Battery charging

[chin_k]

Scott:
You are more cautious than me, and that is always a good thing when it comes to electricity, even for low voltage.

The live wire was just tuck away by the battery compartment, and if it is in contact with any ground metal surface, it will sparks and drain the battery, until the voltage is lowered and the separator cuts it off. With the car in motion, it is difficult to make sure it won't happen unless the terminal is properly fastened.

There is a lot of mysterious thing on this rig, for sure.

[caconcourse]

Sounds like maybe your isolator is stuck in the closed position. Maybe the house usage was draining the truck battery, so the previous owner disconnected that cable. I would look into that. There was a recall on the isolator, you can look up serial number and might get a break. I hope the "live" wire was tucked away well so it didn't touch anything. Yikes.

http://www.cooperindustries.com/content ... fo_NA.html

[Baja Bilo]

Made some progress today. Swapped out the battery tray in the engine
compartment with one I had from my wrecked van and now the battery
is secure. Cleaned all the cable ends and battery cable connectors.
Replaced the bolts on the cable connectors. Hooked up the positive
cable that I found yesterday that was just tucked away. Started up
the rig and now I have 13 volts to both the house batteries and the
vehicle battery. When I push the switch on the stove hood that tells
you the level of everything it says batteries are charging. Now I guess
it's wait and see if the vehicle battery gets drained. Tomorrows
project will be trying to get the fridge to run on propane. I want to
thank everyone for their input.

[chin_k]

It should be on a separate thread, but just want to say that you need to make sure your rig is relatively level if you want to test the fridge. I usually put mine on leveling blocks when it is on my driveway, but last trip, I did not bother, and the fridge was not cool after a whole night, but the burner was very hot.

[Scott]

Cleaned all the cable ends and battery cable connectors.
Replaced the bolts on the cable connectors. When I push the switch on the stove hood that tells
you the level of everything it says batteries are charging.

Thank you for the progress report. I greatly appreciate it when a problem is solved and the thread-starter comes back to report the mode of failure.

Was it just a bad connection?

I wouldn't rely on the stove hood tank/propane/battery meter. Mine's a useless POS. A volt meter will be way more accurate (or reliable).

Sounds like you're back in business, though. Good one!

[Baja Bilo]

Everything seems good now. Why the cable from the isolator to the
vehicle battery was disconnected is beyond me. Once I cleaned
everything up and started up the rig I was getting charging to both
the house and the vehicle batteries. I talked to a tech guy today
and he told me how to check if the isolator is working correctly.
I just have to get myself a better meter. The one I have is more
for A/C applications. It rounds things up. It's good to know that
the isolator is still available if needed.

[Baja Bilo]

Need some help. As you've seen by my post I had a wire from the battery
isolator that wasn't connected and my house batteries were not being charged.
I hooked it up to the vehicle battery and boom I had charging. The vehicle sat for
about a week and when I went to start it the vehicle battery didn't have enough
juice to start the rig. I pushed the boost button and I had enough juice to start
the rig. Any ideas?

[caconcourse]

First it looks like your separator relay is working, because the boost button closed it and made a difference.

Second, there must be a drain on the vehicle battery, and possibly, it is not holding a charge and needs replacing. One of the known drains on the truck battery is the house stereo in the back draws power from the truck battery. It may not be "all the way" off, which on some radios requires holding the off button down for several seconds. Even then it will draw a small amount of power, but should not deplete the battery in a week. Other things are the normal suspects, like leaving the door open or the lights on.

If you have a DC Amp meter, you can measure the DC amps passing through wires and cables to see when power is being delivered. I found this one on Amazon, which is way cheaper than most, but has been invaluable in my DC troubleshooting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O1 ... DC44&psc=1

With a meter, you can probe the battery cables and see what is active when the truck is turned off, and in various modes. There was probably a reason the PO disconnected that cable to the separator, and it could be it was drawing power for some reason, but you will need to measure some things to figure out what is happening.

[chin_k]

You have a pretty neat toy there, Clay. I wish I have one handy when I was doing some DC work on the rig.

I don't think the chassis drain is the reason the PO disconnect the cable. 1, all the cables would be disconnected, not just the separator. 2, there is no indication that the separate is faulty, so it should not discharge the house batteries beyond the specification, so it won't make a difference for it to be connected or not. I think we are thinking too hard about the rational for a simple mistake. What do you think?

[dirksgoat]

I love this forum. Used it to locate my problem with minimal effort. I replaced the surepower 1315 that was on my 2003 Ford Concourse with a new "Victron Intelligent Battery Combiner". Works great. However, the basic logic in the gizmo is hard to work around to see if it is working. Read the instructions and specifications and you will understand what I am stating. However, if you go with the 230amp version, it has a Led that tells you its state. I used the 120 amp.

https://www.amazon.com/Sure-Power-1315- ... B002HVME2W

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071Y ... =UTF8&th=1

https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-i ... -combiners