Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 16, 2025 ...

With all the testing, was that the first time you engauged the BOOST ?

Or it likes it when my wife touches it. 

Larry B sells heavy duty starter solenoid contacts for the 5.9.  If your engine has over 100K miles on it, I'd replace them.  This is a known issue and behavior.  If that's the problem, the no-starts will only become more frequent.

larrybs.com

.....................I think that your batteries at 12.7 volts are to low. They should be over 13 volts fully charged..................

Craig,
I am not sure if Dodge and FT used the same starter.  I somewhat doubt it.  One uses a torqueflite trans and the FT uses an Allison and while they could use the same flywheel I don't think they did.
I would look for a local Generator shop and have the original rebuilt.  This way you know what you got when you get it bolted back on.

Craig,

If your voltmeter is accurate and you are measuring an open circuit, your 12.7Vdc is good.
Lead Acid design is Lead Acid design.
State of Charge (SOC) relationship is as follows:

WET Cell State of Charge, as a measure of
Specific Gravity and Open-Circuit Voltage

Neal... actually it was good enough to understand but I saved the spreadsheet anyway. I was pretty sure that 12.7 was a good voltage.

I've let the start battery sit since yesterday... tomorrow morning I'll check it. Should be no surface charge and not much to drain it. I'll see what it says. But I still suspect the starter solenoig since it was so quick to start yesterday... and also quick to start when we moved it from the shop over to the SnB and shut it off. 45 minutes later it wouldn't do anything.

Also... interesting... Sue said she did not feel the solenoid activate when I started the engine. But she might have been a bit jumpy.

Craig

 

Percentage Charge Open Circuit Voltage SOC Specific  Gravity Cell 6 Volt 12 Volt 36 Volt       100 1.277 2.122 6.37 12.73 38.20 90 1.258 2.103 6.31 12.62 37.85 80 1.238 2.083 6.25 12.50 37.49 70 1.217 2.062 6.19 12.37 37.12 60 1.195 2.040 6.12 12.24 36.72 50 1.172 2.017 6.05 12.10 36.31 40 1.148 1.993 5.98 11.96 35.87 30 1.124 1.969 5.91 11.81 35.44 20 1.098 1.943 5.83 11.66 34.97 10 1.073 1.918 5.75 11.51 34.52 Best practice (even with deep discharge battery designs) dictates not discharging below 50% SOC and not leaving a battery discharged any longer than necessary.  Shallow discharges and slow recharges to 100% SOC, with a multi-step, smart charger specifically designed for the particular Wet, Gel or AGM battery design, will greatly extend a battery's useful cycles and lifetime. Much misinformation and many don't understand or practice this.  Voltmeter inaccuracies and misinterpreting "surface" charges when batteries are read with high impedance instruments, also factor into the misunderstanding. The format gets messed up, trying to copy into the post..............sorry.  The attached MS Excel document should be good. Hope this helps, Happy New Year, Neal

I still say replace the frame mounted starter relay to the starter. Just from my experience it will leave you sitting again, just a matter of time. I used to carry a jumper wire with me until I changed it on our coach the 84 ored. Just go from the positive post on the starter to the small wire on the starter solenoid and would crank right over and start if the ignition switch was turned on.