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Old 01-18-2025, 11:33 AM   #1
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Help with Generator Issue 2014 Vista 35F

I had to move my motorhome to storage without electric. First time in 8 years the motorhome was not plugged in. The other day I went to start the generator and it started. I moved from storage and was showing it to someone interested in buying it and the the generator would not start. The inside ceiling lights in the unit would not work. My first thought was the house batteries need charged. I sold it with the understanding they would plug the motorhome into his 50 amp storage to see if they charged. It appears the generator still will not start. The Chassis batteries were last replaced in December 2019. Am I correct to suspect the issue is a bad battery(s)?
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Old 01-18-2025, 02:48 PM   #2
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That would be first good guess but there may be some testing needed, too.
It may be the chassis battery has lost all charge as there are drains left connected, even when we turn the disconnect switches off!
Safety/ liability comes over making you happy! So safety items are left connected.
OR
It may be as simple as corroded/dirty cables or the way switches were left.
If there was a coach battery disconnect left turned off, that likely cuts the charge from the converter to charge the coach side. But not power to coach and whether there is any system to move some of that charge to the chassis battery is still an open question.
So some looking may help sort what happened.

One semi simple way to get more info one whether the cables are good may be worth a try.
I the chassis battery is down but the coach is good, one way to test the cables is to use a dash switch. It has various names like boost, aux, etc. ?
Ofte3n ignored, never used and forgotten but do a search from the driver's seat for something like that which you may have forgotten!
Idea is that you can push that switch to do a "jump start" without having a second car or getting out the cables.
If a weak chassis battery won't crank the engine or generator, try pushing the boost (or whatever name?) switch and see if that connects a good coach in to crank the engine!

If this makes things work, it normally says the cables are good but that first battery may be bad!

See if this fits for your RV? click this snip to see better!
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Be aware that this does not mean the battery is now good and keep in mind that you may be selling the RV with a bad battery as letting them go totally flat is often prone to damage!
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Old 01-18-2025, 06:04 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by k9jkfham View Post
Am I correct to suspect the issue is a bad battery(s)?
Would turn over, but not start? Or it wouldn’t even turn over?

If the latter then I’d suspect the Chassis battery first.

If it turns over but doesn’t start then just like a car engine… it needs air, fuel and spark. So it could be anything related to those three things.
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Old 01-22-2025, 06:38 PM   #4
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Maybe the coach batteries start the generator, and the battery disconnect switch is off?
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Old 01-22-2025, 08:55 PM   #5
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Maybe the coach batteries start the generator, and the battery disconnect switch is off?
Yes, this shows to be the case for this year/model RV. It should be the coach batteries cranking the generator.
But one good idea when we have trouble starting things like this is to get the RV engine started first as it has two big advantages. One is that we start the engine more often and it then is more likely to start with having fuel, etc. When we try to start the generator, I often find it takes some time to get fuel pumped back to where it is needed on the generator.
Also a big reason to first start the RV engine is that we then have both battery groups connected along with the alternator putting out power! That combined power group lets us crank far more and much better than just the coach batteries.
But the battery disconnects should definitely be on as a first step!
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Old 01-23-2025, 12:31 AM   #6
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On my RV, if the fuel level is below 1/4 of a tank, the generator will not run. Just another thing to check.
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