Quote:
Originally Posted by bjboles
Thank you all for comments. Lots of great info here on making the swap to 6v. As much as I would like to buy lithium, its just not in the budget at this time. Thanks again everyone!
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bjboles,
Well, first off, our coach, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP, is very, very similar to your coach. About 99.9999% of the wiring etc. is the exact same. YES, YES, YES, YES, YOUR HOUSE BATTERIES DO CHARGE WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING!!!!!! Why it's so hard for some (not you) to understand that is beyond me. You have, in the very front of your coach, a hinged *hood*, so to speak. It's the one you lift to gain access to the top of your generator.
When you lift that hood, directly in front of your eye balls is a panel. The cover is held on with thumb twist fasteners. On that cover, you will see the labels: "Aux Batt Solenoid & Battery shut off solenoid* or, at least something to that effect, its been a while since I worked on one of those. Annnnnnywwwwwayy, once that cover is removed, you will see those two solenoids. One is larger than the other.
The smaller of the two, I think it's the one on the right but, again, been a while, is the house battery shut off solenoid. It is controlled by a rocker switch on your dash. The other solenoid, a larger one, is a DUAL DUTY SOLENOID. The first duty is:
When you push on the Aux Batt Boost rocker on your dash, you send a signal to that solenoid. That solenoid when triggered in this fashion, now connects the HOUSE batteries to the CHASSIS batteries, so that if your chassis batteries are too low in voltage/amperage to start the engine, your house batteries will assist.
The second duty of that solenoid is:
When you start your engine, an *ignition HOT lead* is also attached to that larger solenoid and, it also engages that solenoid. When that happens, your alternator IS NOW SENDING VOLTAGE/AMPERAGE to your house batteries! Winne and Itasca has wired it that way for quite a while, especially on the diesel coaches.
In the lower (if you want to call a Vectra, Horizon, Journey and Meridian a "Lower unit, in the lineup of their products), Winne and Itasca DID NOT USE ANY BIRD OR ANY OTHER THINKING BATTERY CONTROL/CHARGING SYSTEM. However, on the higher end Winnes, like the Ultimate Freedom, yes, they did use a BIRD system.
But, on yours, ours and a few zillion other Vectras, Horizons, Journeys and Meridians, that Trombetta solenoid IS the link for charging the house batteries during engine running/driving the coach operations. However, in some cases, that solenoid can and has failed. Some folks got shore life out of theirs while others, like myself, got 11 years out of mine before it began to fail. Can you hear the solenoid *click* when you do it manually with the Aux Bat Boost switch or, when you turn the ignition on? Yes. But, does it mean it's allowing voltage to pass through it for charging, not always.
There are contacts and a contact plate inside that unit. And, over time, with such a large amount of voltage being conducted through it and slamming open and shut, those contact become carboned up due to the arcing when it's opened and closed. Can they be repaired? Well, yeah, if you're the energetic type like myself and a few others. But, in the end, they will fail again.
So, the best thing to do when you notice if failing or, if you're the well prepared type, you can order a *Silver contact* version of that same solenoid which, should last triple the amount of time the original one lasted. The Silver Contacts are much more resistant to carbon arcing.
So, that's the system you have. Hope this has helped some. Now, as stated, I did the house battery swap from the junk, three 12V Interstates that were in ours when we purchased it, to four Costco GC 6V batteries. I did all the measuring etc. and, yep, those GC 6V units, four of them, will fit that tray without any modification. Now, again, I'm talking an '04 Itasca Horizon. Yours is a Journey. They *should* be identical but, you better get your trusty tape measure out, just to be sure.
I made my own connecting 1GA battery cables that are in between the four batteries. The original ones worked for connecting to the coach systems. While I was in there, I cleaned up much of the parasitic wiring that Winne/Itasca was too lazy to wire correctly.
Scott
Linear Mode
