Problem with my house batteries not working unless I am on shore power?

[geokayaker]

I have been living in my 30 foot Fleetwood Flair chevy 454 for eight months continuously on shore power. I have not used this rig for boondocking, but I want to.

This morning I decided to tackle my biggest problem, when i turn off the 120 breaker the coach does not switch into DC mode, or onto house battery power. 

first I checked the converter, which is under 3 years old, 4 stage boondocker. It seemed to be working fine.

next i checked the house batteries and they were 12.5-12.7v

then i checked the intellitec 00100055000 relay solenoid battery cutoff, and to my surprise neither the switch for the chassis, or coach batteries had fuses in them, the switch was reading 1-2 v on the power side and zero on the exit side, so i took it apart put fuses in it and put it back together, and what do ya know, it worked, I turned off the 120v main breaker and all of the 12v appliances worked. 

Since I am taking a trip i decided to service the house batteries, i took them out and one needed water badly but it still read 12.5 volts, the other was full of water reading around 12.7v, i cleaned them and put them back in and none of the batteries worked, including the chassis battery, it would not turn over the engine, but it worked fine yesterday, and is reading 12.8v, the thing is I went ahead and put the two 5amp fuses that it was missing while I was at it. but it was working without the fuses? very strange

Some questions i would like answered if possible; can these switches work with no fuses in them? is it possible that they both went bad at the same time? or did putting fuses in them open the gate and drain the batteries? 

[rayin]

Welcome to the FMCA discussion forums!!! Happy to have you here, visit often.

 

Try removing those fuses, re-charging chassis battery if needed, and try to start the engine again. Perhaps those 2 fuses were never present?

Edited November 28, 2020 by rayin

[manholt]

Welcome!

Have you tightened down your wire connections, make sure you have clean, bare metal ground connection, a bone dry acid battery?  I would take all the batteries, house and chassis to a Auto parts store and have them bench tested (take pictures of all you disconnect).  Have you looked at your Transfer Switch (ATS)?  Disconnect all power, take off lid and look for any loose or discolored wires, make sure all connections  are torqued to spec. also clean and tighten ground wire to ATS.

Have you run your Generator, does it even start?  What year is your Flair?

[geokayaker]

18 hours ago, rayin said:

Welcome to the FMCA discussion forums!!! Happy to have you here, visit often.

 

Try removing those fuses, re-charging chassis battery if needed, and try to start the engine again. Perhaps those 2 fuses were never present?

The fuses were not in either switch, the chassis worked but the house did not, I put fuses in the house switch and all of a sudden I had power without 30amp. 

[geokayaker]

13 hours ago, manholt said:

Welcome!

Have you tightened down your wire connections, make sure you have clean, bare metal ground connection, a bone dry acid battery?  I would take all the batteries, house and chassis to a Auto parts store and have them bench tested (take pictures of all you disconnect).  Have you looked at your Transfer Switch (ATS)?  Disconnect all power, take off lid and look for any loose or discolored wires, make sure all connections  are torqued to spec. also clean and tighten ground wire to ATS.

Have you run your Generator, does it even start?  What year is your Flair?

I did have a battery that needed about 3 cups of water, I will have them load tested, although they are reading 12.5-8 v. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by geokayaker
add more

[geokayaker]

Im not sure what the transfer switch is, I will look for it.

I have never started the generator, I have tried turning it over,, it did but it didn't start.

1994 Flair

[geokayaker]

19 hours ago, rayin said:

Welcome to the FMCA discussion forums!!! Happy to have you here, visit often.

 

Try removing those fuses, re-charging chassis battery if needed, and try to start the engine again. Perhaps those 2 fuses were never present?

i tried it, same result, no power at all unless the 30amp is plugged in.

[geokayaker]

Update I had the house batteries load tested an one is good one is bad, however, this doesn't explain why it wont start with a fully charged starting battery that is barely two months old. 

[dickandlois]

16 hours ago, geokayaker said:

Update I had the house batteries load tested an one is good one is bad, however, this doesn't explain why it wont start with a fully charged starting battery that is barely two months old. 

this doesn't explain why it wont start !  Needed information is missing information.

Does the engine turn over? when in the start position? Is the neutral safety switch closing ?When the Key is in the run position, is there 12 volts at the distributor?  The stater ground is made through the neutral safety switch.

Is there  spark at the plug(S) ?  Do you have a in line spark testing tool ?

Is the oil pressure sensor circuit working? If not the fuel pump will not run, Do you have fuel pressure?

What is the Model year of the coach and engine?

Rich.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by dickandlois