Trik L Start not lit up?

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Trik L Start not lit up?

January 15, 2014, 02:32:31 am

As many of you know my family and I survived the Polar Vortex last week while stranded in Ohio and now that we are home and warm ( inside ) as another 8+" is still falling. I've got the coach in the barn, unloaded everything, drained everything and stepped away for a day or two. Yesterday I went out and decided that I might like to do a 24 hours charge, then disconnect the batteries and see what kind of reading I'd get and hope that the process would let me know if I could have a bad battery or two. ( also open to other testing ideas )
So, now that it's been plugged into my home electric, I've noticed that my faithful Trik L Start is not lighting any of the normal lights that is does when in different modes.

Rushed for time yesterday I glanced at the wires that the Trik L Start mounts to on the isolator mounting plate and noticed that the isolator and a regulator cable looked a bit raspy so I cleaned 3 of them and tightened em up...but still no lights lighting on the Trik L Start itself. What could be the reason for that....it's always worked?

Will check back later to view your wisdom....thanks in advance.

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #1 – January 15, 2014, 08:28:21 am

Trik-L-Start is pretty simple - only 3 wires. If yours was working, and now is not, I only see 3 possible reasons: bad (dirty or corroded) connection at one of the 3 ring terminals, broken wire (non-continuity) inside the insulation on one of the wires, or the module itself is "dead".

You might try connecting the black ground wire (-) and one of the (+) battery wires (blue or yellow) directly to a known good battery - see if you get any lights on the module. If not, I'd say it is dead - time for a new one.

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #2 – January 15, 2014, 09:05:11 am

I have had two Trik l Start failures (six weeks and about a year) plus an intermittent failure of a Xantrax echo charger. Killed two sets of red tips thinking they were working. Exactly why I went to dedicated charger/desulfator by battery minder

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #3 – January 15, 2014, 09:50:36 am

Tim

Did you mount in in the coach? Where oh coaches may not be the same..

Thinking about same thing.

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #4 – January 15, 2014, 10:11:52 am

Yes, under bed near isolator

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #5 – January 15, 2014, 10:16:02 am

Thinking this is a area where I am going to have to start watching much more often. Out of sight, out of mind, is not a good thing. I mounted mine right in the open house battery area. Both battery banks are located in the open area right behind the rear duallys. Open the doors and you can see the ground. Not enclosed and protected from the environment like so many of yours are. Would be nice if it had some type of remote device to indicate is operating properly.

"HOW DO I KNOW THAT TRIK-L-START IS WORKING PROPERLY? Here's a handy test: After plugging your motorhome into AC shore power and turning on your DC power converter or inverter/charger, turn on your motorhome's headlights for a few minutes. The headlights should drain enough current from the starting battery(s) to activate TRIK-L-START™, resulting in either its CHARGING or MAINTAINING lights being lit. If either of these lights is lit, the unit is working properly. Note that during this test, your house batteries MUST be receiving a charge (from either your DC power converter or inverter/charger) - In the absence of any house battery charging source, TRIK-L-START™ will not maintain your starting battery(s)."

"It's made in America, and backed by toll-free technical support - One phone call puts you in touch with the designer." 877-257-4655 or email them at lslproducts@earthlink.net

"Backed by a one-year warranty against defects in materials and workmanship," BatteryMinder does appear to have the better warranty with its 5 year parts and labor. But it required 110 vac to operate, where the Trik-L-Start operater off the other battery bank.

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #6 – January 15, 2014, 11:50:38 am

Mine died too. I put in a latch relay to do the job andit had been working great.

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #7 – January 15, 2014, 10:36:13 pm

I mounted a Battery Tender inside the coach on the side of the bed. It is plugged into a 120VAC outlet there. The battery wires go through the pedestal and eventually to the chassis batteries. Previous owner had a small "dumb" charger plugged to the outlet for the block heater. I disconnected that and connected the Battery Tender (a "smart" charger) output to the old wires. It has worked well for us.

