Only use 1 house battery?

junior30 · 12-22-2015, 01:23 PM

Hello I am new to rv's and have a 2015 four winds 31e. I posted on another thread that one of my 2 batteries are boiling. My question is will my coach run on just one of the batteries without damaging anything?

I am still under warranty and will have the bad battery replaced but the dealer is quite far and I have a trip to go on in the mean time. I am a little familiar with golf cart batteries and series and parallel wiring.

I guess I could see if they are wired in parallel and if so it should be ok to run with just one battery. In which case i will just have less capacity which is no problem since I generally run off of shore power.

Thanks

JamieGeek · 12-22-2015, 02:50 PM

Correct: If its two 12V batteries in parallel then you can safely run with one.

If, however, its two 6V batteries in series then you are out of luck.

groswald · 12-22-2015, 02:52 PM

Assuming you are talking two house batteries they will (should) be wired in parallel providing 12 volts to the coach. The fact that only one battery boils is somewhat troublesome. I could be because of a defective battery, but it could also be an issue in the charge circuit.

You might want to do a thorough check of the charge circuit lest you wind up sacrificing another battery.

Regards,

Randy

mck67 · 12-22-2015, 03:21 PM

I had a similar problem on a trip earlier this year. I disconnected the boiling battery and pressed on with the trip we were on. No issues. We had two 12v wired in parallel.

BTW the boiling battery was a defective battery - internal short.

junior30 · 12-22-2015, 07:45 PM

Thanks for the tips. I'll check and see if they are in parallel when I get home and if so just remove the bad battery. I believe the battery is probably bad from lack of maintenance from the dealer. They already agreed to give me a new one but just haven't been able to meet up with them.

Tytlfamily · 12-23-2015, 02:56 PM

Ok, here is a dumb question.......how do you know if a battery is boiling? I check the water level before each trip, but except for that I never really pay attention to anything else battery wise.....further more, we pretty much are always plugged in at campgrounds........so what else should I be doing for battery maintenance/inspection?
Sorry, don't mean to hijack your thread.......just seemed like an opportunity for me to learn [emoji3][emoji3]

junior30 · 12-23-2015, 03:10 PM

I'm not a battery expert but there are a lot of threads on battery maintenance that you cannot read through. If your batteries are boiling it's pretty obvious. Mine had the acid/water boiling through the fill caps and it creates a unmistakable bad egg smell.

I did check and my 2 batteries are wired in parallel so I will remove the bad one until I can get it swapped out. Thanks for the help.

Tytlfamily · 12-23-2015, 03:28 PM

Ok , I guess that makes sense there would be some visible signs or damage. Thanks. Hope you get your issue resolved.

sikoriko · 12-23-2015, 06:10 PM

[QUOTE=junior30;23575]Thanks for the tips. I'll check and see if they are in parallel when I get home and if so just remove the bad battery. I believe the battery is probably bad from lack of maintenance from the dealer. They already agreed to give me a new one but just haven't been able to meet up with them.[/QUOT

I know your not to mix old with new batteries, but is there a time limit on the two? six/twelve months? How old is too old to parallel up to a new battery?

Chance · 12-24-2015, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sikoriko

I know your not to mix old with new batteries, but is there a time limit on the two? six/twelve months? How old is too old to parallel up to a new battery?

That's a great question. I have read many articles that quote the ideal scenario for multiple batteries -- that's to say they recommend batteries with same age, brand, model, size, condition, etc.... But they are not funding the recommendation, so why not go with the "perfect" solution every time?

I think this issue is too subjective to have a good answer. Age alone is a bad indicator in my opinion because a 1-year-old battery may be in like-new condition while one at 6 months may be shot.

Based on my personal experience, if I had two batteries in parallel and one went dead, I would not hesitate mixing things up a little by replacing the dead one and keeping the good one active (unless I had a different application where I could use the good battery by itself elsewhere, or had so much money that cost didn't matter at all). Even then I probably would keep the good battery for environmental reasons.

When I was in school I worked during summers on a very large farm with a lot of large diesel tractors, stationary engines, and other equipment. Most Diesel engines used two large batteries in series to start on 24-Volts. When a battery went bad, we often replaced it and left the companion in service. And that was in series which I think is worse than mixing in parallel. It wasn't ideal, and granted not as demanding on batteries as deep-cycle duty, but for the most part it all worked just fine.

