Batteries life while drydocking

[encantotom]

hi all,

i spend most of my time fiddling with my newell in my driveway rather than using it....my time will come. while i was out of town the breaker popped for the coach and there was no AC hooked up. my wife ran all the interior lights while working inside and the fantastic fan for most of a day. after a day of that and another 3 days of sitting batteries were almost dead.

so my quetions is this,

how long about can the coach sit and still have battery power? (i know a loaded question depending, but any times and boundary conditions you guys have from practical experience?

do any of you have a switch to isolate the batteries from discharging when not in use? my coach does not.

by the way, i only have a total of 4 8d batteries.

i am going to take a long trip this summer and while on a cruise will need to have the coach parked for 8-9 days. i dont want it to be dead when i get back. i guess then i just leave the merge switch in not merged mode?

also, i guess i need to see if the merge solenoid is actually working....

thanks

tom

[fulltiming]

Tom, if your coach is like mine, you have 2 8D's for the coach and 2 8D's for the chassis. The battery life isn't very good with anything major running. The ice maker, 120 volt lights in the bath and the fantastic fan are the biggest drains on the batteries. The Master switch on the control panel by the entry will turn off all the lights but not kill 12 volt power completely.

Turning off the inverter will also help reduce battery drain.

To make it for 8-9 days, you would be safest to turn off the merge switch and turn off the chassis battery switch in the electrical box on the passenger's side of the engine compartment. That will take the chassis batteries completely out of the loop. Even if the coach batteries run down, the coach will start without a problem. If you really want to take all the power off the coach, turn off both the chassis battery and coach battery switches in the electrical box on the rear wall of the engine compartment. That should completely isolate the coach from the batteries. Of course, that would kill the refrigerator even on propane.

[Richard and Rhonda]

Hi Tom,

Welcome back. I have a disconnect switch in the battery compartment that kills all coach battery power. If I don't kill that switch, then the batts will drain over time with the parasitic loads on the coach power system.

I have not had to kill the chassis battery.

My disconnect switch is manual. One of the projects on my to do list is to install a remotely controlled solenoid in place of the manual switch so I can isolate the batteries using a switch at the door instead of having to open the battery compartment.

[encantotom]

thank guys. i have not noticed an isolation switch for the batteries at all, but am going to go look this morning again. if there is a manual swtich, then what does the merge switch do on the dash? is it only for charging or doesnt it isolate the batteries?

thanks

tom

[fulltiming]

The merge switch on the dash likely has three positions. In the upper or lower position the two sets of batteries are tied together for assistance in starting or to charge the chassis batteries off the coach batteries charger.

In the center position, the batteries are isolated as they normally would be.

The difference between the upper and lower positions is the source of power for the solenoid. Most manufacturers assume it will be the chassis batteries that need assistance so they power the solenoid off the house batteries. Of course if the house batteries are dead, you can't merge the two sets of batteries together. Newell put in a switch to allow you to merge the batteries regardless of which set of batteries was flat. The solenoid will be powered off the chassis batteries in one position and off the house batteries in the other position.

You should have two larger manual cutoff switches in the rear of the engine compartment that are easy to spot that isolate the batteries.

I originally thought that the Master switch would kill the house 12 volt power, but as I mentioned earlier, it only is a master for the 12 volt lights in the coach.