unable to depart on schedule

Unable to depart on schedule, more battery stories

For the second time in two and a half years, while traveling full-time, we were unable to depart on schedule. This time, the starter battery was dead; the previous time, it was a dead starter. I am starting to notice a trend.

As for the battery, we drained it, not knowing that it was draining.  After hiding from the COVID-19 virus in Las Vegas, we were unable to depart on schedule. All this after almost two months in one spot. At the time, Vegas was closed, shut down, and locked tight. Perhaps we drained the engine starter battery by leaving something on for over three weeks. So we were unable to depart on schedule. It was only a slight interruption to our schedule. The real problem was that the weather was getting hot in Las Vegas, and we wanted to leave town.

When it came time to start the engine — nothing.

Since this RV is new to us, and we don’t know all the ins and outs, we are at a loss as to why this happened.  It is a very real possibility that we have a drained start battery. I saw a battery charger (a float or trickle charger) plugged into an electrical outlet in one of the compartments. I assumed it was to charge the engine battery from the house current. Now, I will investigate more closely. I want to go when I am ready and expect the RV to be prepared and not delay my departure. Being unable to depart on schedule because part of the RV isn’t willing to participate is unacceptable and my fault for not knowing.

If the charger (hooked to the house current) is hooked to the house battery, this would be dumb.  Here is why. (two possible situations) #1:  Shore power is connected to house battery current then the battery charger-charges the house battery. This won’t hurt anything but is unnecessary because the shore power also powers the inverter/converter, which charges the house battery and does a much better job than a trickle charger ever could.   #2:  If without shore power, the house battery powers inverter/converter which then powers the trickle charger which then tries to charge the house battery — creating a circle — this is bad.  The only result would be an extra drain on the house battery.

Old house

Owning a previously owned RV is like owning an old house; you never know what might have been done. I will have to trace wires to determine what this trickle charger is doing. This will be double or triple for the next owner of my RV. It is mine, and I will change it to suit me. Being unable to depart on schedule is a non-starter.

Back to the story

Well, to continue the story, we were unable to depart on schedule. We didn’t go anywhere that day, but we did learn some things. Even if we could get the engine to start, we would have been too spooked to travel that day. Our first stop was to get fuel, and assuming we shut the engine off at the pump, we may not have been able to restart the engine to depart the truck stop.

The only problem about staying in Las Vegas was the heat. It was expected to hit 100 degrees the following day.   So, we spent the rest of the day trying to recharge the battery.

So what did we try? 

My first idea was to jump-start the engine. In the battery compartment, there are two terminals — labeled jump start. So I hooked the car up to these terminals, and still nothing. When this didn’t work, I tried to recharge the battery by using the alternator in the car for a few minutes. I connected the RV to the car with jumper cables and then held a high RPM on the motor. Even after a few minutes of recharging, a jump-start still didn’t work. This was, however, recharging the RV battery using the car alternator ever so slowly. The battery level was so depleted that there was not enough juice to start the engine — even when using the Aux Start.  I admit I was over-optimistic about thinking my car could jump-start the big diesel engine.

Aux Start

The Aux Start switch combines the house battery (which had a full charge) with the engine battery so that the house battery could assist the engine battery to start the engine. When you start the engine, you press and hold the Aux Start switch to help the engine battery start the engine.  We were using the Aux Start and the jump-start all at the same time and still not enough power to start the engine.

I called Tiffin for some hints, and they mentioned that by holding the Aux Start Switch to the on position, you could transfer some of the energy that would go to the house battery into the engine start battery from the generator. They didn’t mention that the same thing would happen from shore power, but I tested it, and it works. The idea is that the energy from the house battery flows to the lower charge level engine battery, and at the same time, the inverter/charger charges the house battery. All of this is convoluted, and I prefer a more direct approach to the battery directly connected to a charge source.

So we disconnected the car, started the generator, and charged the battery from the generator. All this time, the battery was still below 11 volts—a good battery would be at or above 12.6 volts. After doing that for a while, we knew we weren’t going anywhere on Tuesday, so we extended our stay in Las Vegas. 

Old Car Charger

My forty-year-old car charger can deliver six amps/per hour to the battery, which is way more than a trickle charger and much less than the engine alternator.  So I hooked it up and ran it – until the charger overheated. I had to disconnect it and allow it to be calm before trying again.  I also knew it would take days to recharge the start battery from my six-amp charger, especially when it was so hot outside, so I decided it was time to throw money at the problem.  In this case, I needed a much more powerful charger. The new one is five times bigger than my old car charger. Throwing money at the problem is better than being unable to depart on schedule. Buying a new charger is better than buying a new battery.

New Charger

When first connected, the new charger pumped 30 amps per hour into the battery. This continued for the next seven hours, reducing the charging rate just before bedtime. I left it on all night, and everything tested good enough to go in the morning.

The engine started as if there had never been an issue, and we started our first leg to Topaz Lake in the morning. The engine also started when we departed the truck stop and even when we departed Tonopah the next morning. All seemed well, and Las Vegas was climbing toward 100 degrees as we were heading north.

Here is the link to the story about the first time we could not depart on schedule when our starter broke. Broken Down

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This is the battery charger we got from Home Depot. Dewalt 30 amp

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8 thoughts on “Unable to depart on schedule, more battery stories”

  1. I guess more expensive and fancier does not translate to more user friendly.
    Very glad you are now here and enjoying Northern Nevada.

  2. Glad to see all is well now. Still hot here at Nellis. We leave May 8th. Got my fingers crossed. Heading to Acton CA for a week to see friends. Then to Camp Pendleton to after Memorial Day then head East.

  3. Oy…the endless battery issues with RVs. You seem to have solved the problem, thankfully. However, you lost me at over 100 degrees…ugh!

  4. It’s always an adventure to try to figure things like that out. Frustrating, but an adventure! And I know it’s right up your alley, Scott.
    Does Tami “help” or just wait for you to figure it out? Lol

  5. I had similar experiences when I first got my Tiffin including not being able to start one time after getting fuel at Sams Club. I sent you an email with more detailed information. I the final iteration of problem solving this is the trickle charger I use (I ended up replacing the starter batteries in the end too).
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JSTM8I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I leave it connected all the time (and use a timer to run it from 10 am-4pm) as it is powered by my smaller onboard, always on super efficient Morningstar Inverter (it powered all the TVs, Satellite, Electronics, Ice Maker, Chargers – basically everything except for the kitchen and bathroom outlets. PulseTech is the one charger desulfator that actually works. None of the other (included the battery tender one you already) really makes any difference. Give it a try and smile when your system always works and pass the information forward.

    1. Our truck battery is getting drained all the time by engine controls and other parasite drains. So I put a trickle charger on the truck batteries and plugged it into the block heater outlet while we are camped. This keeps the batteries up (being charged by 110v service or the genset) and we’ve had no problem with over five years on these batteries.

  6. Pingback: Making Zombie Batteries that won't die - FoxRVTravel

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