Having it plugged inside the coach allows plugging/unplugging as appropriate. Plugged in is almost always appropriate. Having it inside allows easy observing of the indicator lights to see that it is working and what is the current mode.

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #8 – January 15, 2014, 10:47:35 pm

Agree totally. Did research and liked battery minder 1500 slightly better than battery tender, same install, but adds desulfate and temp sensing.

Either more reliable than trickle start in my experience

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #9 – January 16, 2014, 05:54:34 pm

Thank you gentlemen, I really appreciate it. I have not been back into the barn since we returned home except to drain all remaining fluids and connect the battery to power. I will look into everything sometime soon as I am very curious. Now you've got me thinking different thoughts and possibilities for the future also. My Trik L Start has always seemed to be a die hard and I thought it would last forever. Even if it is still good, I may want to look for something else that may be better.

I'm believing that there may be some other issues with my house batteries. We've had the coach for about 4ish years and never replaced them. They are workhorse Interstates and have NO DATES on them that I've seen unless it's something embossed on the hard rim of them. Theres no punch out or date markings on them that are in plain view.

Will check and let ya'll know what I find. Thanks

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #10 – January 16, 2014, 08:34:31 pm

Carl, you may have found your own problem. I tend to start thinking about a new battery at about four years, and watch for sales. If I don't find one in the next year I just go ahead and pay full price at about five years. Of course, the next week everyone has batteries on sale....

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #11 – January 17, 2014, 10:52:12 am

Quote from: Carl Sandel – January 16, 2014, 05:54:34 pm

They are workhorse Interstates and have NO DATES on them that I've seen unless it's something embossed on the hard rim of them. Theres no punch out or date markings on them that are in plain view.

Will check and let ya'll know what I find. Thanks

"How to read the date code on an Interstate 12-volt and 6-volt automotive, commercial, or marine battery

A 4 or 5-digit shipping date code is engraved into the cover of each Interstate battery at the time the battery is shipped from the manufacturing plant. This code can only be seen when looking down on the top of the battery. The code is not on the label on the battery and it is not on the rim around the cover. The code is usually near one of the corners of the battery. This code tells when the battery was shipped from the factory to the local Interstate Battery wholesale distributor. The additional digits tell where the battery was made.

The first digit from the left side is a letter which stands for the month of the year. A = January; B = February; C = March, etc. The second digit from the left is the year that the battery was shipped from the factory. 4 = 2004, 5 = 2005, 6 = 2006, 7 = 2007, 8 = 2008, 9 = 2009, 0 = 2010, 1 = 2011, 2 = 2012, etc.

The national policy of Interstate Battery System is to recharge our batteries that are on a dealer's shelf or in our warehouse every 3 months in order to keep them fresh. Usually, a battery is sold to a consumer during the first 3 months after it is received from manufacturing plant.

If the battery has been recharged by an Interstate Battery wholesale distributor then there will be another date code on the cover of the battery. It will either be a 2 digit code that is branded into the cover or is on a small round label that is on the cover. In each case, the code will be read in the same way: The first digit from the left is a letter that indicates the month that the battery was recharged (A = January, B = February, C = March, etc.). The second digit indicates the year that the battery was recharged (4 = 2004, 5 = 2005, 6 = 2006, 7 = 2007, 8 = 2008, 9 = 2009, 0 = 2010, 1 = 2011, 2 = 2012)."

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #12 – January 18, 2014, 01:38:46 pm

Well, I went out today and did the "check" listed in the post above this. Here's the results.

I wish I had checked the volts on the batteries also by themselves too, but I did not. It may have been at the time because I had just taken the shore power off and may have thought it wouldn't be accurate.

The two house batteries are as follows, 8D-XHD 1155 CCA I read and printed the post above to make sure I read right and also wrote the info on the same paper. Here is the code that is clearly marked on both. E5DA

So, the E and the 5 made sense as did the D, but the letter A does not. It's obvious that these are old batteries .... almost if not 9 years old. That could have explained alot from the last couple ( or more ) years challenges.

