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Old 10-03-2012, 09:41 AM   #1
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Battery Issues

I have a 2005 Jayco Escapade Class C 28G. When I am not using my RV, I make sure everything electrical is turned off and I hit the battery disconnect button. After about a week, when I try to start the engine my engine battery is mostly dead. I then resort to the auxilliary batteries to start the engine. The guy I purchased the RV from said that the auto stairs run off the engine battery even when turned off and the battery disconnect button turned off. He said that I should disconnect the engine battery when not in use. Is this normal?
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Old 10-03-2012, 10:18 AM   #2
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While I am not 100% certain of how this unit is wired, I would think that the aux battery or house battery is one that is being disconnected from your draws upon switching off. Your start up battery is probaly always connected to the dash supported fuctions and possibly your steps which would draw. Disconnecting the battery negative terminal would terminate then all the draws with the switch off too. Also if the original battery you may want to update to a new one since it would be going on 7 years old.

Does your converter charge the engine battery or just the house? Short runs on the engine battery could also lead to it never really getting past 75% charged.

Jayco will provide schematics upon request with vin# which would help detail how your system is wired.
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Old 10-03-2012, 11:25 AM   #3
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If your motorhome is wired like mine, only the house battery is disconnected when you press the battery disconnect. It is charged by your converter when you are plugged into shore power and when you engine is running. The engine battery is not disconnected with the battery disconnect and is only charged by your engine alternator. The power steps are powered from your engine battery. One solution is to put a battery maintainer on your engine battery if you are not using it for a while.
That said the engine battery should not go dead in a week if there is no drain, your battery maybe at the end if it's life, especially if it has been totally discharged a few times.
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Old 10-03-2012, 12:52 PM   #4
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I have a 2011 Greyhawk. I live in the NE and do not use my RV from Nov-Mar/April. I had a 30 Amp circuit installed beside the RV so I could leave it plugged in all winter. My engine battery would die within a week even plugged in. I ended up installing a battery trickle on the engine battery and running the power cable under the frame and into one of the outside storage units which had a power outlet and is powered when plugged into the 30amp. So now, when the RV is plugged into the 30amp, it is also charging the engine battery so it never goes dead.
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Old 10-03-2012, 02:46 PM   #5
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I plug my motorhome into a 20 amp outlet in my yard. I found a battery maintainer, another name for a trickle charger, with a lighter plug. I put it in one of the lighter sockets and plug the a/c plug in one of the outlets in the cabinet over the passenger seat.
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Old 10-04-2012, 05:57 AM   #6
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IF your unit has the original battery in it the battery has reached the end of its life cycle.. anything over 5 years on a starting battery is good...
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Old 10-16-2012, 06:30 PM   #7
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I have a similar problem with our 3230. Engine battery goes dead fairly quickly (thank goodness for the Aux button to tap the house battery for starting!). Since we bought the rig used, I don't know how old the battery is, though. I did find that the dash radio was putting a constant 2 amp draw on the battery, so I wired in a dash switch to cut it off ('course that's irritating in it's own way since you lose your presets). Seemed to help somewhat, but I think I'll still need a new battery next Spring. In the process of all of that mickey mouse, I was surprised to find that evidently the engine battery receives no "love" when you're plugged into shore power. From what I can tell, it is designed this way. I'm going to see if I can figure out a workaround, though.
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Old 03-07-2013, 04:48 PM   #8
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Thread resurrection! Getting ready to buy a new engine battery. Happen to have a discount coupon for Pep Boys - they have a Bosch group 65 for $135. Or would I be better off with some sort of marine / deep cycle battery for this purpose (since it doesn't get lots of use).
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Old 03-15-2013, 11:53 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc View Post
I have a 2005 Jayco Escapade Class C 28G. When I am not using my RV, I make sure everything electrical is turned off and I hit the battery disconnect button. After about a week, when I try to start the engine my engine battery is mostly dead. I then resort to the auxilliary batteries to start the engine. The guy I purchased the RV from said that the auto stairs run off the engine battery even when turned off and the battery disconnect button turned off. He said that I should disconnect the engine battery when not in use. Is this normal?
I agree with Seann...your chassis battery is at the end of its useful life. A good battery will start an engine after even a few months (providing there is not a electrical problem draining the battery) For the house batteries however, a battery "disconnect button" just disconnects the batteries from the coach. To stop batteries from being discharged you need to disconnect the battery from "ground". Install a manual isolation switch or remove the ground cable from the batteries.
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Old 03-16-2013, 12:01 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Steverino View Post
Thread resurrection! Getting ready to buy a new engine battery. Happen to have a discount coupon for Pep Boys - they have a Bosch group 65 for $135. Or would I be better off with some sort of marine / deep cycle battery for this purpose (since it doesn't get lots of use).
Buy the same type/group battery as original. You don't need a deep cycle battery for the chassis as it's not used when powering lights, etc. in the MH.
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Old 03-16-2013, 05:39 AM   #11
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I would caution totally disconnecting the truck start battery. There are many things running associated with the truck electronics and when you disconnect the battery all of those will reset to some state. Then when you re-connect the battery the truck computers are suppose to learn all over again and in my case that did not happen for the truck engine idle. My truck engine would die every time I would stop at a stop sign etc... The new trucks have no manual way it appears to raise the engine idle. On mine it is all done with electronics. I ended up having to go to Ford to have their diagnostic machine reset my truck computers which was a $90 charge. I certainly will not disconnect my truck start battery again for any long length of time...

In your case I would investigate what is being disconnected with the RV SYSTEM and make sure all of that is disconnected when the disconnect is activated... Unlike deep cycle batteries all it takes is ONE truck start battery total discharge and you may have to replace the battery. That has been my case at any rate.

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Old 03-26-2013, 09:25 PM   #12
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New Battery

Thanks for all the info. I am picking my RV up from storage in a few weeks and will replace the battery with a new one and see how it goes.
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