2016 CS Adventurous- no power

[southernstar@usa.net]

No power in coach at all. Control panel for batteries and inverter not coming on. Chassis batteries were drained...so I’ve jump started it and drove around hoping that would charge house batteries. Then noticed that power light on the inverter not illuminated. No RT dealer nearby...so took it to an unauthorized rv repair shop. So far he’s determined that 1 of the 6 volt batteries under the hood is dead. He said he’ll replace that then go to the “next step” of trouble shooting. I’ve owned it about 1 1/2 years. Had it back to the factory in the fall of 2018 shortly before the company shut down. They said the went through the entire unit and it was “up to spec”. In short, I’m still a newbie in this world. Could there be a connection between the chassis batteries being bad and the lack of power in the coach. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[mkguitar]

Welcome to the Forums


in testing electrical systems, known good charged batteries must be used or any measurements will be skewed
so let the shop do that step first and then go through your charging system(s) and check for parasitic drains ( or could even be something left on while parked)


when not in actual use, my coach battery switch is "off" so that there can be no loads on the battery


I keep it charged with use of a battery tender "trickle charger" on a timer which comes on for an hour each night, I usually have this on the vehicle battery as I have parasitic loads ( alarm and such), but swap to coach battery once a week or so


DIRT on a battery casing can allow electrons to travel between the poles and discharge the battery, keep then casings clean


hope fully the battery replacements will show no other system problems and you can continue with life


Mike

[southernstar@usa.net]

Thanks for the quick response. Is there a particular trickle charger that you can recommend? From my limited readings on this site it appears that parasitic drain is very common and the trickle charger seems to be a simple fix. Do you happen to know if the on/off switch is under the floor on this unit? Again...thanks for the info.

[booster]

What battery system do your have? If there are two 6v under the hood, maybe a 4 battery AGM system?

[mkguitar]

Originally Posted by southernstar@usa.net

Thanks for the quick response. Is there a particular trickle charger that you can recommend?

I use a "battery tender" same one I use for my motorcycles and other cars


But I have a chevy van w/conventional AGM under the hood and a group27 marine deep cycle battery for the coach


have a chat with the guys servicing yourvan and ask what they suggest


Mike

[southernstar@usa.net]

yes, there are 4 batteries batteries to power the coach. It’s RT’s E-Trek system. I already own a trickle charger that I use for my motorcycles... but I will ask the shop what they recommend as well. Keeping my fingers crossed that new chassis batteries miraculously solve the problem. Without much knowledge/understanding of the how the unit functions I’m befuddled. I was thinking that the coach batteries operated independently of the chassis batteries. I thought that driving the unit for an hour or so would recharge the coach batteries via the under hood generator. The fact that the inverter is showing no sign of life is troublesome to me. Thanks for the responses!

[JohnnyCLE]

For education purposes I would be interested in the resolution of your issue.

For clarification purposes I understand that there is only one chassis battery under the driver floorboard. On my 2015 E-Trek the only connection between the chassis battery and the house Batteries is the "Smart Solenoid" which is supposed to disconnect if the house demands in any way start to negatively affect the chassis charge level.

I have not put the chassis battery on a tender despite needing to let the unit sit for 2-3 months while I tended to health issues. I killed my house batteries by leaving the DC load connect switch on, unattended, for several months during one of these episodes. Chassis battery was fine. As soon as I started the engine I was able to operate the DC load connect switch and use the remote to turn on the inverter / charger despite the house batteries being completely fried.

It must be a unique combination of events to kill everything. Was the Chassis battery dead or just disconnected. There is a Chassis battery disconnect switch by the accelerator pedal.

I have concerns about the smart solenoid because it's directions say not to install it in the engine compartment, but mine sits directly above the engine block! Sad.