When possible we tried to match batteries, but often we ended up with different brands, ages, etc. Battery size was about the only constant for a given piece of equipment.

Many battery recommendations originate with battery manufacturers who are in business to sell batteries, so it doesn't surprise me that they all recommend buying new batteries as a fix to many problems. And often they are right. Other times they may be willing to spend our funds a bit too freely. It's all subjective.

junior30 · 12-26-2015, 06:39 PM

Ok so I am about to remove the one battery and I am not sure how to rewire. There is a positive lead going to both batteries. One is yellow and one has a red tip.

So my guess is to hook both the positive cables coming from the coach to the positive terminal on the one battery. There is only one negative feedback coming from the coach so that is pretty self explanatory.

junior30 · 12-26-2015, 06:47 PM

Ok so I got a call back from thor and was told that one of the positive lead is for the coach and one is for the generator starter. He said just hook them both up to the positive terminal of the one battery

Chance · 12-26-2015, 08:49 PM

Which battery is the bad one, the one at bottom of picture?

If you plan to replace it with a second battery in near future, I think I would be tempted to disconnect it but leave it physically in place. That may make it simpler later to replace it since all hardware would still be there (although pictures obviously help with that). Depending on which battery is bad, you may be able to disconnect it by simply removing the negative/ground jumper.

junior30 · 12-27-2015, 01:12 AM

The top battery was the bad one. I went ahead and pulled the battery the dealer is going to be installing the new one so it should be ok. Thanks for the reply.

**EA37TS** · 12-27-2015, 02:56 AM

From the pic they look like Harris batteries. If it were me I'd have them replace both even if I had to buy one myself and I would not allow them to use Harris as the replacements.

Yosemitebob · 12-27-2015, 06:44 AM

There is a whole lot of information here on Harris, and it's not good. Check it out.

Metalman · 12-27-2015, 10:32 PM

[QUOTE=sikoriko;23615]

Quote:

Originally Posted by junior30

Thanks for the tips. I'll check and see if they are in parallel when I get home and if so just remove the bad battery. I believe the battery is probably bad from lack of maintenance from the dealer. They already agreed to give me a new one but just haven't been able to meet up with them.[/QUOT

I know your not to mix old with new batteries, but is there a time limit on the two? six/twelve months? How old is too old to parallel up to a new battery?

Chance is right, in a pinch, go ahead and replace just one. A way to help determine if you can connect to or more batteries in parallel is to leave them disconnected and let them rest for a day or so without any power going to them or any current being drawn from them. Then measure their voltage. If they all read within a .10 volt or so of each other, you are safe to connect them in parallel. The problem arises when you connect a good battery to one that is not as good, the poor one will draw down the good one when they are not being charged.

flogger · 12-30-2015, 03:38 AM

I have a 2016 Thor Axis - When we first got our motor coach, with an adaptor we connected to the house power (110v) and it drained the battery. Being newbies, we didn't know about the emergency start switch on the dash. This happened a couple more times so I'm figuring it has something to do with the 110v. We took our first cross country trip in and are connected to a 30 amp shore power but the battery under the hood still lost its charge and the emergency start switch didn't work. In fact only the cab lights and generator switches work - the night shade and emergency switch do not. This forum has been helpful with issues in the past - just wondering if anyone has any suggestion?? Someone at the park we are staying at suggested it's the inverter?
Flogger

Metalman · 12-30-2015, 04:02 AM

I can't tell you what is wrong with your electrical system. However, if I had a problem with the engine battery losing charge when on shore power, I'd put a battery disconnect switch on it until I found the problem. I used to carry a small battery charger in the RV in case I had a problem with the automatic switches and isolators, so I could charge either the coach or the engine batteries from shore power or the generator.

You must have a warranty for your 2016 coach. If you bring it to a dealer for repair, let us know what caused the problem.

junior30 · 12-30-2015, 04:14 AM

I am completely frustrated with my rv. After switching to one battery that battery started boiling over. I now cannot retract my levelers or start my generator due to low voltage.

I also bought a new battery and installed it in the house and still got the low voltage. I checked the breaker in the battery area and it's not tripped.

I had a tripped planned for Thursday and cannot go now. I am quickly coming to hate this rv. I have never bought something and had continuous issues. I will be bringing it in to my dealer but he's 2 hours away so that presents its own issues.

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