The truth about "house battery" alternator charging

[Bones2003]

Bob35A, who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of your "powerline energy management system"? The ones that I am familiar with do not control the 12VDC at all. They use 12VDC to power up the display/control board and may monitor the 12VDC but the main purpose is to shed 120VAC loads if too much AC current is being demanded.

As you described, the boost switch seems to work fine. Here's how I think it works from the engine. When you use the vehicle key to start the engine, that sends a signal to a relay that is mounted somewhere under your dash or in the engine compartment. This is a different relay than the battery relay that you replaced. That relay sends a 12VDC signal from the chassis battery out to various accessory items that need to come on when the engine is running. That way, the current for all those accessories does not need to flow through the engine key switch. Winnebago ties into that relay to get the 12VDC for the LR signal. There may be a fuse in that line or an auto-reset circuit breaker. Potential problems could be a bad/corroded connection in that path, an intermittent relay, or an intermittent auto-reset breaker. If you look at the fuse panels in your chassis manual and Winnebago manual, it should identify that accessory relay.

[Bob35A]

I think you are spot on with your post about the energy management system. The mode relay is energized from a 15-amp fuse under the dash, with a little help from a friend I was able to sort things out. All of my voltage read-outs confirm the mode relay operation is working correctly. Thank you all for your help. just a foot note: even when the mode relay is energized it will make a clicking sound when the boost button is pushed, this was throwing me off, thinking it wasn't energizing from Ignition Hot. Anyway thanks again

[Morich]

Originally Posted by Bob35A

I think you are spot on with your post about the energy management system. The mode relay is energized from a 15-amp fuse under the dash, with a little help from a friend I was able to sort things out. All of my voltage read-outs confirm the mode relay operation is working correctly. Thank you all for your help. just a foot note: even when the mode relay is energized it will make a clicking sound when the boost button is pushed, this was throwing me off, thinking it wasn't energizing from Ignition Hot. Anyway thanks again

Sounds fine and just about the time we getthings fairly well in mind, we go and buy something different! So life is just a series of trying to figure out what to do next??

[BarryLS]

It's educational in any event.

[Morich]

Educational, yes and it does keep me entertained but then it gets depressing when all the stuff I know is no longer usefull!

I have not had a single request all last year on help setting the points on a car! Nobody even cares where their spark plugs are, any more!

[BarryLS]

Heh, I'm with you there Richard. I changed the plugs on my 2006 Avalanche a few weeks ago. They had 80K, minimum, as that's the miles I've put on it since buying it. They looked perfectly fine.

[davismills]

Bob,

This a long shot in your case, but it might be worth a check. In all honesty, I have not read all the threads except your original post, so if your problem has been solved, please ignore my suggestion.

I had this problem once and I replaced the solenoid although that didn't solve the problem. I found out that Winnebago installed a 3 way versus a 2-way emergency start switch. Pushing the switch down to 6 o'clock/bottom position allowed the engine alternator to start charging the house batteries.

Must be a rare or isolated occurrence, because no one has ever had this issue but me.

My switch was spring loaded to return to the middle position after an emergency start, so I went for six months NOT charging my house batteries via the alternator.

I'm kind of glad I have this capability as I'm planning to "upgrade" to lithium house batteries. I'll be able to isolate them from the alternator when driving to avoid a potential alternator overheat scenario.