Welcome to RVForums.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest RV Community on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, review campgrounds
  • Get the most out of the RV Lifestyle
  • Invite everyone to RVForums.com and let's have fun
  • Commercial/Vendors welcome

Some thing you know, others you just don’t.

Welcome to RVForums.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends and let's have fun
  • Commercial/Vendors welcome
  • Friendliest RV community on the web

marc2912

RVF Supporter
Joined
Aug 12, 2021
Messages
264
Location
New York
RV Year
2015
RV Make
Newmar
RV Model
Dutch Star 4312
RV Length
43'
Chassis
Freightliner
Engine
Cummins 450HP
TOW/TOAD
2022 Jeep Unlimited Sport S w/ Air Force One and Blue Ox
So just a warning that this is probably going to be a wall of text. You might have seen my name here and there, I purchased a 2015 Dutch Star for me and my family to travel a few months back. I went from nothing, to deciding to make a drastic change in the way we live our lives etc. This purchase is also tied around an up and coming move and my wife being able to stop working for a while and me being able to work fully remote.

After reading a lot, looking at a lot of videos, talking to a lot of people, and searching for a class A that works for us I finally pulled the trigger at the start of the year. Besides the Diesel prices, lol (you can only laugh about it because the alternate is crying) and the fact that prices are crashing for used RVs because of those Diesel prices I don’t have any regrets.

I drove back the beast from Houston to NY and we even took our first trip in it for Easter weekend. I have no room where I live to store it but my brother in law has a large driveway about an hour north of us and we’ve been parking it there. I think I’ve figured most of the plumbing/sewer system, we have a macerating sewer out which is nice, though I honestly don’t understand the need or gain from it. Why does the waste need to be shredded prior to getting pushed down an RV park sewer line…

Anyways, the one system I’m really still not 100% with is the electric system. I understand the house battery setup, I understand the chassis battery setup, I understand the inverter, I understand that the chassis battery are two large starting battery for cranking over the diesel (and it seems the generator?). The chassis batteries seem to be 8x 6V marine/deep cycle battery with two banks of 4 in parallel and the two banks in series two give me 12V. From there it goes to the inverter which can bring it up to 110V and also charge the batteries as needed.

Now silly me I figured if all power was off I could leave the RV parked for shorter periods of times. I.E. a few weeks. When I returned from Houston the bus sat a week at a time since between me going to it to work on it. While working on it I would start the generator for a few hours (4 or so) and return the week after. After a few weeks we went on our Easter trip. I returned and parked the RV and didn’t get to come back to it for 2 weeks. Generator was a hard start and I hit the power boost and it turned over. I ran it for 4 hours while working on things. I didn’t get to return for another 2 weeks. This time everything was dead. It looks like it’s possibly going to be a very expensive lesson.

I checked chassis batteries individually and both were around 5V, the house batteries were reading at 5.6V at the inverter instead of 12V. I tried hooking to shore power via 15amp cord, but the inverter refused to charge the batteries and returned a fault and dead battery message. I put one of the chassis batteries on a battery tender, (I went out and purchased a decent one) and it reported the battery as bad. Even after 4 hours on the tender the battery refused to take a charge. Both chassis batteries needed to be replaced. This gave me power back to start the engine / generator. Once I started the generator the inverter started charging the house batteries. After charging for about 2 hours I had to leave so I killed the generator, and watched the battery voltage drop between 9-10 volts, my hope is the house batteries being deep cycle will recover better from such a low voltage than the chassis battery. I reconnected the shore power and set the controller on the magnum inverter to max pull 10amp from the shore power. It resumed charging which was a good sign.

Before leaving I went back to the chassis battery bay where there is a large disconnect switch and i turned it off, it seems to kill power which prevents engine / generator function. This doesn’t seem to affect the inverter or house battery charging. I also did trip pretty much everything from the main breaker panel.

Now $600 on new batteries and a battery tender here’s what I learned: my RV can’t sit for any extended period of time disconnected from power. My assumption is that there are decent phantom battery drains which is what led to me finding the RV in the state it was in. I’m assuming that as I have it now it should be sustainable from a battery management standpoint but looking for advice/viewpoints.

Some questions thought…

  • Why were my chassis batteries dead, I would have assumed that the chassis batteries were on an independent system and that they wouldn’t have been drained
  • Also associated to the chassis battery is wether or not the inverter would also charge those or are they only recharged from the actual Diesel engine running?
  • Is the shutoff switch i killed in the Chassis battery bay what I think it is? By that I mean have I isolated those batteries preventing possible discharge?
  • What is the main power shutoff switch in the RV on the main control panel? (It has a post it which says do not use without assistance, I still need to google that one but any assistance is appreciated).
  • I think my RV might even have a generator auto start setup. Is that configured through the Magnum controller? Also does that do what I think, and by that I mean would that automatically start and stop the generator to recharge the house batteries when they drop below a certain voltage? Is that safe to let run unsupervised
  • Considering getting a 600 watt solar array to prevent any of this from repeating itself since it seems the RV was pre-wired for Solar by Newmar, thoughts on that approach.
While I did get a pretty decent walkthrough of the RV when I went to look/purchase it (4+ hours) and read and watched countless videos it’s very clear I still have a lot to learn.

