1985 Southwind No power from batteries to House or Generator.

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Scottmc70

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Aug 10, 2015
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We just got a 1985 Fleetwood Southwind the previous owners just had new batteries installed 1 week before we bought it. The house batteries are 2 12 volts. The problem I am having is there is no power to the generator to start it of anything in the house lights, tv, ect. from the batteries. If I hook up to shore power everything in the house will work, but the generator will not start. I tested for power at the incoming battery connections at the fuse panel under the booth seat and no dc power coming in.  The odd part is at the batteries they have pos to pos with multiple connections coming off but on the neg to neg there is no connections coming off just the tie between batteries. I would think that there should be a neg connection going back to the fuse panel.
Thanks Scott.
 
One of the batteries needs its negative terminal connected to chassis ground. Sometimes in a 1985 vintage system this is done at the converter/charger power panel, which in turn has a chassis ground. What is the make and model number on that panel? Maybe a Magnetek 6330?
 
I did an experiment and hooked my 12 volt jumper pack up to the battery in pos and neg on the controller and was able to power the house lights none of the AC items would power up and I still had no power to generator. Does the generator get its power from the controller or directly from the batteries? To me it seems I have a bad wire or connection some where.
 
The generator has a direct connection to the battery somewhere, but it may be the chassis battery rather than the house. It varies among coach brand/model and even year. It may connect to a solenoid rather than right to the battery terminal, but it will be a sizable cable.

There isn't much service info on the PD 765Q, but hopefully this will help:
http://www.progressivedyn.com/service_discontinued/PDI%20Service%20Manual%20710778.pdf

You aren't expecting the 120vac outlets and appliances to work from battery power, right? They require shore of generator for their primary power. Most of them also depend on 12v in some fashion as well,  for control purposes.
 
Thank you so much for your help Gary, after looking at the book to me it looks like there should be a neg battery connection at the controller it has a neg bat lug with a white wire in it. There is a white wire connected to the pos battery post on the house batteries. Is it possible that the white wire should be connected to the neg post, or should there be a connection from the house battery neg to the chassis? It looks like over the years there have been several wires cut, spliced and disconnected so tracing has been difficult.
 
The chassis serves as the electrical ground side of every 12v circuit in the RV, so there has to be a chassis connection somewhere. Some designs wire the battery negative terminal direct to a bolt on the chassis, while others route the battery negative to a lug or bus somewhere that itself has a direct wire to the chassis. I simply don't know how they chose to do it on your old Southwind, but if you trace the path of the battery negative wire you should find it quickly. If not, that's your problem.
 
I have good news after checking all the connections at the batteries I found that who ever put the new batteries in hooked two of the neg wires to the pos side. After making this change and cleaning all the cables I now have house power from the batteries ;D
The generator will crank but will not start that is my next project. Thanks for your help Gary I am sure I will need a lot more as I go.
Scott
 
Sounds like 6v batteries were replaced wih 12v and the corresponding wiring was not changed. Hope neither the batteries nor the charger were damaged by the improper wiring. If 12v batteries were wired in series, you had a 24v system for awhile!
 
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