Chassis battery drains while on shore power.

[berwin]

Very common issue. Jayco said they fixed it but they just made it not quite so bad. I have gone with the battery disconnect but have a Trik-L-Start sitting in the toolbox waiting to be put on which will hopefully solved this issue.

[mfklemm]

Well...new battery also drained. Have an appointment at the dealer (in two weeks) for service. Of course, they told me all the stuff that I know is on the chassis battery is on the house battery. If the converter is supposed to charge the chassis battery, it's definitely NOT. Quite annoying.

[berwin]

mfklemm, the converter charges the house battery, not the chassis battery. The Trik-L-Start device I mentioned in my previous post allows the converter to charge the chassis battery as well.

[RoyBraddy]

I always have a DC VOLTMETER handy around my batteries... I can hook up directly to the batteries doing my walk around and want to see the DC VOLATAGE at 13.6 or so telling me a charge is being provided. On a disconnected battery a DC VOLTAGE reading of 12.7 or so indicates a good 90% or so charged up batteries. A reading of 12.0 VDC indicates to me the batteries are around their 50 % charge state and need charging. When I am camping off grid I can do the 50% to 90% charge routine in a three hour 2KW Generator with my trailer connected without doing harm to my batteries. i.e. I can run them down to the 50% charge state over night and recharge back to the 90% charge state the next morning during the three hour generator run time. I can do this routine around a week or so and then I will want to do a full 100% charge state which takes 10-12 hours of being on charge. Like to do this full charge routine at my home base setup...


Roy's image

Been doing this routine since getting my battery bank on my off-road popup back in 2009 and my battery bank (three and four 12V batteries in series) lasted up to around 2014-2015. My new battery bank is two groups of two 6V golf cart batteries connected in series. These will sit across my POPUP trailer front tongue area where I have battery rails welded across the tongue area. One of these 49-inch long battery boxes with slide off op fits perfect on my tongues area extending out on both sides just in front of my front deck.

My Torklift battery box has two 10 watt solar panels one for each 6v Battery groups to provide trickle charging when sitting in high sun areas...


Google image

Due to my age and wife's health issues we are not going out as much as in the past but the new battery bank is working like a champ... I run drop cords to the house from it when we have local power outages haha...

Roy Ken

[GABob]

Went to fire up oil’ Homer a few months ago and he was dead. Used the lil white button to draw froM the coach and got him started. Threw a trickle charger on overnight and all was good. Couldn’t think what was draining it, then saw this light under the hood. Had no idea what it was but suspected that might be it. Had it in for a slight service and asked what that was. Learned it was a signal booster of sorts for the TPMS. Went and bought a small solar charger from Amazon to put it the overhang windshield. So far, so good.

[Vicr]

Originally Posted by berwin

mfklemm, the converter charges the house battery, not the chassis battery. The Trik-L-Start device I mentioned in my previous post allows the converter to charge the chassis battery as well.

You are wrong. Precepts and Alante chassis batteries are charged from the converter.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by mfklemm

Well...new battery also drained. Have an appointment at the dealer (in two weeks) for service. Of course, they told me all the stuff that I know is on the chassis battery is on the house battery. If the converter is supposed to charge the chassis battery, it's definitely NOT. Quite annoying.

I saw this in the Entegra manual, you might ask the tech about it:


...."Unless a battery has been fully discharged, house auxiliary batteries are normally charged in one of two ways:
When the power cord is plugged into 120-volt shore power, or when the generator is operational, the inverter/charger functions as a multi-stage battery charger and will automatically charge the house auxiliary batteries when required. A bi-directional charge relay incorporated into the electrical system allows the inverter/charger to charge the chassis batteries once the house auxiliary batteries are sufficiently charged.

