SantaCruzRider
Member
For the last couple of months, I?ve experienced a number of minor electric issues and now am wondering if all or most can be traced to the way the PO had wired the house batteries.
First issue was a backup camera that look several minutes to have the image clear (was bright white when first turned on). This has mysteriously reduced to about a 5 second lag in the image being clear.
Second issue was the step working intermittently, and then stopping entirely.
Third issue was the generator failing to start. I temporarily resolved this by using the backup battery switch, which let me use the engine battery to start and the generator came right up ? this was my first indication that I had an issue with the deep-cycle house batteries.
Fourth issue was the water pump ceased to work on house batteries.
So, at the end of the trip, I remove and test the two 12 volt deep cycle batteries and sure enough they are shot, in fact one won?t even take a load. So I get two new 12-volt batteries, but as I?m hooking them up, I realize that the old ones were connected in a series (negative from one connected to the positive of the other). This seemed strange, but I went for it since that?s how the old ones were set up (and no, the old ones were not 6 volt and no, I didn't change the wiring config).
I make the connections and the water pump fires up and immediately clicks off, the generator starts fine, but when I turn on a couple of small house lights, the bulbs blow. And then I start the RV, the amp meter goes through the roof, the battery symbol lights on the dash and I can smell battery ?charging? fumes. So I shut it down and connect just one of the two 12 volt house batteries, and no more trouble with the engine lights and no more bulbs blowing.
Now I?m left wondering if it?s possible that the PO had the wiring wrong all this time and that the house batteries were pumping 24 volt to the house lines (it may have been much lower as one of the batteries was basically DOA).
I have to go back through and recheck the fuses for the water pump and step, as these may have blown when I hooked the two new batteries up, but I just want to be sure I?m on the right track.
Also, should I hook up that second deep cycle in parallel to the first one (neg to neg, pos to pos)? I'm now guessing that's how it should have been all along, but I'll need to buy a second cable to allow that config.
Thanks,
Dan
First issue was a backup camera that look several minutes to have the image clear (was bright white when first turned on). This has mysteriously reduced to about a 5 second lag in the image being clear.
Second issue was the step working intermittently, and then stopping entirely.
Third issue was the generator failing to start. I temporarily resolved this by using the backup battery switch, which let me use the engine battery to start and the generator came right up ? this was my first indication that I had an issue with the deep-cycle house batteries.
Fourth issue was the water pump ceased to work on house batteries.
So, at the end of the trip, I remove and test the two 12 volt deep cycle batteries and sure enough they are shot, in fact one won?t even take a load. So I get two new 12-volt batteries, but as I?m hooking them up, I realize that the old ones were connected in a series (negative from one connected to the positive of the other). This seemed strange, but I went for it since that?s how the old ones were set up (and no, the old ones were not 6 volt and no, I didn't change the wiring config).
I make the connections and the water pump fires up and immediately clicks off, the generator starts fine, but when I turn on a couple of small house lights, the bulbs blow. And then I start the RV, the amp meter goes through the roof, the battery symbol lights on the dash and I can smell battery ?charging? fumes. So I shut it down and connect just one of the two 12 volt house batteries, and no more trouble with the engine lights and no more bulbs blowing.
Now I?m left wondering if it?s possible that the PO had the wiring wrong all this time and that the house batteries were pumping 24 volt to the house lines (it may have been much lower as one of the batteries was basically DOA).
I have to go back through and recheck the fuses for the water pump and step, as these may have blown when I hooked the two new batteries up, but I just want to be sure I?m on the right track.
Also, should I hook up that second deep cycle in parallel to the first one (neg to neg, pos to pos)? I'm now guessing that's how it should have been all along, but I'll need to buy a second cable to allow that config.
Thanks,
Dan
