On road now. House battery problem

[Glamper1]

It's Sunday.
Had fridge on all night without shore power.
Used water pump too.
Woke up, rear battery zero reading. (No reading)
Driving one hour so far hasn't helped.
Generator won't turn over.
Is the house battery dead with no on the road solution or is there any way to charge it using
Chassis battery.
To make matters worse, front dash beeping. I think I need to reset awning but no power to do so.
Any and all comments appreciated. I wish check back after I complete at least another 30 miles towards destination.

Thank you.

Ben

[Ron_CA]

Any idea what your house battery charge level was yesterday afternoon/evening? You should easily be able to have your fridge on and use other electric overnight without going to zero.

Unless your house batteries are toast driving your van will help to recharge.

[Rich W]

I don't have a Sprinter and I'm sure Protagonist will know what the issue might be. It sounds like the house battery charger isn't working. You may not have noticed when you stopped for the night but the battery may have already been discharged and the fridge took it down more.

As you drive the AS's charger should be supplying the necessary voltage to charge it and run the fridge. That's what makes me think your charger is not working properly to recharge it.

If the battery is down to zero, I don't think you can get it to take a charge, but even if you can, the battery's life has been affected.

[Protagonist]

The awning is powered from the chassis battery, and will not extend when the engine is running, same as the sliding side step. So if you shut off the engine, you should be able to reset the awning. Or the step. Both use the same alarm if they're not fully retracted so it could be either one.

However, the beeping you hear might be the smoke/CO alarm instead. If house batteries are low, and you have a unit that's wired into the house system, you'll get a "low battery" warning beep despite there being an internal battery as well.

Generator starts from house batteries and will not start if batteries are too low.
Solar panel charge controller is powered by house batteries, not by the panel, so if the batteries go too low, the charge controller doesn't work and so the solar panel will not charge dead batteries.
BIM is supposed to connect house and chassis systems for charging as long as some source of charging power is available, including the engine alternator. Problem is, the BIM relay is powered by the house batteries, so if the house batteries are dead, your BIM defaults to the open (disconnected) position and keeps the batteries disconnected even while the engine is running.
At this point, the only way to charge your house batteries is to connect to shore power.
Once the batteries have been recharged, the BIM should start working again.

[Glamper1]

Thank you Ron. Rich, and
ProTag.
Beep gone
Pulled off road
Plugged into an RV park along the road.
Hopefully in 15 min to an hour the BIM will take it from there so I can continue down the road.
I appreciate all of you.

Ben

[Glamper1]

Generator makes the starting noise but I guess the propane won't feed it til the charge goes up.
When I went outside to flip the propane switch, I didn't hear the normal noise it makes when it turns on

[Glamper1]

It worked
Back on the road.
Bless you guys!

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Glamper1

It worked
Back on the road.
Bless you guys!

I suddenly feel an urge to sneeze…

[Lily&Me]

i always turn the ignition on to start the generator....the generator seems to pull a lot of power and really struggles unless the engine is on...then, it starts right up.


Maggie

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

i always turn the ignition on to start the generator....the generator seems to pull a lot of power and really struggles unless the engine is on...then, it starts right up.

Which only works if the BIM has power (i.e. the house batteries aren't completely dead). That wouldn't have helped Glamper1 because there wasn't even enough power in the house system for the BIM to close the circuit between the house and chassis systems.

In a newer Interstate, there is a "boost" switch on the dashboard so you can force a connection between the house and chassis systems even if the BIM doesn't. Normally it's used to jump-start the engine from the house batteries if the chassis battery goes dead, but it can be used in reverse to jump-start the generator if the house batteries are dead as well. But if memory serves Glamper1's Interstate isn't new enough to have that feature, which is why I didn't mention it sooner. For those that have it, it takes two people, because someone has to manually press the "boost" switch while someone else manually presses the generator's "start" button (if the propane solenoid has been switched on first, the "boost" switch should provide enough power to open the solenoid, too, and once the generator is running the generator will power the solenoid).

[Lily&Me]

Ok...I know little about these things....just what works.


Maggie

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

Ok...I know little about these things....just what works.

Well, I used to be an engineer, so analyzing things to death is stock in trade for me. I don't mean it as criticism of you by any means.

And in fact you're the one who first told me about having an easier time starting the generator with the engine running several moons ago here on the Forums, which prompted me to look into it further. So thanks for that.

[Lily&Me]

We all are really here to share what we know, and learn from each other.


Maggie

[Glamper1]

Well it worked til I got back on road.
Miles later, nothing.
Coincidently, I'm in Oregon tonight near the Airstream dealer and service center 6-8 blocks away)
Camping on the river.
So if I killed a battery, I might be able to replace it.
I'm now hooked up to shore power so we'll see what a nights worth of juice does.
Thank you
Ben

[73shark]

Have them check the BIM.