[GABob]

Originally Posted by RetiredOne

I saw this in the Entegra manual, you might ask the tech about it:


...."Unless a battery has been fully discharged, house auxiliary batteries are normally charged in one of two ways:
When the power cord is plugged into 120-volt shore power, or when the generator is operational, the inverter/charger functions as a multi-stage battery charger and will automatically charge the house auxiliary batteries when required. A bi-directional charge relay incorporated into the electrical system allows the inverter/charger to charge the chassis batteries once the house auxiliary batteries are sufficiently charged.

You piqued my interest, so I pulled out my manual for an Entegra Odyssey. It states the following:


Transfer Switch (Pg 88 of the manual)



"The generator interfaces with the 120/240 volt electrical system through a transfer switch that automatically switches between available shore power and generator power. The transfer switch does not require any manual operation. When the generator is operating, it powers the inverter/charger which in turn functions as a multi-stage battery charger to charge the house auxiliary and chassis batteries."

[hawkster]

Also, anything plugged into the the dash 'cigarette lighter' socket runs off chassis battery and will run it down over time.

My precept on shore power shows 13.2 volts at chassis battery when sitting for weeks and not started. If you check the converter manual, it says maintenance charge is 13.2 volts.

[btcutter2]

We have an Entegra Vision 31V. Same problem. But...we also discovered that after the last time in the shop winterizing they left the engine light on. just found it in May...and camping last weekend found a light staying on in the first storage compartment it needs turned off manually. Newbies sort of here. Live and learn. Goes in the shop for satellite install Monday. We'll have them check the battery then. Thanks for all the advice!!

[Scoopny]

Just curious, do you have an installed Garmin? Our Jayco Alante 31P Chassis battery kept draining, battery replaced twice, brought it home left Garmin faceplate in place, battery drained again in a week. Recharged everything fully, took the Garmin faceplate off, two weeks later started right up, another two weeks started right up. Put it back on, week later dead. BINGO! Jayco has no idea why, waiting for them to reach out to Garmin.

[mfklemm]

NO..2020 lost the removable face plate.

[hawkster]

Originally Posted by Scoopny

Just curious, do you have an installed Garmin? Our Jayco Alante 31P Chassis battery kept draining, battery replaced twice, brought it home left Garmin faceplate in place, battery drained again in a week. Recharged everything fully, took the Garmin faceplate off, two weeks later started right up, another two weeks started right up. Put it back on, week later dead. BINGO! Jayco has no idea why, waiting for them to reach out to Garmin.

Interesting. On a motorcycle I used the Garmin zumo. In a few days battery dead. After some diagnostic work found it was the cradle, with the Garmin off. Disconnect cradle after every ride problem solved. I also did some internet searching and found I wasn't the only one.

[TGoldsbury]

FYI, here is a question I sent to Jayco this week, and below is their reply.

This year I purchased a 2018 Precept 31UL, at home it's always plugged into shore power. This weekend I had a friend tell me the trickle charge you get while plugged in is not as strong as what you get while running your generator, and if you only use the trickle charge your house batteries will eventually run down. He suggested running the generator for an hour while coming home from a trip. Any input on that would be appreciated.


From Jayco - The trickle charge will do what it should and will charge the batteries just fine, but with that being said it would be a good idea to run the generator about 30 minutes to an hour as this will not only exercise the generator but will also make sure that batteries are receiving a full charge. I would agree with your friend that the generator would be your best option.

[Vicr]

Can "Jayco" explain to us how the 120v coming from the generator and the 120v from shore power supplying power to the charger in the converter are different? Maybe some of the other electrical "experts" will chime in here.

[JimD]

Pretty bad when Jayco doesn't know how their products work.

There is what is called a transfer switch in the 120 volt circuitry. It has two inputs and one output. The output feeds the coach's 120 volt items which includes the converter which charges the battery. The inputs are 120 volts from the shore power and generator.

When on shore power the transfer switch passes the 120 volt shore power through. When the generator kicks on the transfer switch will switch over to that and pass through the 120 volts from the generator.

In either case you have 120 volts coming in from one or the other source. The coach doesn't know the difference, it just gets its 120 volts and is happy.

