Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 09, 2025 ...

Battery inverter trouble shooting.

May 31, 2019, 06:36:39 pm

Parked the coach in storage, plugged it in, a week later found the plug out of the wall.  House Batteries dead.  Plugged back in, charger comes on but batteries won't charge.  Drove the coach 1 hour, batteries still dead.  Batteries are approx 7 years old.  Inverter/ charger seems to light up ok, what am I missing?  Did the batteries die?  My last trip a couple of weeks ago held charge for 24 hours pretty easy. Looking for the steps to test and isolate the culprit.  Thanks in advance.  This group is awesome.

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Re: Battery inverter trouble shooting.

Reply #1 – May 31, 2019, 06:51:50 pm

Dead is dead.  Try charging the batteries individually

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Re: Battery inverter trouble shooting.

Reply #2 – May 31, 2019, 07:47:10 pm

You can't load test a dead battery.

Like Bob says - disconnect the batteries, and charge each one individually with a good battery charger with proper setting for your type battery..

If a battery won't take a charge, it is a goner.

If a battery will take a full charge ( resting voltage = 12.8 ) then you can load test it (or get it tested at most auto parts stores).

Once you've done all that, you'll know where you stand on the batteries.

Then you can address the inverter/charger question.

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Re: Battery inverter trouble shooting.

Reply #3 – June 01, 2019, 01:58:46 am

I keep an old battery charger on hand , I have found smart electronic charges will not start a dead battery to charge. I put the old charger on for , a few hours and then hook up my smart charger and away it goes ...if you have access to a old charger give it a try, I have had good success !
Safe Travels
Dave,

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Re: Battery inverter trouble shooting.

Reply #4 – June 01, 2019, 07:17:08 am

Dave, you nailed it, once I got some charge on, the coach charger charged it up.  Chuck, thanks for the steps.  Sometimes I tend to overthink it, appreciate the reality check.

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