Country Coach Owners Forum

Country Coach Restoration, Repair & Parts Forums => Country Coach Archive => Topic started by: Dhl on April 08, 2013, 01:45:11 pm

Title: DRAW ON BATTERY
Post by: Dhl on April 08, 2013, 01:45:11 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 86957 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86957)
I had the Xandrex inverter replaced and thought the engine wasn't charging when running. I checked again and while running it shows 13.7 on the inverter panel. I ran the genset for three hours Saturday and charged the batteries to float charge and turned all the power off including the main switch and the batteries showed 12.7. I returned Sunday and found them now at 12.4. I ran the genset charging again for two hours and the batteries showed 12.7. I turned all the power off again. I returned this morning and found the batteries at 12.3. The coach is in storage and I turn all the switchs off including the main one in the battery compartment. Before the new inverter the house batteries would hold 12.7 for several weeks before moving to 12.6/5.

Any thoughts while I wait for a email back from Redlands Truck?

John

Allure #31242
Title: Re: DRAW ON BATTERY
Post by: Dhl on April 08, 2013, 04:45:07 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 86958 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86958)
So Mike at Redlands Truck responded saying that it might be a bad battery (dead cell in one battery). I purchased 4 8D Lifelines about 13 months ago and they seemed to be working fine before the inverter was replaced.
My question is if I use the genset to charge the batteries (its in storage) up to 12.7 and unhook all the cables and test each battery will that tell me if I have a bad battery? I assume that they should hold 12.7 and a dead cell in a battery would show a lower reading?

Thanks for all the help this group has been a great,

John

Allure 31242
Title: Re: DRAW ON BATTERY
Post by: Don S. on April 08, 2013, 05:41:56 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 86959 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86959)
Just reading voltage won't tell you much. A bad cell can still put out some voltage but cannot carry a load. To test a battery it needs to have a measured load put on it. That can be done with a carbon pile load resistor or one of the newer instruments that inserts a small ac voltage into the battery and measures the resistance and makes some calculations as to the health of the battery.

Don

'02 Intrigue #11427
Title: Re: DRAW ON BATTERY
Post by: Jay Williams on April 08, 2013, 05:44:49 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 86960 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86960)
I believe you need to load test each fully charged battery individually.

Jay
51457