Newbie here--Battery, electrical questions

Keldog4511 · 08-12-2018, 02:52 PM

I have a 1995 Winnebago Brave Class A. I purchased this in May and promptly replaced the coach batteries which measured "dead". I replaced them with the same size 12 volt (x2). First month, great. It had no problem holding a charge for two weeks or more to the next outing. Now, no. I have tried to read and understand the electrical posts and have concluded it is likely the converter. As far as I can tell, nothing is drawing power off when sitting except a CO2 detector. Is there anything a non-techie such as myself can check before taking it in? I am assuming the brand new batteties were good. If you know of a thread that covers this and you don't feel like repeating yourself, please feel free to link me! I live in Florida so hot weather, not cold. Thank you in advance for your patience with a newbie. The batteries are likely almost discharged now which I know is not good.

BillB100 · 08-19-2018, 01:25 PM

On my rig if I unplug and then remove the ground cable from the batteries, to cut them out of the picture, Then replug the unit in. If the batteries are not hooked up and the converter is working correctly the 12 volt lights should work. If they don't work your problem is probably in your converter. Once you hook the batteries back up if they are charged up you can have lights until they run down again. Hope this helps

Keldog4511 · 08-19-2018, 04:56 PM

Much appreciated! I will try this.

al1florida · 08-20-2018, 03:49 PM

If you don't have a multimeter (voltmeter) you really need one to measure the battery & converter voltage. We will be guessing as to what the problem is w/o having voltage measurements.

First is, when plugged into shore power or on generator the voltage at the converter and battery should be about 13.4V, that is the voltage the converter normally puts out.

Also measuring the battery voltage when off of shore power/generator is important. Fully charged batteries will measure about 12.6V.

Here is some reading which covers the basics of RV elect, battery & charging:
The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)
The 12volt Side of Life Part 2