burlmart
Baton Rouge
Senior Member
Joined: 03/28/2005
View Profile
 Offline
|
I removed the cover to the elec box near the house battery and Martha took the pics below. Can anyony explain what all the things are. Should the foam be removed? Is it there for a reason?
2005 Trail Lite 213 B-Plus w/ 6.0 Chevy
|
RedRollingRoadblock
Oregon
Senior Member
Joined: 11/26/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
Well to start with I would be for cleaning the corrosion from the red cable terminal in the first picture. And in pic number 5 be concerned about the way the cables are pulled so tight rubbing against the side with no protection.
As for the foam I thing someone didn't care what they were doing.
|
fisher60
Plant City, Florida
Senior Member
Joined: 03/23/2006
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
Offline
|
I agree, emergency start switch is bad. The engine battery is likely draining the house battery. My emergency start switch is on the left underside of the dash. The relay for it is under the forward dinette seat. My "Store/Use" disconnect switch is just inside the side door. The relay for it is under the rear bed very near the converter/charger.
'01 Dutchman Express 28A, Master Tow, '06 Tuscon, '05 Honda VTX 1300
Good Sam Life Member
|
Gene in NE
Omaha
Senior Member
Joined: 09/15/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
burlmart - That components box you uncovered is almost identical to the one in mine. I do not remember any replaceable fuses in mine. I do not have any spray insulation inside either. Suspect someone was over active on yours when trying to seal the opening where the battery cables enter. Likely does not hurt anything, but makes it more difficult to see all the components. I tried to figure out the schematic of how those solenoids and fusible links work and gave up. I didn't need to know, will scratch my head when something stops working. I would need another person to operate some of the switches while I test what is live and what is not. I seem to recall a heat sink diode isolator on mine as well. It was not in the components box, but mounted directly to the frame. Looked something like this (keeps the electrons flowing in one direction)
From your testing, sounds like you have a moderate to weak connection someplace. Low voltage Direct Current (DC) frequently has problems with connections. The relative low voltage (12 volts) just cannot push through small wires with higher resistance or weak connections. Voltage is a little like water pressure, the more pressure the smaller hose you can use.
2002 Trail-Lite Model 211-S w/5.7 Chevy
Gene
|
burlmart
Baton Rouge
Senior Member
Joined: 03/28/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
Thanks, Gene. I recall the house battery was so drained from boondocking a couple nites that it would not start the generator, but we cranked the engine fine. So some one-way action is still evident.
|
|
|
cheeze1
Morristown, NJ
Senior Member
Joined: 08/21/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
Burl, I'm so lost I need a 'BRAIN GPS'! Anyway, my red light is on when connected to shore, fwiw. In all of my travels within my coach, I have never seen any 'factory' spray foam in that color. It's all dark grey.
Chas Morristown, NJ
Trail Lite
|
Gene in NE
Omaha
Senior Member
Joined: 09/15/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
In "burlmart's" series of pictures, I have some questions about the electrical hardware.
1. In the second picture, what is the device on the outside of the box? It has a heavy battery cable attached to each side and then on the cover there is some yellow printing. (Closeup in first picture)
2. In the third picture, on the left wall of the box is a two terminal junction block. The sides are gray with a black top with two studs sticking out with wires attached. The fifth picture has a closeup view. Is that a fuse? A fusible link? or something else?
3. In several of the pictures, you can see two "ford type" solenoids. The fourth picture shows it the best. They are connected together on the right side terminals with either a very short cable or a strap. I suspected that one of the solenoids was to connect the chassis battery to the coach battery to aid in starting the generator (the emergency start). I suspected the other to be the "place the RV into storage" disconnect switch. Does that sound correct?
|
burlmart
Baton Rouge
Senior Member
Joined: 03/28/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
One month later - for those electricians who love a mystery...
We went to the storage site and the house deep-cycle battery was 12.5V while the 5-year-old chassis battery was 12.28.
Toggled the house battery disconnect switch from STORE to USE, and the house battery read 12.36 and the chassis 12.31 V (similar 0.05 V difference as previously noticed when they seem connected together).
Engine started fine.
So they were behaving as though not connected together until I turned the house isolater switch to USE.
???
|
fisher60
Plant City, Florida
Senior Member
Joined: 03/23/2006
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
Offline
|
markbrumbaugh wrote:You have a bad solenoid on the emergency start switch to put house power into the engine. . I agree, not necessarily "bad" but occassionally sticking. Not expensive, replace it. My indicator led on the "Use/Store" switch by the door stays green when plugged into shore power, irregardless of which position it's in.
|
Dakzuki
Carnation, Wa, USA
Senior Member
Joined: 11/01/2002
View Profile
 Online
|
I had my house battery charging circuit (factory Ford) go bad so I replaced it with a Yandina battery combiner which lets both batteries get charged if either is charging. If no charging it isolates the batteries. It is a very low current draw marine grade relay. It has served me well.
95 Chinook Premier
|
|
|
