I keep my coach plugged in now that I have the PD with smart charger. Today I turned the charger off and checked both batteries and found house battery at 12.3 and chassis at 12.7. With the charger back on I'm reading 13.7 on both with boost switch off. I doubt the chassis battery could show that much with just the Trik-L-Start connecting the two. I am suspecting my boost switch is open all the time. With 12.3 on the house side with the charger off...I guess that battery is toast.
It could be the Boost Rocker Switch shorted. Remove the wires and meter the switch.
Try removing the chassis Battery cable from the Boost switch & take another reading to determine if the boost switch is working.
Sounds like a bad house battery. Dropping from 13.7 to 12.3 when you turn off the charger is not a good sign. Probably a bad cell. Have them load tested.
The chassis battery dropping from 13.7 to 12.7, particularly if you had any loads on it is not so bad. But, if you have someone load test the house batteries, it would only take another minute to test these as well.
To check the boost switch/solenoid locate the boost solenoid on the front wall of the battery compartment just in front of passengers rear tire. Probably two nuts holding a protective panel over the solenoid. The wiring diagram in your manual will tell you wire numbers that will be attached so you know you have found it.
With shore power/generator off (so charger out of the equation), a bunch of interior lights on (to drop house battery voltage so it is easier to see voltage difference between the two different battery banks and boost switch off, check voltage on both large lugs (house battery is connected to one large lug, chassis to the other). If voltage is the same, remove the small signal wire coming from the dash switch at the solenoid. If you have 12 VDC on that wire, when you remove it, the solenoid should open (and voltage on large lugs be different reflecting voltage of the individual battery banks). This would also indicate that there is a problem with the switch or wiring, because with boost switch off, there should be no voltage to the signal wire.
If no voltage on the signal wire, but voltage is the same on both large lugs, the solenoid has failed in the closed position. Lightly tapping on the solenoid may temporarily free it up, but it needs to be replaced. Be sure to get a CONSTANT DUTY solenoid of the same or greater amperage.
Brett
Sounds like the fancy charging system is difficult and confusing to sort out for some people, why I have been saying the separate trickle charger for the chassis batteries makes the entire system so easy to understand and figure out where the actual problem is.
Works for me. Maybe too simple :)
Merry Christmas
Brett...part of my problem is that I have no manuals or paperwork of any kind. That, compounded with little mechanical aptitude makes for difficult troubleshooting. I will print your post and have my chief engineer check it out for me when he gets a chance. Thanks.
Dwayne,
Give me a call/have him give me a call if you need help-- PM me if you don't still have my number.
Brett