Coach electrical not running on batteries
Posted: March 29th, 2024, 7:22 pm
I'm trying to determine which component of the coach power system is faulty.
I picked up my 2005 Chinook Concourse (2004 chassis) a couple of years ago. We've put a few thousand miles on it. The coach power worked as it should, giving us lights, fridge, etc. for a reasonable amount of time.
Recently, with new coach batteries and a good charge, my LVD goes into alarm immediately and drops out power within the 1 minute as designed for low batteries.
Coach power works fine with the engine running, on generator or shore power, but as soon as it goes stand alone on battery, it drops out.
The coach batteries are holding 12.2v. My converter puts out 12.8v when on shore power, 13.9 when it's on engine power. As soon as I drop it to battery, the converter shows 9.3 volts until the LVD shuts it down.
Two different shops have told me that the converter is fine, but I'm thinking they tested it with the equivalent of shore power, and that may be misleading.
One shop told me that the overhead coach/store switch was bad, but I've tested it using a different switch and get the same alarm. Sometime after these issues started, I replaced the battery separator as the original caught fire (since then I read the post about them being recalled). I couldn't read the model number due to the char, so I replaced it with a Sure Power 1315. The relay kept flicking back and forth when on shore power, so I assumed it was the wrong one and replaced it with the 1314. That one seems to work. I can hear the relay click when I use the coach battery boost for engine start.
I'm now back to thinking either the converter is bad, or the connection from the coach batteries to the converter is bad.
I know that was long winded, thanks for your patience.
I appreciate any thoughts on solving this.
I picked up my 2005 Chinook Concourse (2004 chassis) a couple of years ago. We've put a few thousand miles on it. The coach power worked as it should, giving us lights, fridge, etc. for a reasonable amount of time.
Recently, with new coach batteries and a good charge, my LVD goes into alarm immediately and drops out power within the 1 minute as designed for low batteries.
Coach power works fine with the engine running, on generator or shore power, but as soon as it goes stand alone on battery, it drops out.
The coach batteries are holding 12.2v. My converter puts out 12.8v when on shore power, 13.9 when it's on engine power. As soon as I drop it to battery, the converter shows 9.3 volts until the LVD shuts it down.
Two different shops have told me that the converter is fine, but I'm thinking they tested it with the equivalent of shore power, and that may be misleading.
One shop told me that the overhead coach/store switch was bad, but I've tested it using a different switch and get the same alarm. Sometime after these issues started, I replaced the battery separator as the original caught fire (since then I read the post about them being recalled). I couldn't read the model number due to the char, so I replaced it with a Sure Power 1315. The relay kept flicking back and forth when on shore power, so I assumed it was the wrong one and replaced it with the 1314. That one seems to work. I can hear the relay click when I use the coach battery boost for engine start.
I'm now back to thinking either the converter is bad, or the connection from the coach batteries to the converter is bad.
I know that was long winded, thanks for your patience.
I appreciate any thoughts on solving this.