Oy, thank you so much.A good VOM applied to the battery bank,trumps every level indicator ever made..>>>Dan
Oy, thank you so much.A good VOM applied to the battery bank,trumps every level indicator ever made..>>>Dan
Well I am letting it go for a while. Hopefully I can get it started soon, lol, glad I am not needing anything, too important.L = LOW = 6V
F = FAIR = 11.2V
G = GOOD = 11.9V
C = CHARGE = 12.7V
A good Lead acid battery is considered 50% discharged at 12V. You are above 11.2 but below 11.9 so you definitely ran it down too low. If you want to get the generator started faster, pull the engine battery and drag it back to the genny and hook it onto the genny with jumper cables.
Bob, thank you, even with it running the genny won't kick. As I wondered could it be a bad starter? As I have noticed before, the genny starts on its own if all is on, plus I cannot stop it by the regular means. I hope that I have learned a good lesson here.Point was to try to start the generator while the RV engine was running, that way the alternator can add juice to start the generator. Once the generator is running you can shut doff the RV engine.
Also, thank you, I feel a bit dumb witted not knowing what the lights mean, you very much helped me understand. It is not like I haven't been around RVs, it's just no one showed me all the ins and outs.L = LOW = 6V
F = FAIR = 11.2V
G = GOOD = 11.9V
C = CHARGE = 12.7V
A good Lead acid battery is considered 50% discharged at 12V. You are above 11.2 but below 11.9 so you definitely ran it down too low. If you want to get the generator started faster, pull the engine battery and drag it back to the genny and hook it onto the genny with jumper cables.
Bob, thank you. I am thinking that my alternator charges both, as I have a disconnect on the house battery for storage. I am not quite sure about which battery the genny starts off of and I did try many different times today while I had the engine going.I had a situation with an Onan 4000 once where I had the same as you. Clicking sound. What happened to me is the starter fly wheel engaged but not enough juice to start. The problem was the starter fly wheel didn't disengage and was "jammed" in the generator flywheel. I took it to a retired Onan guy. He reached on the side to where the flywheel is and tried to rotate it by hand back and forth to un-jamb it. This didn't work an he told me to remove the generator from the RV and loosen the starter. Once I backed the 2 screws out half way the flywheel released, and I put everything back together.
So if you are getting just clicking when you try to start the generator, make sure no one is near a start button and try to turn the flywheel by hand. give it a pretty good tug forward and back. If it rotates freely its not jammed, and your problem is still juice to start. Make a habit of starting the RV first ad then the generator when not plugged in, unless you know for sure your battery is 100%. When plugged in the converter will help supply juice to start, but the battery still acts as well of power for big loads, like starting the generator. DO you know which battery the generator tries to draw from when starting. The RV engine or the "house" battery? Mine starts from the engine battery, that's why starting the RV engine first helps. I think most are that way. The battery gauge that you show in the picture is the house battery and is low. Yours might try to get the juice from the house battery. That doesn't make sense to me, if you deplete the house battery you wan to be able to start the generator (from the engine battery to recharge the house battery. The thing is you don't want to kill the engine battery trying to start the generator, because then you are really stuck. That's why I say start the RV engine first, then try the generator. Once the generator is running you can safely turn off the RV engine. The converter will charge the house batteries faster then the engine. Other thing you need to know is does your converter charge both batteries or just the house? Which batteries does the alternator charge, the RV engine or both? Newer RVs charge both from either. Older ones like a '95 Thor might only charge one. Older RVs used to have to hook up battery chargers to the engine battery to keep them charged during extended stays or run the engine every couple weeks to keep it charged.
Ya, I guess I will be investing in one, soon. That was how I found out the old battery was junk.A good VOM applied to the battery bank,trumps every level indicator ever made..>>>Dan
Jay, thank you. I just turned the fridge back on. Still no start on gennie.If your fridge runs on propane it will draw so little from the 12V battery that turning it off will not help. You may as well keep your food cold.
Bob, I do believe that I found the flywheel you are talking about. It turns freely. I am really starting to think it is the starter.I had a situation with an Onan 4000 once where I had the same as you. Clicking sound. What happened to me is the starter fly wheel engaged but not enough juice to start. The problem was the starter fly wheel didn't disengage and was "jammed" in the generator flywheel. I took it to a retired Onan guy. He reached on the side to where the flywheel is and tried to rotate it by hand back and forth to un-jamb it. This didn't work an he told me to remove the generator from the RV and loosen the starter. Once I backed the 2 screws out half way the flywheel released, and I put everything back together.
So if you are getting just clicking when you try to start the generator, make sure no one is near a start button and try to turn the flywheel by hand. give it a pretty good tug forward and back. If it rotates freely its not jammed, and your problem is still juice to start. Make a habit of starting the RV first ad then the generator when not plugged in, unless you know for sure your battery is 100%. When plugged in the converter will help supply juice to start, but the battery still acts as well of power for big loads, like starting the generator. DO you know which battery the generator tries to draw from when starting. The RV engine or the "house" battery? Mine starts from the engine battery, that's why starting the RV engine first helps. I think most are that way. The battery gauge that you show in the picture is the house battery and is low. Yours might try to get the juice from the house battery. That doesn't make sense to me, if you deplete the house battery you wan to be able to start the generator (from the engine battery to recharge the house battery. The thing is you don't want to kill the engine battery trying to start the generator, because then you are really stuck. That's why I say start the RV engine first, then try the generator. Once the generator is running you can safely turn off the RV engine. The converter will charge the house batteries faster then the engine. Other thing you need to know is does your converter charge both batteries or just the house? Which batteries does the alternator charge, the RV engine or both? Newer RVs charge both from either. Older ones like a '95 Thor might only charge one. Older RVs used to have to hook up battery chargers to the engine battery to keep them charged during extended stays or run the engine every couple weeks to keep it charged.
Jay, I did hook up the car battery to the genny, I found that I do have my cables. It turned over but wouldn't start up, I tried again, clicking.L = LOW = 6V
F = FAIR = 11.2V
G = GOOD = 11.9V
C = CHARGE = 12.7V
A good Lead acid battery is considered 50% discharged at 12V. You are above 11.2 but below 11.9 so you definitely ran it down too low. If you want to get the generator started faster, pull the engine battery and drag it back to the genny and hook it onto the genny with jumper cables.
Well the hydraulic levelling system is not working either. I do not see anything else in the driving area which suggests an emergency start switch. I only see the basics which any vehicle has, with exception of the light by the steering wheel for the jacks.You say you have no bells and whistles but you have an automatic leveling system which I don't have on my 2000 Dutchmen but I do have an emergency start switch. If I am not mistaken, Dutchmen is a subdivision of Four Winds.
Don't know where that table came from, but it's very wrong. Or maybe just hopelessly optimistic. Even allowing its measure an active battery rather than "at rest", anything less than 11.9v is poor and 11.2v is darn near totally dead. Barely lights a bulb! 10.5v is the lowest that most RV appliance circuit boards will tolerate, so things stop working even if they use propane or shore power for their main power source. Most experts consider a 12v battery to be "dead" at 10.5v.L = LOW = 6V
F = FAIR = 11.2V
G = GOOD = 11.9V
C = CHARGE = 12.7V