2014 Thor Miramar New Chassis Battery lost charge after 3 weeks of sitting

Swampi28

Member
Joined
May 31, 2012
Posts
28
Location
Athens, AL
I replaced my chassis battery 1 month ago right before a camping trip. We camped for a week and had no issue starting when it was time to leave. After we returned, I parked it and hooked it up to my shore power at my house. We went out to it last night to get ready for a camping trip this weekend and the chassis battery is dead. What would cause it to loose charge in 3 weeks? I do have a Store/Use switch. I did not place the RV in store mode when I parked it. Didn't think it would loose charge in 3 weeks.
 
You have two issues:

The chassis battery has a parasitic drain - you need to figure out what the drain is. For us, one time, it was a Blink camera left plugged into an always on chassis power port.

The converter is not charging the chassis battery. It won't do that unless you are in USE so you had that right. But your Battery Control Center (BCC) was not connecting the chassis battery to the house battery bank to keep it charged.
 
I always turn off my Chassis battery disconnect if not plugged in and inverter/charger on. Otherwise my batteries drain as well.
 
A local RV dealership that doesn’t work on thor motorhomes.
How do you know when someone at a dealer is lying/clueless?

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Your salesman switch (use/store switch or master power switch) disconnects the house batteries from NEARLY everything electrical in the coach including the coach's charger and the coach's alternator. IThe switch is there to remove the power to an inventively light left on in a lower compartment, the slide's controller using power to lock the slides in position, etc. Some coaches may be misfired.
The chassis battery has considerable battery drain for both radios to keep the memory alive. Same for the engine's and the transmission's computers memory. Disconnecting the chassis battery for more than 20 to 30 minutes will automatically erase all "learned things" in the computers and return the radios and ECU's to their original factory programing. To keep all batteries chaged, you must have 120 volt power to the coach, or individual powered chargers in the coach or remove the batteries and store then on a dry, heated enclosure and use a trickle charger if the coach is to be in long term storage. It is not a car. What works with your car is usually not applicaple to a motor coach. You a supposed to run the generator for an hour under load every 30 days to remove mosture fron the stator and rotor in the generator. Even that should keep the batteries reasonaly well charged.
 
You can check if shore power is trickle charging your chassis battery as well as house battery. Use a voltmeter and check the chassis battery without being plugged in, no generator no engine, The plug in to shore power and check the voltage again.
 
I have a similar problem... but not any more. I in installed an isolation switch (battery kill switch) mounted just inside the front grill (RV is a gasser) and in the negative lead of the chassis battery as that was easier than the positive lead.
RV last driven in February. Engaged switch and started with a full charge. Drove to RV repair shop yesterday with no issues.
Parts cost was about $10 for the switch, $12 for one new cable, $2 for the screws and I made the bracket... priceless.
 

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