Start Battery Disconnect

10-05-2011, 07:04 PM

bill h

quote:
Originally posted by Danny Z:
OK, this am the batt read 12.07, charged at 10 amp for 7 hours, now get 12.87. Good enough? I'm thinking no.

Report back after sitting 12 hours disconnected.

I would recommend using a hydrometer in battery evaluation.

A conductance tester can tell you a lot. Some auto parts stores use them.

However, before giving up on a battery, it needs to be desulfated and maybe equalized. I don't equalize unless the SG varies .015 or more.

A long charge with a charger that will hold 14.7 volts or so until the SG stops rising can help, too (rather than dropping off as do so many modern chargers). An old-style (or cheapie) ferro-resonant charger will often do the job.

10-06-2011, 08:11 AM

Bruce & Kathleen

I am an advocate for battery tenders for this exact reason. You can mount them in your coach battery compartment(s), wire to the battery terminals with the ring terminal provided and just run an extension cord to the coach when it is sitting in your yard. Your batteries will be charged every time you go to use the coach. Just unplug and go.
This is not an answer to resolving an electrical draw, but will keep your battery charged unless the draw is more than the charger output. Also, if the battery starts to fail this will NOT "fix" a battery in need of replacement. Besides, with the quality of todays batteries these help you actually get much longer life out of them! I use these on all my cycles and classic cars, as they are not used on a regular basis.
If you are like me and have two banks of batteries, one on each side of the coach, they make a two bank charger and I just ran a 12' extension lead from the one compartment I mounted the charger in to the other side to the ring terminal end mounted on the battery bank. And yes, a single charger will charge a bank of two batteries. I still just have to run an extension cord to the coach anytime it is in the yard and both battery banks are charged at the same time and ready to go when I am. Please keep in mind, this set up is just to keep your batteries topped off while it is sitting and help get longivity out of them. This is not going to power your 12V in your coach while it is sitting, though it will recharge the batteries if you are in and out of the coach while it sits in your yard.
Try it. You can find them on eBay. You'll wonder why you didn't do this a long time ago....

10-06-2011, 08:18 AM

Moonbeam-Express

Although a bigger financial commitment, you could replace your current charger or inverter/charger with the newer multi-stage chargers that do just what Bruce referred to, but are built in and doing their job when you plug in the RV AC cord. This is an upgrade that will likely pay itself back in increased battery life, safety and convenience.

10-06-2011, 10:00 AM

Tom & Loraine

I agree with the battery tender, simple solution for any vehicle that sets unused for any lenght of time.

I just ordered one on eBay for $44.99 free UPS shipping.

10-06-2011, 02:11 PM

bill h

A bettery tender is a good way to keep a good battery good. However, even a trickle charge can allow sulfation to form. There are a few battery maintainers that recognize this and stop charging for a little while every so often and then give a strong charge before settling down to a float charge again.

Yuasa is one company that sells a maintainer with that feature.

10-07-2011, 10:05 AM

Bruce & Kathleen

I agree about the battery tender keeping a good battery good. I have also just purchased a "MotoBattery" charger off eBay, as they are a new version of the Battery Tender that have more functions, which i believe and hope will do what Bill H refers to above. If it works as advertised, I may be slowly changing all of my chargers to theirs....
Oh yea, one other thing. These chargers do NOT like lightening. Trust me, if they are close to a strike they will go kaput. Everyone of mine got smoked on a lightening hit. Not sure if the strike hit my building or just close by it, but I lost all kinds of electroic stuff both in my building and my house. Funny how those surges will travel..........

03-29-2012, 02:14 PM

Bill N.Y.

quote:
Originally posted by Jim & Barb:
Danny,

I have the same problem with a drain on the engine battery after two/three weeks and that is even with the power shut off located in the back.

It's suppose to shut off all the current however something is not shutting off.

I don't shut the power off anymore and plug in a 1 amp battery charger off set the drain. Also leave the Barth plugged in to house electric.

My next move will be a battery minder, the one that is reported to keep the battery in top condition.

Some day I hope to find what is causing the drain until then the little charger is in place.

Capt Jim
1985 Barth Regency

I received a followup email from Capt Jim.

quote:

I am sending this photo so you can insert it into a post.

I just found out something about my Barth a couple of days ago that I did not know and that is the Cole-Hersee shut off switch is only half working.

I always have had a drain on the engine battery when the switch was in the both shut off position. As I posted before I thought it was the LP gas alarm draining the
engine battery.
As you know I just replaced all my batteries. Several times with-in the last month I've had to jump start the Barth off my car to get it to start.
The engine would crank freely ,however it would only show 11 volts and would not start until I jumped it.
I drove the Barth over to Sams club thinking the new engine battery was defective. They did a complete check and it was showing almost 13 volts with the engine off
and sitting for about an hour.

The tech advise me to do several things in checking for a drain on the battery.

The first thing I did was disconnect the positive cable on the engine battery and and used a trouble light between the engine post and the cable. The light lit up dimly.
I then tried a meter and it showed a drain. I then hooked the cable back up and checked each fuse for a drain and found none.

Then upon checking in the back ,by the engine, I found the Cole-Hersee switch is only shutting off the house batteries and not the engine battery.
When rotating the switch you can hear a relay work from the both on to the first click shut off, however on the second click (both shut off position) the is no relay sound.

In the picture the one rely is marked CB1 and the other CB2. CB1 seems to be the one working and the other one CB2 is not. No matter where the switch is set there is
current to all the red wires (top & bottom) of both relays. There is no current to the one red wire which is to the bottom left (bolted to the side) except when I place the
aux. start dash switch in the on position.

So far I have cleaned every ground I have found and cleaned a "lot" of connections including taken the Cole-Hersee off and cleaning those connections.

Since I am not very knowledgeable in the electrical field I am now at a loss of what to do (and the inside of that box looks like it needs an expert!!).
If I leave a small battery charger on connected to the engine battery it seems to off-set the drain, however that's not the answer to the problem.

I do know one thing - the ole Barth will not start on 11 volts- it has to be 12 plus.

Jim

1985 Barth Regency 35 Ft
DD 225hp Ally Trans 4 speed

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