The "new" or, the only battery I bought new and was ordered from the Interstate dealer and picked up when it came in, has 2 markings for dates on it. One is the round red sticker with 4/11 and the punch label also shows the same. It is an 8D-MHD 1400 CCA.

Now that I have what I believe to be a working alternator ( new ) I believe that the start battery still has life.

The other day I cleaned off some of the connections on the Trik L Start but think there is still on that needs a better connection. However, after reading comments from above I feel that I may have to seriously consider a better but still feasible product. Not lights are lit up on it still after shore power connected for several days.

I've disconnected shore power and am now open to advice about completely disconnecting all cables and leaving the batteries alone until Spring. Are the 2 house batteries junk and not to be messed with?

Should the house be connected to a battery charger from time to time to keep good, will it freeze if not ( coach is in it's own barn protected ) ?
Thoughts?

I have readings for the test made on the isolater that Brett recommended I perform.....I'll post those findings on that post so it's where it it needs to be.

Thanks ya'll

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #13 – January 19, 2014, 01:45:26 pm

Just curious if anyone can share anything with me about the batteries I commented on in the above post?

I see the thread veered a bit from the title, perhaps it should be copy and pasted for a battery topic...dont know. Not like it needs to be drug out and am pretty sure ill have replacement questions later. Not rushing out into action this month.

Thanks

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #14 – January 19, 2014, 06:42:47 pm

Carl,
Think the best place to start is with some studying at The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1), followed up with the The 12volt Side of Life Part 2. You don't need to disconnect everything, just one terminal per battery bank. But what ever you do, make sure you mark all the cables connected to the positive (+) posts with RED electrical tape. And take pictures of everything before you disconnect anything. That way you know where to connect them back to!!! Did you ever determine what type of converter/charger you have?? You want to make sure that has boost, normal, and float mode outputs. After you have marked everything and taken pictures of everything, I would verify with Interstate, the age of the batteries. From what you said, it sounds as if they have give you their full life. You can just disconnect the positive and negative of each bank and charge them "in place" if you have a smart maintenance charger (one with a microprocessor that determines the proper charging voltage). Also if you stay with wet cell batteries, I suggest you pick up a battery hydrometer, and learn to use it. They are very simple, and worth their weight in gold when it comes to determining your batteries condition.

My Foretravel stays plugged in all the time. But had to replace the old converter/charger with a new 4 stage smart one. The older converter/chargers that they used on the old U225's were just not up to par for continuous maintenance of batteries. I swapped it out for a Progressive Dynamics PD9200, which has worked out very well. I also swapped out my over 10 year 8D gel coach batteries for 2 new 8D AGM batteries. Have stayed with sealed maintenance free wet cell starting batteries, because they are no where near as expensive as the AGM, and I can replace them anywhere/anytime.

Your trip home was extreme taxing on any diesel's electrical battery system. I was really surprised that you made it without having more problems. I don't know your personal belief, but I think you had some divine force riding along with you and your family on that trip!!!

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Trik L Start not lit up?

January 15, 2014, 02:32:31 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #1 – January 15, 2014, 08:28:21 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #2 – January 15, 2014, 09:05:11 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #3 – January 15, 2014, 09:50:36 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #4 – January 15, 2014, 10:11:52 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #5 – January 15, 2014, 10:16:02 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #6 – January 15, 2014, 11:50:38 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #7 – January 15, 2014, 10:36:13 pm

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #8 – January 15, 2014, 10:47:35 pm

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #9 – January 16, 2014, 05:54:34 pm

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #10 – January 16, 2014, 08:34:31 pm

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #11 – January 17, 2014, 10:52:12 am

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #12 – January 18, 2014, 01:38:46 pm

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #13 – January 19, 2014, 01:45:26 pm

Re: Trik L Start not lit up?

Reply #14 – January 19, 2014, 06:42:47 pm

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