To set the scene.
The positive and negative battery cables are disconnected and I'm not plugged into shore power, what's the problem ?
The big chrome fans on the windshield will switch on as will the dash radio, that's all I tried but it's more than enough to confuse me.
They are powered by the start batteries.
Apparently not, as both batteries are disconnected
That's what's puzzling me, where's the power coming from ?
Any solar on top?
House and chassis batteries are disconnected? Or just the chassis batteries?
I go with John you must have solar.
I don't think Olde English has solar, unless it is a very recent addition to his coach. See Reply #10 linked below:
Recommendations for Inverter for older coaches [split from Transfer switch(es... (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=43276.msg434938#msg434938)
Everything is unplugged and disconnected, i don't have solar. Bit of a puzzle ?
Does your generator have a separate battery? My '81 does.
If all of your house and all of your chassis batteries are disconnected and everything is unplugged, then those items are not going to work. You must have another battery you have not disconnected yet.
Yup. Test light or volt meter in hand you need to find the source of the electrons. My guess is that you haven't truly disconnected the house and chassis batteries yet. Just as in a proof, the statement "it's obvious" usually ain't, If you look at a junction and say "it doesn't" or "it can't": unhook the cables.
Put a voltmeter on the battery cable ends after they are removed from battery and see if they are still powered from another source.
The assumption that we are all making is that you have disconnected the positive and negative cables from both the chassis and house battery bank positive and negative posts, and you still have DC power to the coach. Only three possibilities here. First possibility is you thought you disconnected the primary cables from the batteries but did not😟 or second you have a battery bank that you have been completely unaware of since you have owned the coach🤔or thirdly you have a flux capacitor.😀
Roland
Inquiring minds want to know Have you found the source of your "ghost" power?
If you have don't keep us in suspense.
Roland
You can actually purchase a new one of those from Oreilly's if need be: https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-500.html
Just a thought.
More than one house battery and engine battery.
My coach has three start batteries and the house batteries connected in parallel. Disconnect one battery cable others still powering the coach. You have to either disconnect all the positive leads. On all batteries or trace the leads and disconnect the lead going to the coach from the battery.
I know of at least one coach where one battery is in another location behind a panel.
Careful you might have hot cables floating around. Short one and many sparks and possibility fire or damage.
Read reply 14 again,NOT AVAILIBLE FOR PURCHASE.
I heard they are just on temporal back order. As soon as they get the AQM (Applied Quantum Mechanics) time dilator machine fixed, they'll have them back in stock.
Yes but Plutonium is required to properly operate the flux capacitor. I may know a guy in Tonopah that may still have some?
What was the resolution to your issue. No one likes a dangling participle.
Roland
Yes! I hate it when no update is given to any issue.
I'm still chasing a dead short somewhere and as there's a whole lot of wires it may take a while.
Sure it's a short. As with a short you would lose power very quickly via a blown fuse. And if it's an unfused circuit, You would then have a light bulb element and you would smell smoke or have a fire.
Had to walk away for a while so I've been lifting some sprinkler heads in the front yard.
I think that would be my approach as well. Sometimes with a puzzling, frustrating problem it is best to leave it and come back at a later date to have a fresh start on it.
Richard
Update Update !
I moved the coach down the driveway this weekend then disconnected both batteries. Yesterday I was putting some supplies in the coach and the dash radio/cd player was lit up like Blackpool tower.
When I tried the windshield fans, they both worked as did the interior lights.
So I switched the salesman switch off and now there's no radio, fans or lights.
Still puzzled but not defeated ha
Update Update !
I moved the coach down the driveway this weekend then disconnected both batteries. Yesterday I was putting some supplies in the coach and the dash radio/cd player was lit up like Blackpool tower.
When I tried the windshield fans, they both worked as did the interior lights.
So I switched the salesman switch off and now there's no radio, fans or lights.
Still puzzled but not defeated ha
You either have a third battery or you are not getting the batteries disconnected. No other physical option unless you have a converter and you have A/C power hooked up.
No AC
No Solar
Can't get much more disconnected than this
According to the specs those are coach batteries. Look for an engine chassis battery elswhere.
Foretravel Motorhome 1988 Grand Villa U280 Specifications | All Things... (http://www.allthingsforetravel.com/2020/03/31/1988-foretravel-grand-villa-u280-specifications/)
I know that sometimes I'm a bit thick but,
I have a 1987 late build and registered Jan 1988 ORED and not a homemade chassis.
The left battery is the chassis and the right battery is for the coach, there's no third battery.
If it was that simple even this blind squirrel would have stumbled on it by now ?
You said turning off the salesman switch shut everything off so things, I would guess all those things
run off the house batteries.
