I recently purchased a 2003 Safari Cheetah with a 330 hp Cummins Diesel engine. Things were fine up until about two months ago.
Then the one year old Cat chasis batteries went dead. I replaced them and about two weeks later they went dead again. When I say dead, I mean the specific gravity readings are zero and the batteries will not charge with an external charger! I replaced them a third time and again, they died. I then replaced the Cat batteries with deep cycle batteries from NAPA. These worked fine for about two weeks but then the alternator fail light came on.
I replaced the alternator but again it would not work. An RV mechanic determined that the alternator was OK and worked fine when an "excitor" wire was hooked to the house batteries. This worked fine for about a week and now the chasis batteries are dead again. The voltage reads 10.5 but the specific gravity is zero and the engine won't crank at all. The excitor wire was a temporary fix. It is not permanently connected. I simply touch it to the battery and the alternator begins charging.
Monaco has been virtually no help. There is no drain on the chasis batteries and the isolator appears to be working fine. Has anyone else had this problem???
Thanks
