No Power to Coach or Chassis

[HASKONI62]

We have a 2020 Coachmen Sportscoach. We store it between trips. Last trip was the first week of December. Went out to start it(we do this every 3-4 weeks when stored) and had no power to the coach or chassis. The batteries, coach and chassis, are 2 years old. Called Coachmen Tech Support. They were as lost as I. Any idea what would cause this? Just looking for a starting point on what to check. I will test the batteries when I go back tomorrow but very doubtful all the batteries died at the same time!

 

[Underboss]

Was it plugged in?

 

[John&Andrea]

If not plugged in. The battery should be disconnected, either the cable or disconnect switch.
If in cold winter climate, removing the batteries and place in a warm area can help.

 

[HASKONI62]

Was it plugged in?

No. It is stored on Charleston AFB. No hook ups. We have had a few nights in the high 20's but not extended cold. It was 75 today.

 

[HASKONI62]

If not plugged in. The battery should be disconnected, either the cable or disconnect switch.
If in cold winter climate, removing the batteries and place in a warm area can help.

We turn off the coach and chassis disconnects. We also turn off the breakers to all the appliances. We are in Charleston SC, so no extended freezing perods.

 

[John&Andrea]

We turn off the coach and chassis disconnects. We also turn off the breakers to all the appliances. We are in Charleston SC, so no extended freezing perods.

Wow, it’s definitely a drain beyond the basics. Then it may be more than one thing with coach and chassis being drained.
There are a few techs here, maybe one will answer.

Best of luck on this.

 

[HASKONI62]

Thanks for all the input! Batteries tested. Chassis batteries were down to 5.86 & 6.06. They are 2+ years old, so I am going to replace them. Coach batteries were down to 4.86, 5.86, 4.54 & 0.86. Now that I have pulled my head out of my back side, I have decided to get a solar panel! Can anyone recommend a suitable panel that will work with the Furrion plug already installed in the RV?

 

[TheLooks]

Depends if your furrion system has a charge converter installed or if you need a panel that just puts out a charge voltage. If it has a converter, any small panel will work as watts/volts = amps. A Battery Tender is between .75 and 1.75 amps. I would still consult a dealer or Furrion as to what it is capable of. And you may want a few more then a battery maintainer if you have a draw on the batteries. 2 years is odd to ruin batteries without a serious drain. Were they 6 volt or 12 volt batteries?
Starting a vehicle every so often is not helpful unless you run it for a significant amount of time. The draw down of starting along with the loss from setting takes more time then people realize.
I install battery disconnects on the negative cable of mine.

 

[Holdmybeer]

We turn off the coach and chassis disconnects. We also turn off the breakers to all the appliances. We are in Charleston SC, so no extended freezing perods.

Do you have physical disconnects on the negative cable from the battery ? If so there would be no way a potential parasitic draw could pull from the batteries. I was having that problem where both the house and chassis batteries were draining down while in storage. I solved it with the manual disconnects.

 

[Vint]

Sounds like the cold and no hook-ups got you. I don't know anything about solar and lithium, but if your rig is stored outside in a secure area, you may want to try one of the portable suitcase solar panels that you hook up directly to your batteries with Gator clips. Do you have 6V for the house batteries and heavy-duty 12V starter batteries for the chassis? What brand?

Seeing your Sportscoach is a 2020, I would guess your charger and inverter?, support lithium?

 

[Old one]

I am new to this website, but experienced in 12 V systems. SInce there was no pos re:this problem, I am assuming it's still there.

Stored for 3-4 weeks... The coach/motor/ electrical system has current drains even when "master switches" were off. Remember: most have a key fob tat may unlock the doors, etc. There has to be a receiver and electronics somewhere that can't be turned off for it to work. The batteries are being drained and the time spent running the engine is not enough. If your alternator is set to say, 14.3 V, the differential of voltage between the battery's INTERNAL voltage sets current, which starts out high and tapers off. However, the differential may start at 2 volts. After a short while, the differential is ! V and current is substantially less, then 1/2V, etc. I one did an experiment. Had a battery of 100 AH discharged to near 10% capacity, with a constat 14.3 V source that had 100 Amp capacity. Ignoring the tapered current, it supposed to take an hour, right?. Wrong. Battery charging is only about 70% so you must put in about 130 Ah to get 90 AH charged. Moreover, the current tapering, our lab test showed about 4 hrs of charging to attain 95% capacity.
This was done on the deep discharge regular batteries of 2006. Of course, the lithium cells of today are better, but recharging is recharging.
The above advice is right on about solar panels, but use a regulator made for this. Putting current into a charged batter is not good for it
Hope this helps.
Note: in cold weather batteries lose power as compared to warm.