I did warn you, wall of text, and for that I apologize. If you read this far and have any advise please do share.
 
Marc,

Yes, that's quite the thesis, I read as much as I could comprehend pre-coffee, let me try to answer a few items:
  • The disconnect at the chassis batteries is for those batteries, not the house batteries, a separate bank.
  • The chassis batteries should hold a charge if fully charged and there is a small solar panel on the roof, aft area, that should trickle charge the chassis batteries.
  • Are they the original chassis batteries? If so, they probably need to be replaced. I just had mine replaced when at Freightliner (Gaffney) not because of any symptoms, simply nearing 5 years old. Keep in mind these batteries are likely in the chassis 6 months before your coach was ever built.
  • House batteries can be shutoff by what's called a "salesman switch" which is in the overhead cabinet near the entry door or on the side of the entry door area depending on year of the coach.
  • There could be parasitic drains on anything and everything, not sure, but expect it. So either some sort of power connection is good, or solar panels help too, assuming not in covered storage.
  • If your coach has AGS, then yes it could be configured but you can't use the shutoff options above, but it can be programmed to run the GEN when voltages get low.
These coaches are complex and the learning curve is steep. I learned by asking questions on forums like this, please continue to do so. It takes time but you'll get it.
 
Marc,

Yes, that's quite the thesis, I read as much as I could comprehend pre-coffee, let me try to answer a few items:
  • The disconnect at the chassis batteries is for those batteries, not the house batteries, a separate bank.
  • The chassis batteries should hold a charge if fully charged and there is a small solar panel on the roof, aft area, that should trickle charge the chassis batteries.
  • Are they the original chassis batteries? If so, they probably need to be replaced. I just had mine replaced when at Freightliner (Gaffney) not because of any symptoms, simply nearing 5 years old. Keep in mind these batteries are likely in the chassis 6 months before your coach was ever built.
  • House batteries can be shutoff by what's called a "salesman switch" which is in the overhead cabinet near the entry door or on the side of the entry door area depending on year of the coach.
  • There could be parasitic drains on anything and everything, not sure, but expect it. So either some sort of power connection is good, or solar panels help too, assuming not in covered storage.
  • If your coach has AGS, then yes it could be configured but you can't use the shutoff options above, but it can be programmed to run the GEN when voltages get low.
These coaches are complex and the learning curve is steep. I learned by asking questions on forums like this, please continue to do so. It takes time but you'll get it.

Thanks Neal, it’s actually been quite a humbling experience. The chassis batteries were 2 years old so that was a bit of a disappointment to lose those, not counting the cost. I’ve never seen the dash solar charge indicator led so I think there’s probably something wrong there.

The house batteries are original so those will need to be replaced but it’s a much larger investment and I’m still debating what size bank I’ll do and if I’ll switch to Lithium or not. I would prefer to be able to schedule that replacement due to cost.

For the AGS system it makes sense that I can’t isolate either batteries since it needs one set to start and the other to charge. Is that a safe system to let run with an unattended RV?
 
Is that a safe system to let run with an unattended RV?
Personally, I have no problem with it. Whether in storage or at a campground while I'm away. Opinions will differ on this of course. As I originally has storage without power I added solar to my coach. The biggest value of that endeavor was learning the electrical system much better in the end.
 
I’m also going to invest into a decent remote monitoring system, temps, voltage and anything else worth monitoring. If anyone has strong recommendations I’m all ears but about to start that search project
 
Myself, @Chuggs, @Richpatty all went the Victron route and they have a component in the solar setup called a Venus GX (there are other variants in their offering) that allow remote monitoring and management. Very cool!

 
We just got back from dropping off our 'new-to-us' coach for some upgrade work - that was one issue we addressed. We were occasionally seeing a 'low battery' message on the dashboard - we don't have a chassis disconnect, so we're having one installed.
In our previous coach, there was a rotary chassis battery switch at the rear. First thing we always did was open the rear compartment and turn on the chassis switch. And the last thing we did when storing was turn off that switch. Never had 'low battery' reading after storage, even after several weeks.
Our new coach apparently doesn't have a chassis disconnect. I'd been noticing that even after we hit the 'salesman switch' when storing, everything in the cab area was still functional. The overhead light (helps me find the ignition switch - we have it stored in an unlighted garage), the power steps. Convenient when we're using it frequently, but we sometimes go 3-4 weeks without using it,
(To figure out what might drain it, i suppose you could turn off everything at night, turn off the salesman switch, and look for anything lighted. Turns out we had a few things that remain lighted)
 
Here is a good resource reference your batteries and management of AGS provided by @redbaron

 
I will be leaving the coach in MI RV park for about 10 days. It will be hooked to 50A. But I'm very nervous that if the breaker the post trips, the batteries will last only about 2 days. Thinking of connecting somehow my Wyze camera to monitor from Europe something that will let me know that the main power is off? That way I can call someone to check the breaker.
Unless there are other options?
 
Here is a good resource reference your batteries and management of AGS provided by @redbaron

I need to update this for the silver leaf. Sounds like a fun summer project.
 

Latest resources

Back
Top