1997 Roadtrek Aux Battery Failure

[BigBee]

Everything worked beautifully in the driveway hooked to shore power. Generator started straightaway and ran beautifully. All lights worked and refridgerator worked perfectly on AC and DC power. I was told the aux battery would be charged by the running Chevy engine allowing me to pack the refrigerator. So thats what I did and hit the road.

4hours down the road the aux battery was in the “L” zone and the generator would not start. None of the house lights worked and neither did the refrigerator. It wasnt charging a lick!!

Now hooked up to shore power and its still not charging and the generator wont start. Of course, house light and appliances work just fine.

So what have I done wrong?? What do I do now?? Im at a total loss and have no idea what to do. Please Help!!!

[SteveJ]

Is the battery switch on? For some reason the battery switch must be turned on before plugging in or starting the genny

[BigBee]

Yes, it is. Little red light is on next to the Battery switch. It was also on during drive time, until ... it wasnt. The battery died, but these deep cycle batteries almost always recharge. The battery is only a few months old, so I dont understand why it doesnt seem to be recharging now. And Im totally stumped as to why it lost power during drive time. Since, Ive arrived home and plugged into house feed, the Battery light is only on when plugged in. It goes out when I unplug.

[booster]

Originally Posted by BigBee

Yes, it is. Little red light is on next to the Battery switch. It was also on during drive time, until ... it wasnt. The battery died, but these deep cycle batteries almost always recharge. The battery is only a few months old, so I dont understand why it doesnt seem to be recharging now. And Im totally stumped as to why it lost power during drive time. Since, Ive arrived home and plugged into house feed, the Battery light is only on when plugged in. It goes out when I unplug.

Roadtreks usually have some auto reset circuit breakers in the wiring from the engine to batteries and they will very often trip and not reset when they get old and tired. You may also have something similar in the shore charging circuit. Depending on what charger you have, it may not activate on a dead battery, so would need to either get it charging off the engine or charge the batteries with and old school charger that will start charging on a dead battery.

[Pam G]

Originally Posted by BigBee

Everything worked beautifully in the driveway hooked to shore power. Generator started straightaway and ran beautifully. All lights worked and refridgerator worked perfectly on AC and DC power. I was told the aux battery would be charged by the running Chevy engine allowing me to pack the refrigerator. So thats what I did and hit the road.

4hours down the road the aux battery was in the “L” zone and the generator would not start. None of the house lights worked and neither did the refrigerator. It wasnt charging a lick!!

Now hooked up to shore power and its still not charging and the generator wont start. Of course, house light and appliances work just fine.

So what have I done wrong?? What do I do now?? Im at a total loss and have no idea what to do. Please Help!!!

When I bought my 1999 RT 190P, the seller told me to have the engine running when I start the generator. I didn't do that with my previous 1998 Coach House, but the RT does start better with the engine running. The generator seems to drain the coach battery quickly if it doesn't start right away, so it starts better using the engine battery. Also, just after I got the RT, the coach battery wasn't getting charged. My mechanic said it had to do with the connection between the engine battery and the coach battery. He didn't say what part he replaced, however, but he did replace something, which, I think, was under the hood. Whatever he replaced fixed the problem. Have you tried starting the generator with the engine running? Maybe the coach battery still had some power to it to start your generator previously, but it's too low now.

[henknoordermeer]

If the generator will not start even when the engine is running, and in combination with the house battery not charging while driving, that makes me think the Battery Isolator is kaput.

The Isolator provides power from the engine battery/alternator to the house battery, but prevents power leaking from the house battery to the car battery when parked.

It sits under the hood. Usually mounted at the firewall or just under where the wipers are. It looks like this: