Are you able to verify your chassis battery Voltage? This happened to me on my Bus I popped the 24V Chassis red Klixon breaker. It is supposed to reset but mine didn’t. I had to replace it.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
Larry,
Yes you killed it. You have a jump start button on your panel left of your steering wheel where all the buttons are.
It will say Jump Start or Boost. You have to hold that button in for 15 to 20 seconds and keep holding it while you turn key to right and start bus.
This transfers voltage from your house batteries to your chassis batteries.
When you press the button and turn key to 1st click to right you will see dash come alive and watch battery voltage gage climb. Then turn your key all the way to start.
Go to Marathon and see Chris and Dave to learn your bus.
Later
bv
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Did you try to use the house jumper switch on your panel below the toll window to see if you get power to start
Alex
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Where in Wisconsin are you?
I’m in Grafton, 25 miles north of Milwaukee.
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Crisis averted.
Spoke to Marathon 24 Hr. support and spoke to chap named Terry. Really helpful guy.
Walked me through the “Jump Start” switch but after pushing the switch and spending some time on the phone there was no life on the dash. I was headed to the rear of the coach with a VOM to check the chassis batteries and I mentioned it was an H345. After hearing that he had me go back to the cockpit and look for a toggle switch on the dash with a symbol that looks like a switch on a wiring schematic. If that switch is off it kills power to the dash (I guess to prevent battery drain). Once I threw that switch the entire dash came alive and I breathed a sigh of relief because I could finally have happy hour. ;^)
Thanks for all the quick responses folks, much appreciated.Here’s a pic of what that switch looks like. If it’s in the on position (red light illuminated) dash is live. Off position = no dash lights or engine start. -
We’re a few miles south of Eau Claire at a park called Stoney Creek. Just picked up the coach in Wausau and wanted to find a place not to far a drive to get familiar with the coach. We can only stay till Friday cause they’re booked solid for the Labor Day weekend. :^o
We have no idea where to go after that because every campground that will take a 45 foot coach is booked as well. Can you say Flying J?
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Call the Casinos. Northstar near Bowler east of you on STH 29, Menominee at Keshena north of Shawano just east of Bowler north of STH 29 on STH 47/55, Onieda Casino at the Green Bay Airport. You could also call Doc’s Harley-Davidson on STH between Bonduel and Angelica. He has a HUGE facility, lots of room for drycamping and better than a Flying J. I think he still has Prevost. He might have 50amp for you.
https://www.menomineecasinoresort.com/stay-with-us/rv-sites/
Check the PC Forum map. I’ve put some of the Wisconsin RV parks, campgrounds, resorts on the map.
Wisconsin State Fair Park might have some open spots in its RV park in West Allis near Milwaukee. SummerFest starts today so that might have sucked them up.
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Thanks Dick,
I actually considered contacting you for some driving tips after we picked up the coach before I hit the road (or anything else) but we were worried about finding some place to stay after we picked it up so I just jumped into the deep end and so far the floaties are working. Thanks for the suggestions but I think we lucked out. They’ve had a couple of cancellations at this park so we’re good till after the labor day weekend. I thinking after that we probably won’t have any problems finding another site as we head back to the smoke filled skies of the great north west. This is actually a really nice campground. Nice wide roads lots of deep sites with 50 amp service. Found it in the Big Rigs Best Bets book so so far they’re 1 for 1 with us.
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Good to hear! Where is home base?
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Marathon had very few shells from Prevost with that cutoff switch on the dash.
It is only found in a H shell in that era , the XL’s do not have that feature.
Later
bv
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Both my Marathon H’s had the switch, 02 and 04. I liked being able to shut down the chassis.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
Hey Dick,
Don’t really have a home base at this point but coach is registered in Oregon. ;^)
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Hey Tom,
“Both my Marathon H’s had the switch, 02 and 04. I liked being able to shut down the chassis.”
“Had”? I thought you were still rollin in an H with a single slide these days or did the wife convince you to get rid of that in favor of two slides?
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I’ve moved to the dark side Larry.
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