Converter bad???

[Applekrate59]

I own a 2011 Vista 35f
I have nothing in coach when unplugged and generator won’t start.
I tried to start generator with coach plugged in, everything shut off when I tried that! Batteries are around a year old,water is good in them. I checked cells with hydrometer and it read good.Any ideas?
Thanks,
Barry

[Morich]

Some basics may be killing hte parade so let me run through and see if that leads to a fix?
Does the RV engine start? That is a good place to start as it makes several things happen---if all is right!
So does it start or do you know where there is a "boost or AUX" switch on the dash or near the driver? That should connect both sets of batteries together to do a "jump start if the start battery.

IF/ when you get the engine running, there is a solenoid, often labeled mode solenoid which will automatically connect coach and start together so that the aengine alternator will act to charge both sets of battery.

Then make sure the two battery disconnect switches are pressed in the right direction to close and let you get power to the lights, fans, etc inside the coach. The reason I prefer to get the engine started first is that those two disconnect switches need power to move the relay, so if yu have dead batteries and use the switches, they may not do anything at all and they will still act as if turned to the positon when the batteries went dead. They are called "latching" relays as they move to the power but then a magnet holds them in that last position, until they have power to move! Starting the engine is one way to say they should then have power and let you open or close them as needed.

If alll begins to work when engine is running, you have battery power from the alternator gettting to things but if it all stops working again when you turn the engine off, you likely have very weak or dead batteries.

One way this happens is that there are almost always "parasitic drains" on both sets which WILL run the batteries down when stored. Radio presets and igniton for the start battery and propane and CO detectors are a couple on the coach as they are for safety which is never turned off if we don't do some mods to make it happen.

This is all shooting blind without knowing if there are battery cables which are corroded, etc. but this is a common thing. See if it works?

[Applekrate59]

I started the coach no problem. Then while running I flipped the chassis and coach battery disconnect switches on and off a couple times. The generator then started! Seems normal at the moment.
Would using those light activated night lights in the outlets affect this at all?? Only thing I know that might have changed.

[Morich]

After things get back to looking like "normal" it is often hard to say what happened but some background theory might be something to be alert to----in case it goes badagain!

It could have been something as lowball as dirt in the relay for the coach battery disconnect? That would leave the starting battery for the generator lacking and it would not start??
The one that can get us in trouble is if the coach batteries are low or down, it can be masked somewhat if we then start the engine as it uses the other battery to start but when it does, then ALL batteries are connected together and that gives the generator the best chance to start, even if the coach batteries are getting near dead!

So what I would causion to be alert to maybe happen, just to be alert, is that you can find the inside lights and everything appear good after running the engine and/or generator for a while as that will either get some charge from the engine alternator or the generator will have been powering the converter to also put some charge in the coach batteries.
But that can be just enough to really confuse the issue if the batteries are nearing end of useful life as it makes them appear charged and after an hour or so, they may look dead again!

Just one of those headaches to be alert, so that it doesn't catch you out somewhere that it makes a real problem. Just the untrusting part of me that feels I need to watch things for a while after I've had some questions about the batteries as they are so simple but the thing that gets most of us in trouble!