Yes and that's what is so confusing, with both/all batteries disconnected where's the power getting to the salesman switch?
The 1988 Gran Villa U280 is not the same chassis as a 1988 ORED.
The diagram below from our Forum library (1989 12V - Automotive - ORED) should be similar to the 1988 ORED owned by Olde English. Shows only 2 batteries.
Other than what has already been previously suggested, I can think of no rational explanation for the source of the "ghost power". :help:
Back to reply #9 there has to be another battery or power source somewhere on the coach.
Someone added a battery somewhere.
Are these the batteries located just inside the front door? Now I'm not being insulting for the fun of it, but is there another battery inside that compartment? I must confess to stuffing extra batteries in strange locations myself.
I've had this coach for over 10 years and I do my own maintenance so I've crawled all over it. From front to back and top to bottom I've been underneath for fluid changes, front brakes and shocks, new springs on the front jacks.
If there's a third battery I'd like to know where it's hiding.
How hard is it to trace the wire from the salesman switch to whatever is supplying it?
More than I want to do tonight ha.
I just went out and fiddled with the salesman switch and the power feed seems low, the dash fans were turning slower than they would normally. So I'll have another go at it tomorrow.
I'm waiting to hear who made it and why did it last ten years. Then again it sounds more like a third battery wired in parallel to the other two for either the generator or the main engine and located accordingly. In the Rockwood, to get us safely through the night, I hid four 6V GC batteries under the bed along with a charger/power supply in addition to the two group 27s in the slide out tray.
My current task, four weeks in and I'm down to the last wire nut to remove:
X2
May be very difficult and expensive to legally dispose of at end of life, or the guys in the black suits may pick up whether you like it or not. Amazing they have been operating for two months. A part number would be appreciated. I want some
Scott
The mystery battery is probably technically dead, but being in parallel has a surface charge after the two main batteries are disconnected. He mentions that the fans were turning slower.
Maybe the mouse is getting tired or the bearings on his wheel are binding up? :))
Do you still have 12v at night with the batteries disconnected? My money is on a solar panel you didn't know you have
Although you still have a mystery, thanks for the update.
Roland
When you said you disconnected both batteries, did you mean both house and engine/chassis batteries? Your dash radio is powered by the chassis/engine battery if like ours. Another possibility is that your isolator is bad or not wired correctly. Ours was when we bought it.
Pierce
Power and heat source
Glowing cylinder of plutonium oxide standing in a circular pit
A glowing cylinder of 238PuO2
Glowing graphite cube containing plutonium-238 oxide
The 238PuO2 radioisotope thermoelectric generator of the Curiosity rover
The isotope plutonium-238 has a half-life of 87.74 years.[122] It emits a large amount of thermal energy with low levels of both gamma rays/photons and spontaneous neutron rays/particles.[123] Being an alpha emitter, it combines high energy radiation with low penetration and thereby requires minimal shielding. A sheet of paper can be used to shield against the alpha particles emitted by plutonium-238. One kilogram of the isotope can generate about 570 watts of heat.[6][123]
These characteristics make it well-suited for electrical power generation for devices that must function without direct maintenance for timescales approximating a human lifetime. It is therefore used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators and radioisotope heater units such as those in the Cassini,[124] Voyager, Galileo and New Horizons[125] space probes, and the Curiosity [126] and Perseverance (Mars 2020) Mars rovers. Also one 88 Grand Villa 36' was outfitted but we have lost track of its location or current status.
The twin Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977, each containing a 500 watt plutonium power source. Over 30 years later, each source is still producing about 300 watts which allows limited operation of each spacecraft.[127] An earlier version of the same technology powered five Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Packages, starting with Apollo 12 in 1969.[37]
Plutonium-238 has also been used successfully to power artificial heart pacemakers, to reduce the risk of repeated surgery.[128][129] It has been largely replaced by lithium-based primary cells, but as of 2003 there were somewhere between 50 and 100 plutonium-powered pacemakers still implanted and functioning in living patients in the United States.[130] By the end of 2007, the number of plutonium-powered pacemakers was reported to be down to just nine.[131] Plutonium-238 was studied as a way to provide supplemental heat to scuba diving.[132] Plutonium-238 mixed with beryllium is used to generate neutrons for research purposes.[37]
Disconnect the ground at the batteries .
I have the same year and the start battery is driver side rear box , closest to the engine.
Mike
Yours then is way different to mine, my rear box has my power cord and oil. Two batteries under the stairs, left is chassis and right is coach.
Right
Mine shows something about 3 rd battery option . Was 2 start batts , one under stairs , second in rear bin.
Now is 1 start and 2 house .
And mine shows third battery option was to up the coach capability, so one battery in back for the motor and two underneath the steps for the coach.