Thor Forums

[Mangler]

Hi all, big user of forums, low volume poster. A sincere thanks to all who provide info to this valuable resource.

I have a 2014 Palazzo 35.1 with 4x6volt house batts, and 2x12volt chassis batteries. I live in Canada and park the rig most of the winter. Because there are 6 batteries and they are not on a pullout tray, I don’t want to pull the batteries when parked for the winter, so I have been visiting the coach every second week to run the generator and charge them up. Couple questions...

1. The house batteries are new this year, 220 amp hours @ 6volts each (total 440 @ 12volts) and batts go down to 12.1v from 12.7 in two weeks... so about 50%. This is with USE switch and master power switch turned off. Is this normal? What would be drawing that much power? By my calcs, that is about 15 amp hours per day of loss. (Not counting loss on the chassis batts)

2. After I run the generator, the step works even with the switches off, but when I return to the coach 2 weeks later, it doesn’t come out until I either fire up the generator or hit the boost switch. Where does the step get power? (House or chassis)? Does this imply my chassis batts are dead after two weeks? The dealer was supposed to have tested them when I bought this summer, but may have only tested the house batts.

3. I have now (just yesterday) installed a 100 watt solar panel which gets some sun, but fairly low sun due to my location. In one day it charged the batts from 12.3 to 12.6 volts, so I know it works, but I am wondering what level of power (amps or volts) is needed to activate the bird (bidirectional relay) so the chassis batts get charged too. Anyone know?

Thanks in advance for any help!
Mark