Battery Charging

RonS · 10-16-2009, 10:59 AM

I have two batteries and I am always plugged in too electric, except when traveling. It was cold out and ran the slides in etc when getting ready to move. Checked the battery gauge inside the closet and it only read 1/3. When I plugged in to park electricity it reads full. So now I think I need to put batteries on a charger. What do I do positive post on one battery and neg post on other to charge both? Do I need to unhook and thing?

Motor31 · 10-16-2009, 11:25 AM

Check the push / pull battery isolator switch in the leveling jack switch compartment. The converter is supposed to charge the batteries for the trailer as long as you are plugged in. If the outside isolator switch is pushed in the batteries are cut out of the circuit and you are running on the converter only and the batteries are not being charged up.

If the switch is pulled out already get a volt meter and check the voltage going to the battery terminals with the switch in and out. If there is no change in voltage then the converter charger unit has fried. It happened to me after owning the rig a year or so. In my case it didn't put out any 12 volt current and we ended up draining the battery. The charger should be putting out 13.5 to 13.8 volts.

I'd bet a beer that your switch is pushed in and the battery is just being left uncharged. The hydraulics get a direct line to the battery so the isolator switch doesn't cut them off.

The other possibility is that at least one of your batteries is fried (or out of water) and has a dead cell so it won't accept a charge. In that case just get new ones. In the case of 2 batteries always change both instead of just the bad one.

In the mean time yep you can charge them separately. Red cable to positive terminal and black one to negative terminal. We did that with a small 10 amp charger for a couple days while waiting for the new converter to arrive.

RonS · 10-16-2009, 08:22 PM

Motor31 I checked the bat cut off and its out. I check the battery water level oftin and have never had them down much. I have the charge wizard and the light is flashing telling me its in storage mode. I have not checked with a volt meter yet. Will do that as soon as I get a chance. My MS is an 06 so maybe batteries getting tired?? Can I use my 10 amp bat charger without unhooking anything? And do I just put red on pos and black on neg on the same battery to charge them both at the same time??

Huck · 10-17-2009, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Can I use my 10 amp bat charger without unhooking anything? And do I just put red on pos and black on neg on the same battery to charge them both at the same time??

It depends, If your converter/charger is powerd with a smart charger your automatic battery charger will sense good voltage and won't charge the batteries.

Second question....It depends, do you have 2 12volt batteries or do you have 2 6volt batteries?

If you have 2 12volts, just hookup to either battery poss. and neg.

But if you have 2 6volt, hookup to poss. on one batt. and neg. on the other.

Motor31 · 10-17-2009, 11:01 AM

What Huck said. What kind of battery bank do you have, dual 12 volts or dual 6 volts?

Other consideration before you hook up the charger is this. Check for voltage at the battery as it is now hooked up. Push the disconnect switch in and check voltage after it sits for a few minutes using a digital volt meter if possible. If there is a voltage drop the converter is already charging the batteries and adding another charger won't do anything for you. If the voltage is still dropping after they sit a few minutes with the switch in one or both batteries may be bad.

Disconnect the negative cable from the trailer and the negative cable connecting both batteries together and check voltage between them. That will show which one is bad. The bad one should have significantly lower voltage if it's a bad cell.

If one is bad and you have two 12 volt batteries you can just cut the bad one out of the system and keep going a while if you want. If you have two 6 volt batteries you will need to replace them both. Just swapping one at a time will end up wearing out the new one quicker.

RGordon · 10-17-2009, 02:26 PM

I would also check the small circuit breaker on the wall in the battery compartment. Sometimes they will trip taking the batteries out of the circuit, either charging or being able to use DC when not hooked up to shore power. It has a small button on the side, you just have to push it back in. This may not be your problem, but no one mentioned it so just thought I would offer as another suggestion.