Battery Boost

[bigbearguy]

I purchased a 2005 mini winnie.I am new to RVing. It has battery boost but no instructions. There are two switches. one says ENGINE under it RADIO POWER and under that HOUSE. The switch below it says ON under it BATTERY BOOST. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[powercat_ras]

The Battery Boost switch connects the coach and chassis batteries together, use if your chassis battery has run down and won't supply enough power to start the engine.

The Radio Power switch normally should be left in the Chassis position unless you are plugged into shore power. The radio will work in Chassis position with the ignition key in ACC or RUN positions. The radio will work in House position off the coach batteries even with the ignition key out. In House position it will draw a little bit of power from the coach batteries 24 hours a day even with the radio off, causing the Coach batteries to run down faster than with the switch in the Engine position.

[bigbearguy]

Originally Posted by powercat_ras

The Battery Boost switch connects the coach and chassis batteries together, use if your chassis battery has run down and won't supply enough power to start the engine.

The Radio Power switch normally should be left in the Chassis position unless you are plugged into shore power. The radio will work in Chassis position with the ignition key in ACC or RUN positions. The radio will work in House position off the coach batteries even with the ignition key out. In House position it will draw a little bit of power from the coach batteries 24 hours a day even with the radio off, causing the Coach batteries to run down faster than with the switch in the Engine position.

Thanks fir the quick reply, How do you use the Battery Boost function?

[powercat_ras]

> how do you use the Battery Boost function

You just hold down on the boost switch , and it ties the coach battery to the chassis battery.

Still holding down the boost switch, use the ignition key and start the engine.

Release the boost switch once the engine starts.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by bigbearguy

Thanks fir the quick reply, How do you use the Battery Boost function?

ONLY use it when the starting battery is dead and will not start the RV on its own. It's something used in emergency. I've used it once in 4 years. So, don't plan on using it ever. Just monitor the charge of your house batteries and your chassis battery and make sure both are well charged and well taken care of.

Learn all you can about how to treat your batteries.

The "house" radio switch you can use anytime you want to use the dashboard Radio when camping. Otherwise use it in Engine and that's for when you're driving.

WAIT... do you have an operator's manual? You need one and you need to read it two or three times. There is a lot of info in there.

If you don't have one, here's a link to a PDF for a 2005 Minnie Winnie:
https://winnebagoind.com/resources/m...nnieWinnie.pdf

[Morich]

Easy to think of the boost switch more as "Jumper cable" to the second set of batteries? Always be aware the start/chassis battery will always have a tiny drain from ignition, radio, clock, etc and will go down if there is no form of charger left on it while stored. So if you forget to keep the start battery up, the boost switch may give you the help needed to drive somewhere to get a replacement for the start battery! Better not to kill it, though?

[bigbearguy]

Originally Posted by Morich

Easy to think of the boost switch more as "Jumper cable" to the second set of batteries? Always be aware the start/chassis battery will always have a tiny drain from ignition, radio, clock, etc and will go down if there is no form of charger left on it while stored. So if you forget to keep the start battery up, the boost switch may give you the help needed to drive somewhere to get a replacement for the start battery! Better not to kill it, though?

Thank you. I'm writing the info down so I have it.

[bigbearguy]

Originally Posted by creativepart

ONLY use it when the starting battery is dead and will not start the RV on its own. It's something used in emergency. I've used it once in 4 years. So, don't plan on using it ever. Just monitor the charge of your house batteries and your chassis battery and make sure both are well charged and well taken care of.

Learn all you can about how to treat your batteries.

The "house" radio switch you can use anytime you want to use the dashboard Radio when camping. Otherwise use it in Engine and that's for when you're driving.

WAIT... do you have an operator's manual? You need one and you need to read it two or three times. There is a lot of info in there.

If you don't have one, here's a link to a PDF for a 2005 Minnie Winnie:
https://winnebagoind.com/resources/m...nnieWinnie.pdf

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[bigbearguy]

Originally Posted by powercat_ras

> how do you use the Battery Boost function

You just hold down on the boost switch , and it ties the coach battery to the chassis battery.

Still holding down the boost switch, use the ignition key and start the engine.

Release the boost switch once the engine starts.

Thank you/

[NeilV]

Originally Posted by bigbearguy

I purchased a 2005 mini winnie.I am new to RVing. It has battery boost but no instructions. There are two switches. one says ENGINE under it RADIO POWER and under that HOUSE. The switch below it says ON under it BATTERY BOOST. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

On many of the coaches built prior to around 2010 (I really do not remember the exact changeover date however my 2001 is in the range) the built in charger/converter only charges the House Battery and not the Engine Battery, To allow you to run the dashboard radio while camping without running the engine battery dead you flip the radio switch to House.

The Boost button allows you to press it and start a coach with a dead Engine Battery that you may have accidentally ran down such as when you forgot to flip the radio switch to House. Just hold down boost switch and turn the key to start the engine. Many will just leave the radio switch on the House setting so they won't forget. A popular option for many is to install a battery module that will like the newer coaches also provide for charging the Engine battery with the build in Converter/Charger.