1984 Ford Travelcraft Battery Help (Restoration project)

HawaiianThunder · May 8, 2018

Hey everyone!

I got my hands on a 21? 1984 Travelcraft on a Ford E350 chassis for $1. An insurance company was having a hard time getting rid of it, and they took me up on my offer.

I spent an afternoon tinkering & got the engine to fire up. I'm currently cleaning the remnants of the previous rodent tenants.

Under the main bed, I found a latched battery compartment in the floor. It appears there was another battery also connected above that, directly beneath the bed.
I'd like to run 2 batteries, just from the standpoint of a deeper reserve.

Any advice on preferred configurations?

I?m also going to start testing other systems this weekend.

Gary RV_Wizard · May 8, 2018

Typically a coach will have two separate 12v systems, one for the "house" and the other for the chassis/engine. They each have their own battery and are isolated from each other. The reason is to prevent the house lighting and such from running down the chassis battery and leaving you stranded.

HawaiianThunder · May 8, 2018

If the House battery is missing, should the lights still function if I plug in to grid power? I tried plugging it in, but no lights worked. I?m sure there are more than a few surprises I?m bound to discover.

Lou Schneider · May 8, 2018

It depends on the type of converter and how it's wired. Generally a converter will supply at least some power to the lights without the battery being present, but that may not hold true for all of the older ones.

Assuming the lights work when you replace the battery, check the voltage across the battery terminals with the RV plugged in and when it's not. If the voltage is higher when you're connected to electricity the converter is working. If it's not, you need to dig deeper.

1984 Ford Travelcraft Battery Help (Restoration project)

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