Our Link 2000 Monitor alternates "lo battery E-04" with the Amps, Volts, A Hours and Time displays for both battery banks. Its been reading between 12.40 - 12.45 volts for both the 3 8d gel cell House batteries and the 3 Engine batteries all day. We drove 350 miles yesterday and hooked up to 50 amps when we arrived at our son's house last night. The Link's red charge light has been on since we got here. Do we need six new batteries? Or could the error message be caused by something else entirely? Btw..House batteries were purchased by the PO in Feb 2009, the Engine batteries in May 2009. Thanks in advance for any help, advice, suggestions.
I would check the alternator output first.
We can not tell you from the information posted, whether the batteries are shot or not.
BUT, the fact that they did not charge from either the alternator while driving or from the inverter/charger while on shore power indicates that you do have some issue with batteries or wiring.
Pull out your digital voltmeter and check at the battery isolator with engine running at fast idle. Then, with inverter/charger off (shore power and generator off) and then with it on.
Six batteries probably do not go bad at one time. Something wrong at son's since it went bad when you arrived?
Thank you to Barry and Cindy, Brett W and John for your replies/ ideas. Our electrical problems actually started about 10 days ago. We had gone sightseeing, leaving one a/c on for the dogs. A couple of hours later we found the air off and the campground post breaker flipped. We re-set the breaker and everything seemed ok. Then last week the voltage on the house batteries dropped to 11.71 when we were at a Rally sharing a hookup. The batteries charged back up later that day as well. But now the house batteries aren't charging, even though we're hooked up to 50amps. Link 2000 now shows that voltage at 10.3v after an additional E-3 error message that the inverter had overheated and shut itself off. How much lower can it go without permanent damage?? Can't run a generator at 2am
in this residential neighborhood, and don't know if it would help anyway. The good news is the engine batteries are holding at 12.45...for now. We don't yet have a voltage meter, but hope to find one at NAPA when they open. We know where the alternator and inverter are (thank you again John S) but aren't sure what the battery isolator looks like, or where it "lives"...or maybe died? But we'll try to figure it out in the morning. Interesting. Earlier we were worried we might have to replace six batteries. Now we're hoping that's ALL we have to replace....yikes!!
Mike and Deb, the isolator looks like a box with "fins" on it and sometimes painted blue. It will have 3 or 4 posts on it with heavy cables coming from them and may be on the front wall of the engine compartment under the lift up bed.. If you can pull up the Beamalarm site on internet there is a section on Isolators that will explain everything in plain English.
JohnH
Hi Mike & Deb,
Here is what my 1997 U320 isolator looks like.
Raymond
Check the voltage with the engine off and the start it and check it again. Also check it the same way at the isolator too. The alternator should feed the center stud.
My isolator on a 98, 36, U295 is seen thru the passenger side bay door behind the drive wheel. Sometime the only common thing aboutthe location of items is they are mounted on a Foretravel.
I think I would find the circuit breaker for the inverter/charger and trip it to off. Then I would start the engine and actually measure - right at the batteries - the voltages. This is what you have to know before you can go anywhere else in troubleshooting. Individual results for start bank and house bank (the alternator charges both).
Anything over 13vdc means that the alternator IS charging the batteries.
Anything under 12.7vdc means that the alternator is NOT charging the batteries.
Anything under 12.0vdc means that the battery bank is NOT charging and is in danger of damage.
Use a digital voltmeter not the meters in the coach. Do it AT the batteries.
Once you tell us those results we can move on.
Craig
One other thing: While you're working on the batteries, take all of the connections off and clean each post and terminal, then tighten each one. My terminals looked good and seemed tight, but doing the above got me going immediately.
Taking the batteries down to 10.3 volts was not good for their longevity, but the damage is probably slight. I did that to mine when they were 5 years old, and went another 6 years before a shorted cell called for their replacement.
A good source for a cheap (often free with coupon), good enough, digital multimeter is Harbor Freight. Pick up kill-a-watt meter to monitor the ac while you are there.
If the ac voltage is marginal, don't try running anything more than the charger. Keep the refrigerator on gas, no ac heat to the water heater, and no microwave or air conditioner without running the generator. You can also throttle down the charger so it draws fewer amps on ac, and minimize 12 volt loads. . And watch the ac voltage. If all is well with the charger and batteries, the battery voltage should rise rather quickly.
Thanks again for your suggestions. Wanted to let you know how it all turned out.
Yesterday we turned off all lights, put the fridge on propane, and the house batteries measured between 11.05 and 11.10 until the sun went down when they dropped a little more. ( We have 6 solar panels.) The engine batteries stabilized at 12.40. We chose not to try to start the generator because we didnn't want to alienate our son's neighbors on a Sunday afternoon when he's not here to explain why.
This morning we started the generator as soon as the neighbors left for work. Almost immediately both battery banks began charging up. Happiness!! We realized that Barry and Cindy had probably called it correctly -- our problem must be in our AC connection --unless it was in our phantom isolator. We left the generator on for 3 hours and re-checked the circuits in the barn. All good. We did notice some minor dark- colored "stuff" on our power plug, so we cleaned it with steel wool and plugged it in. The batteries have stayed charged up since noon today. Evidently that minor "dark stuff" had blocked a good connection?
We did appreciate all your good suggestions and encouragement. We learned a lot about our coach in these last 3 days. . Hopefully we didn't shorten our batteries lives too much in the process.
I understand with the inverter and solar it might be difficult to realize when you are successfully plugged in or not. We've been off power without realizing it before (for like 7 hours!). At least on my coach the a/c voltmeters only turn on when the generator is on or when plugged into a functioning pole.
Mine is the same.
The power outlets behind the AC monitor panel and one of the outlets behind the refrigerator are only powered by shore power or generator power, not the inverter. I believe all the other outlets are powered by any of the above.
Hmmm, ::) my vaccum and washer/dryer outlet is shore power/genset only. ^.^d
Make sense. I have neither.