As far as the charging is concerned, Jayco is once again wrong. The converter is not a trickle charger. It is capable of full tilt charging. These are "smart" devices and will taper their output to what is required by the battery. It may select boost mode, normal mode, or storage mode. The converter will cycle through these settings as needed and maintain the battery. I suppose it is somewhat of a trickle charger when in the storage mode but will come out of that mode every so often to hit the battery with a heavier charge rate.

Jayco was correct on one aspect though. You should exercise the generator every month but need to put a heavier load on it than just the converter. You are suppose to load it to 1/2 capicity for an hour or two every month to prevent it from getting gummed up.

[chrisstraka]

Originally Posted by JimD

Pretty bad when Jayco doesn't know how their products work.

There is what is called a transfer switch in the 120 volt circuitry. It has two inputs and one output. The output feeds the coach's 120 volt items which includes the converter which charges the battery. The inputs are 120 volts from the shore power and generator.

When on shore power the transfer switch passes the 120 volt shore power through. When the generator kicks on the transfer switch will switch over to that and pass through the 120 volts from the generator.

In either case you have 120 volts coming in from one or the other source. The coach doesn't know the difference, it just gets its 120 volts and is happy.

As far as the charging is concerned, Jayco is once again wrong. The converter is not a trickle charger. It is capable of full tilt charging. These are "smart" devices and will taper their output to what is required by the battery. It may select boost mode, normal mode, or storage mode. The converter will cycle through these settings as needed and maintain the battery. I suppose it is somewhat of a trickle charger when in the storage mode but will come out of that mode every so often to hit the battery with a heavier charge rate.

Jayco was correct on one aspect though. You should exercise the generator every month but need to put a heavier load on it than just the converter. You are suppose to load it to 1/2 capicity for an hour or two every month to prevent it from getting gummed up.

Jim,

If one or both of my house batteries are losing charge, will the converter struggle to keep them charged resulting in heating up and a foul smell? I think that I can pinpoint this rogue electrical "hot" smell to the converter, but it seems to be functioning properly.

Thanks in advance.

[JimD]

When batteries are charged they let off gases. Decades ago I had an old Econoline van that had the battery in an enclosure behind the driver's seat. Have no idea why it was there. I was getting a very bad smell from it for a period of time. As I vaguely remember,I installed a new battery and the smell went away.

I just did a net search and found the following:

One of the first symptoms of a problem with the battery is a rotten egg smell. Conventional acid lead automotive batteries are filled with a mixture of water and sulfuric acid. As the battery wears, some of the acid and water may evaporate which will disturb the mixture. This may cause the battery to overheat or boil, which will produce an unpleasant smell, and even smoking in more severe cases.

[mkassab]

I'll add my two cents here.

First, I fully agree any 120v power source to the transfer switch will run the 12v converter and therefor charge both the coach/house and chassis/engine battery once the coach battery is fully charged.

Regarding a solar charge of the coach/house batteries and the engine battery goes, the Jayco solar pre-wire has 3 pair of wires (located in the coach battery/propane compartment, top right in our 2021 Precept 34G) (see pic 1). One pair (red/white) is the input from the roof's solar junction connection point. If/when solar panels are installed on the roof, these red/white wires would have to connect to a Solar Controller. Then the Solar Control would feed the batteries for charging. The 2nd pair (Black and white with red tape) are intended for the coach/house batteries charge once connected (the black red tape wire goes to a 30 amp circuit breaker on the left side of the compartment (see pic 2), and lastly, the 3rd pair (black and white only) (see pic 1) is a set of wires that run to the engine compartment for possible connection to the chassis/engine battery. The black wire there is also connected to a 30amp circuit breaker.

For further details on how I did all this on my rig, I've stated a details thread on this forum @ this link; https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...34g-81805.html

hope this helps.
Mark

[Redhawk 22C]

My 2019 Alante does not charge the chassis battery when plugged in to shore power.