House battery charging or not?

[Moonmanvt]

06 RT Adventurous RS- Shore power on and good...118 at outlets, battery switch "on", house battery measures 8.1 vdc and doesn't appear to be charging. Just put in new chassis battery because of sudden death after 400 mile trip home. Have had this RT for 3 days now, so I am not used to it yet. Any easy things I should check for?

[markopolo]

An '06 RS probably has a Tripp Lite inverter/charger.

If it has an inverter remote switch then that likely toggles the inverter between inverting/charging (auto) and charging only.

If it doesn't have the inverter remote switch then look on the inverter itself for a 3 position switch that has: 1. auto-remote / 2. off / 3. charge only.

Make sure that switch in not in the off position.

[Moonmanvt]

It is in the "charge only" position with operation light green and battery light yellow

[booster]

At 8.1v the hose battery is likely too low to let the charger initiate charging. You could jump the battery with another and then plug in, charge the battery with and old school non smart charger, or even put a jumper on the isolator or separator before plugging in.


However you do it, all you need to do is have 9+ or so volts and battery in the circuit for the charger to start.

[Moonmanvt]

Should I shut the inverter off, plug in a tender to that battery to let it get up to proper voltage, then switch inverter back on after unplugging "tender"? Sorry for all the ?s

[booster]

Originally Posted by Moonmanvt

Should I shut the inverter off, plug in a tender to that battery to let it get up to proper voltage, then switch inverter back on after unplugging "tender"? Sorry for all the ?s

Yes, that will work, and you could even leave the Tender on if you want, I think. I am not certain that the Tender will start or not, as I have never had a need to check that.

[Moonmanvt]

Thanks, I'll give that a try! Greatly appreciated.

[markopolo]

You could also check house battery voltage with the engine running. The more info you have will help figure it all out.

Does the RS have two 6V batteries in series located under the hood?

Also let us know how and where you are checking voltage.

[Moonmanvt]

One 12 volt under hood. Just replaced that one less than 24 hours. Alternator and regulator good loaded and unloaded.
I was checking house voltage (one 12v under bed) at posts (8.1) and output at inverter ~13.8 at the posts where cables exit. Just checked house battery at 9.6vdc. Will give it awhile longer.

[Moonmanvt]

Went for a 20 mile ride, came back, turned on battery, checked on panel over door. Read excellent, Hooked CO detector(2006 manufacture date) , checked panel meter, read all the way at the bottom. Unhooked CO so it wouldn't beep through the night because of low voltage. Happy Easter, going to eat some jambon, will continue tomorrow. battery is currently @10vdc.

[Moonmanvt]

Will be working with house battery again today. Going to ask Meg to work with me on this. I will be disconnecting from shore power and monitor battery to see what rate it discharges. Since it seemed to lose everything when I tried to hook the CO back up, I will be leaving that disconnected.
The house battery is 6 years old, so I am assuming that is the culprit after reading about the normal life expectancy of house batteries. Currently (no pun intended) the house battery is reading 13.6 vdc with the battery switch "on" and hooked to shore power. If the battery discharges quickly when load testing, I want to remove the battery to bring it to my local battery person and purchase a new one.
But the main question is, is there anything special I need to do before putting in a new house battery other than battery switch "off" and disconnect from shore power?

update: Unplugged from shore power with battery fully charged @13.6vdc, turn on 2 reading lights, power drops to 10vdc, turn on vent fan, power drops to 7vdc. Plug into shore power, 13.6vdc almost immediately. So, should I keep inverter on charge only?
And is there anything special I need to do to change battery other than unplug from shore etc.?