Thor Forums

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by Ed-ACE

I have a question about my batteries on our 2013 ACE 30.1. I thought that the house batteries and the chassis batteries are separate electrical systems and the only time they become one is if I use the emergency start button. I recently pulled my chassis battery to charge it and I noticed that the cab radio was on even with battery out. So then I thought I would try to start it with out the chassis battery in it, it started....

I do not know if it is supposed to do this or if the previous owner put a jumper in somewhere to bypass something for some reason.

I would appreciate any thoughts on if this is right or wrong and pros and or cons of what it is if it is not a normal deal.

All is well and it sounds as though it is functioning as designed.

Quite a few manufacturers will wire the radio to the house batteries for various reasons, one of which is in some motor homes the radio also serves as the DVD player. That was the case in my prior Forest River.

The two battery systems are connected together through the Trombetta solenoid and Battery Isolation Relay, aka the BIRD. The Trombetta and BIRD allows for the house batteries to be charged by the engine alternator while driving, the chassis battery to be charged while connected to shore power, and the use of the emergency start switch to start the coach if the chassis battery is dead.

There are a few threads on the forum which discuss the Trombetta and BIRD. Here the link to one of them.

http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f4/...bird-5836.html