2000 Winnebago Adventurer 37g battery disconnect switch

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
A

adpendry

New member
Joined
Jul 9, 2015
Posts
4
In the stairwell of my motorhome, there is a battery disconnect switch.  It is used to disconnect the house batteries when the unit is in storage.  Normally when you press the switch to the "on" position, you can hear a loud "clunk" when the relay engages.  I just replaced all three of my batteries.  Now for some reason, when I press the switch to the "on" position, nothing happens.  My 12v system is getting no power.  If I press the switch to the "off" position, I hear the loud "clunk".  If I press and hold the switch in the "off" position, my 12v system works.  Any ideas? 


Edit by staff: changed message icon to topic solved
 
There is often a separate power wire for the disconnect solenoid. That's so it has power to turn back on after the disconnect. You may have left the power wire for the disconnect solenoid off the batteries.
 
afchap, The batteries are hooked up correctly. 

Gary, There are no separate wires, only the red positive and black negative battery cables.

 
It may be a question of semantics here. On the Winnebago system, does "On" mean the disconnect system is ON or activated, ie no power to the coach? And "Off" would then mean the disconnect system is turned off and  coach has power on. Your case perhaps??


Or does "On" mean the battery system is turned on and feeding the coach? "Off" would then mean the storage system is active and there is no power to the coach.

As this is a fairly heavy solenoid, you would would probably hear a 'clunk' on both the operating and release of said relay.

May seem like a stupid suggestion but another active thread here just pointed out this anomaly for another brand of coach.
 
It is a latching relay. Apply momentary voltage to a terminal and it changes state, apply momentary voltage to other terminal and it reverses state. Should hear a clunk from both states.
 
Gary, There are no separate wires, only the red positive and black negative battery cables.
Click to expand...

Maybe that's why it doesn't work!  :eek:

Seriously, there is a basic electrical need that has to be met somehow. Once the solenoid disconnects the battery from the house wiring, the solenoid has to have some other power source to enable it to switch back on again.  That has to be either a wire that bypasses the disconnect and goes direct to the battery (or associated wiring0 that is still "hot", or some other 12v power source. You need to figure out where that power comes from (the disconnect switch controls it) and why it is off when thebattery goes offline.
 
Alfa38User said:
It may be a question of semantics here. On the Winnebago system, does "On" mean the disconnect system is ON or activated, ie no power to the coach? And "Off" would then mean the disconnect system is turned off and  coach has power on. Your case perhaps?? ...
Click to expand...

Stu - I think this is correct, I remember thinking how counter intuitive the labeling was.

It's time for the OP to pull up his wiring diagram and start troubleshooting, it shouldn't be that complicated.
 
alfa38user

I understand the problems with semantics but in this case:

"on" means that the batteries are turned on and supplying power to the coach. 

"off" means that the batteries are disconnected and in the storage mode.


John Hilley

I agree but it was not making any sound when I pressed the toggle to "on".


Gary,

I understand your point but as I read your first post, I understood you to mean that maybe I had left a wire disconnected when I installed the new batteries.  The additional wiring is elsewhere and not connected directly to the batteries.  I only disconnected the red and black battery cables, therefore, when I installed the new batteries, I only reconnected the same red and black battery cables.


I want to thank all of you for your suggestions and responses.  Fortunately, I have solved this problem.  I ordered a new switch and everything worked as soon as I installed it.  Obviously, it was a bad switch.


I may have another, unrelated issue but I will post about that one once I am certain there is an issue and exactly what it is.
 
John Canfield, 

I was not ignoring you.  It is just that I had not had a chance to try your suggestion when I posted the reply on July 10. 

Thank you for your suggestions as well.  I did check out the disconnect with a meter and it checked out ok.

Also, I agree with Stu as well.  Semantics can cause confusion.  Fortunately, I did not have to go to the extent of tracking down an electrical issue. Just had to replace a bad switch.

Again, Thank you all for your suggestions.
 
I just tested mine and here's how it goes. I turned the battery disconnect to ON position, I don't hear anything other that it turns all 12 volts circuits, A/C thermostat ON at the EMS, tank levels ON, LP gas detector ON, all lights ON. When I push to OFF position, a clunk and an audible alarm is heard and everything mentioned above are turn off.
 

Attachments

  • 20150803_093810.jpg
    20150803_093810.jpg
    288.3 KB · Views: 19
On my 37G, the battery disconnect switch works the same as Artstang's post above.  However, I stopped calling it a "disconnect" switch; if disconnection is the subject of the operation, then logically switching to On means turning on the disconnection.  Off on this basis means turning off the disconnection.  As the opposite is in fact true, I now consider it a 12-volt connection switch.

Dougie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 770 (members: 13, guests: 757)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,151
Posts
1,391,099
Members
137,872
Latest member
gregcss43
Back
Top Bottom