Battery Indicator came on while driving

Kelm130 · 08-09-2015, 12:20 PM

Hi - This may have been of my own doing but I was moving the RV from Crossville to Knoxville today and part way in the trip I forgot to test my air horns at the start like I normally. Gotta love that noise! :-)

Anyway I push the horn pad and no air horns. Yuck who would notice that meep? So now I'm thinking the last time I washed up there I did something or there is something wrong with the air. I start scanning the dash and finally see the battery indicator is on. Dern steering wheel setup on this chassis does a great job of blocking the information center. ugh!

I noticed that I forgot to turn on the 12 volt cut-off switch so no 12 volts was being distributed. I flipped the switch and not much happens so I start the generator and the battery light goes out and the air horns work.. ahhh!

My question is did my leaving the 12 volt system off cause this situation? Doesn't the engine alternator charge the battery as you drive? I checked when I stopped and it had 12+ volts.

Thanks
Ben

grtharris · 08-09-2015, 03:10 PM

Kelm130, having the chassis battery disconnected would keep the air horns from working. I don,t for sure if the battery mode solenoid will pickup if the 12VDC is off. When you started the generator the converter supplied 12VDC power to the coach. I would check the chassis batteries with the engine off then with the engine running to make sure the battery mode solenoid (battery isolation relay) is working.

Kelm130 · 08-09-2015, 06:14 PM

Hi Grant - After thinking about it some more the battery disconnect switch wouldn't affect the chassis batteries just the house batteries and any horn air or electric should run of the chassis batteries. So I'm thinking whatever caused my battery fault indicator to come on (the manual says either a high low battery condition) might have been causing the air horns to not work but the electric ones still did so now I'm back to not being sure about anything.

All I know is that after I started the generator the fault light went out and the horns started working. I can't remember if I tested the horns after I turned off the generator or not.

I'll check it out some more tomorrow. It has brand new Interstate batteries so they shouldn't be a problem.

grtharris · 08-09-2015, 07:21 PM

Kelm130, Sorry typo I meant coach battery disconnected not chassis.

wa8yxm · 08-10-2015, 08:40 AM

Chassis battery disconnect it will not start
Coach battery disconnect... now this depends on how your isolator works.
(And how the battery fault indicator works)

If the house batteries are full up and the isloator is operated by the ignition switch (not voltage sensitive) and the battery light IS voltage sensitive then.. What you saw makes sense.

Lower voltage due to failed alternator caused light to come on and lower voltage did poor job of powering Horns.

Connecting house batteries provided fully charged batteries, more voltage and then extinguished light and honked horns.

That said; USUALLY the battery light is hooked to the alternator, not the battery, and comes on if the Alternator is drawing power instead of generating it. (it is a flow direction indicator) But that is on systems I am familiar with,, I know there is at least one I am not familiar with.

tderonne · 08-10-2015, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

That said; USUALLY the battery light is hooked to the alternator, not the battery, and comes on if the Alternator is drawing power instead of generating it. (it is a flow direction indicator).

Not exactly sure what the OP is experiencing, but the above is true for the F53 chassis. I can get the battery light on the dash if the voltage from my converter is greater than the voltage from the alternator when the batteries are linked. This happens when I run the generator on the road and my converter is in boost mode.

Kelm130 · 08-10-2015, 03:19 PM

Thanks everyone I learn a little more about this coach every time something breaks

So today I went out and did nothing but flip the air horn switch to on. Engine off -no key in ignition. Push the horn pad and ahhh a honk to be proud of. IE they worked.

Great I think it was just a fluke.. so I start the motor to make sure the batteries are good.. varoom... ahh the purr of the big well big to me 330 Cat..

Great all is well with the world.. lets just try the air horns one more time... meeep! what the what?? Air horns didn't work. arrrgh so I went out and banged on what I think was the solenoid. Its hard to reach on this model. No luck.

Not 100% sure but my first guess is the solenoid. If I had to buy one does anyone know where to get one? I know I can clean it but it's really hard to work on this thing in the storage lot.

Thanks for all the tips!
Ben

Kelm130 · 08-30-2015, 12:48 PM

Follow up: I got it out of storage today to top the tank off and the battery indicator is on from the git-go. I look at my newly installed ScanGuage and it reads 11.7 volts with the engine running. So I fire up the genny and it now reads 12.6 and after a bit the battery indicator goes off.

So what is the ScanGuage showing me? What the batteries are at or what the alternator is outputting?

Thanks
Ben

Kelm130 · 08-30-2015, 05:10 PM

OK after doing my due diligence and doing a little more digging it looks like either the alternator is bad or the belt is slipping. Given that the alternator is 12 years and I had the belt replaced a year ago at Gaffney I'm betting on the alternator. So now it's either to Freightliner Of Knoxville which I had replace the surge tank and was OK with their workmanship not so much their customer relations.. or take it to the Stowers Cat in Knoxville who replaced the oil filter mount and is a shop that does what they say when they say or Chillhowee RV the local Winnebago dealer whom is also a trusted repair shop. But can I get it done before this weekend?? Big trip planned for Pigeon Forge.

Frieghltliner is sooo close and I want to trust them but...

Kelm130 · 09-03-2015, 03:46 PM

Final outcome: The alternator was bad, see pics of 2002 alternator. Took it to Stowers CAT service in Knoxville Tn. Dropped off Monday and got back on Thursday.

OK now for the fun stuff... $500 for a genuine Frieghtliner supplied alternator, I know I know but I didn't want an off brand and I have Good Sam ESP.

12 hours of labor right around $1000, again I know that might have been much but Winnebago states it is a 10 hour job and they had to deal with frozen bolts so maybe not too bad. Plus there is no way I can do any of this work myself. And Stowers was very nice and never tried to hide or pull the black curtain around the bay like some places do so you end up feeling duped.

So I am still going to appeal to Good Sam since this took longer than a typical job estimate. We'll see. Anyway I'm glad it's done and this alternator should last as long as I plan to keep the coach.

Now off to Gaffney in November for Camp Frieghtliner II where you get to go out in the service bay and walk under the coach and talk to the techs.