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I just bought a 93 Winnebago elante a couple weeks ago. I am parked in an rv park and hooked up to shore power. Over the last few days i noticed the automotive battery has been dying. When it does the power step and radio stop working. After reading my manual. I am under the impression that the step is powered by the house battery. The radio is as well when i select aux power For the radio power switch. However even in this mode it is loosing power along with the automotive battery. My question is, could i have a switch or setting wrong or should i be looking for a misswire in the system. Thanks
Hey Marko, it’s always a good idea to run your engine at least every couple of weeks if not every week to maintain that engine battery. If your automotive battery is dying only over a few days time, then you may want to look into a new engine battery.
Now to your question.
Many RVs have a switch that will disconnect the engine battery as well as the house batteries. You may try to find this and turn off your engine battery to keep small loads from draining it faster. The same is true for your house batts if your are plugged into shore anyway.
It’s hard to say without reading the manual myself as well, but I suspect your steps are on the engine battery, mine are. As for the radio in aux I’m not certain. I doubt a mis-wire. I know for example, my steps have an on/off switch near them and also on the dash. I’ve tried all combinations to understand them and there’s always a misunderstanding and I think when the engine is on, it voids any of the patterns I’ve thought I’ve found in them.
It is possible too, that you have your house batteries disconnected with the disconnect switch so these other items are drawing from the engine battery instead.
OK, thinking a little more about your problem, I’m wondering why you’re using your steps so much and I wonder if you know you can turn them on and off so when you’re parked, you open the door to let them out, then turn them off and they will stay out for you until you’re ready to go again. I hope that may help you. It will draw less of a load too on whatever battery it is using.
Probably too late now for you (April ’18) but I would take the vehicle battery out (optional), wash it with warm water and a little soap, clean the terminals, check and fill the electrolyte levels, charge it with a battery charger for at least 24 hours and then test it with a hydrometer. A further test is to take it to an auto parts store after it is charged and have them load test it (for free). This will help you determine whether you need a new battery or not.
once your sure the batteries are ok. get a small tender charger to keep the engine battery safely charged.
I run a extension cord from a outlet, and plug both my house battery converter to charge the house battery and the battery tender for the engine battery. When I park the RV the Generator, or my solar panels with the inverter, or the Pedestal of a park, provides 110v for my engine battery’s tender charger.
So the engine battery is always charging and i’m adding a strong relay to the alternator output so the house batteries can also charge when I’m Driving.
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