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Woke the coach up from its summer nap today.
Today we routed our 1999 Prevost XL45 Liberty Coach Elegant Lady from its summer nap. We parked the coach in its secure parking facility on July 6th … 97 days ago. Once we get our new to us house remodeled with an addition that will include a concrete coach pad with FHUs the coach will be “home” and ready to head out on a mission with a moment’s notice.Prior to parking the coach in July I dumped and refilled the fresh water tank and dumped the holding tank. Once parked I turned OFF both the 12 and 24 volt master cutoff switches for the chassis batteries in the engine bay. I closed all the side and windshield blinds. Then I turned OFF all the 120volt AC circuit breakers and both inverter/chargers at the main electrical panel. Next I went into the electrical bay and turned OFF both pairs of 12 and 24 volt master cutoff switches for the house batteries. Now the coach was asleep.Today I went to the coach and first turned the two chassis battery master cutouts to ON. Then I went into the electrical bay and turned both pairs of 12 and 24 volt house master switches ON. I could hear the relays start to “click” as they were energized and the green lights on the Allen-Bradley system quickly lit up. I took note that the red low power light for the A-B backup battery did not come on indicating it needed to be changed out.Then I went into the coach and the A-B touch screens were already lit up. I turned the inverter function for the inverter/charger control panels to ON and both inverters were showing more than 24.9 volts which is above my minimum of 24.4 to protect the AGM batteries. I turned on the Forward Outlets which allowed me to open the salon window and the windshield blinds.So far … so good.I turned the key to the ON position and the dash lit up. I noticed the engine voltage meter was reading about 23.6 volts. Normally I see over 24 volts before startup, but I’ve started the Big Detroit Diesel with less than 24 volts before. Once the engine computer when through its gyrations I called “CLEAR PROP”, turned the key to START, and after the engine turned over a few times it fired right up. We had FIRE IN THE HOLE. Oil pressure came up quickly. As usual I’d forgotten to flip the idle speed switch to LOW for the start … so I flipped it to Low Idle and after two minutes went to High Idle. Once I had 120psi of air on both gauges we headed for home.Once home I plugged the coach into a 15amp shore power circuit and turned the chargers on and set the shore power amp draw to 5amps on each inverter/charger.So there you have it. If the coach is properly put to sleep, it can sit for a long time with killing the batteries. Last winter we had the coach in storage for 142 days and it woke up just like it did today. -
3 Replies
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Sounds like you did it right But! The only thing I do different from you is, before I fire the Detroit I plug the block heater in for 4 hours, When it fires it all ready at around 100 degrees on my ScanGauge. One of my truck friends told me that one of the hardest thing on a diesel engine is cold starts, So I make it a habit to do that.
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Good idea on the blockheater.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
Yes anytime bus sits for a while and if its cold out I plug in block heater or if I have no power I turn on the Aqua Hot and turn on engine preheat
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