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billstrong · 12-29-2020, 07:20 PM

I have posted about my new 2021 Interstate 19 having a bad chassis battery on delivery. It will not hold a charge and loses voltage driving down the road. I am still trying to get that replaced.

Now after sitting for two days my house electrical is totally dead. Two days ago the house battery voltage read 13.2 after driving 150 miles. Today there is no sign of voltage. Plugging into shore power lights the inverter control backlight but the inverter controls are unresponsive. No other backlight works including multiplex, heater, solar control or power management panel. Manually rotating the disconnect switch makes no difference. There was nothing left on in the van. The inverter was off. I understand that the Battle Born batteries can shut down if over discharged. The ambient oudoor temperature was 70 degrees today.

I have alredy been back to the Airstream dealer for a plumbing leak behind the oudoor shower and I have been to the Mercedes dealer twice over the chassis battery and still don’t have a new one. About 600 miles of driving so far for these issues.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the dead house battery system.

Thanks

**Rocinante** · 12-29-2020, 07:28 PM

Take it back to the dealer and leave it there until they diagnose and fix it. Under warranty.

billstrong · 12-29-2020, 07:46 PM

I opened the power center door and got an overheated/burned insulated wire smell in my face. None of the 120 breakers are tripped and none of the 12 V fuses are obviuosly blown. I disconnected shore power and rotated the disconnect switch to the manual off position. Looks like another trip to the airstream dealer 65 miles away.

Thanks for the suggestion

**Rocinante** · 12-30-2020, 07:04 AM

I wish I had a better suggestion, but your issues make it sound like you have a seriously mis-wired coach that's going to require significant warranty work. I would love to be wrong on this, BTW.

Wazbro · 12-30-2020, 11:12 AM

I believe others have posted that some Interstate motor homes wont let any 120 volt power through if the house batteries are dead.

AirstreamInc · 12-30-2020, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billstrong

I have posted about my new 2021 Interstate 19 having a bad chassis battery on delivery. It will not hold a charge and loses voltage driving down the road. I am still trying to get that replaced.

Now after sitting for two days my house electrical is totally dead. Two days ago the house battery voltage read 13.2 after driving 150 miles. Today there is no sign of voltage. Plugging into shore power lights the inverter control backlight but the inverter controls are unresponsive. No other backlight works including multiplex, heater, solar control or power management panel. Manually rotating the disconnect switch makes no difference. There was nothing left on in the van. The inverter was off. I understand that the Battle Born batteries can shut down if over discharged. The ambient oudoor temperature was 70 degrees today.

I have alredy been back to the Airstream dealer for a plumbing leak behind the oudoor shower and I have been to the Mercedes dealer twice over the chassis battery and still don’t have a new one. About 600 miles of driving so far for these issues.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the dead house battery system.

Thanks

Hi billstrong,*
My name is Carly and I work with Airstream.*We are sorry to hear about the issues that you are having. Please send us a message*with your contact information, email and the last 6 numbers of your VIN so that we can learn more and share it with Customer Service and Technical Support. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.*

Glando · 12-30-2020, 08:09 PM

Billstrong thanks for posting your message. I'm experiencing the exact same issues with an Interstate 24GT 2021. Drove about 1000 miles into cold weather and never got a charge on the house batteries from the engine. Ran the generator to restore charge twice on the drive but fumbled the AGS settings and now have a completely dead house battery. Nothing seems to work. Please post again when you learn more from Airstream. I'm hopeful there is an issue with the battery management system that can be worked around.

billstrong · 12-30-2020, 08:43 PM

I messaged Airstream as requested. On this Saturday I am to leave the van at the dealership with my salesman who will give it to the service department on Monday. So far I have been very pleased with the Airstream Dealer service department response and work. The service manager said they would just have to look at it. I am still waiting on the Mercedes dealer to get their battery shipment in. This dealer has a separate entity for the Sprinters with two Sprinter specialist mechanics. Seems they should be able to get batteries. Maybe Amazon has all of them.

**Rocinante** · 12-31-2020, 10:12 AM

Best wishes for a quick and easy resolution, though I've no idea why you have to go to an MB dealer to get your chassis battery replaced when it sounds like the mis-wiring that Airstream built into your van may have caused every symptom you've seen. Your dealer should handle that for you, too.

billstrong · 12-31-2020, 01:11 PM

Thanks. That the van may be killing the chassis battery has occurred to me. The Mercedes dealer has the chassis battery now. I’m hesitant to get it replaced until the van house battery issue is resolved.

billstrong · 01-02-2021, 09:36 PM

I decided to take the van for a spin yesterday.

Before leaving I checked the house batteries with the house 12 volt disconnect on and off and with the van plugged into and not plugged into shore power. No 12 volt entity lit up or worked. I turned the disconnect switch off and then drove the van about 30 miles on the highway.

When I got back from the drive I noticed that the red LED on the TV was on. I checked the inverter and it was on and inverting - showing 0 amps output and a house battery voltage of 12.9. I turned on the battery disconnect switch. The multiplex panel, the Victron charge controller and the power management panel became illuminated and started functioning. The Victron solar charge controller showed the house batteries at 12.9 volts. I then plugged the van into my 30 amp shore power outlet and the inverter/charger started bulk charging at 24 amps at 13.1 volts. Two hours later the inverter/charger was bulk charging at 24 amps at 13.3 volts. Eight hours later it showed float charging at 0.0 amps at 13.6 volts. It must have gone through a short absorb phase in the 14+ volt range.

The Battle Born batteries go into a low-voltage disconnect mode at 10 volts and won’t allow further discharge (Does this mean a reading of zero volts across the terminals?).They will accept a charge at that point but many chargers won’t start charging below a certain voltage. The Magnum inverter/charger faults at 9 volts and clears the fault automatically at 12.6 volts.

The only way to revive dead house batteries is to charge them with the chassis engine alternator through the DC/DC battery separator which is not inhibited by low voltage.

I still don’t know what I did to deplete the house batteries. The breaker panel still has a faint smell of heated electrical. Everything works as it should. Until proven otherwise I am assuming owner fault mode for this issue and will just use the van until another owner fault needs clearing.

jhayesas · 01-03-2021, 03:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billstrong

I decided to take the van for a spin yesterday.

Before leaving I checked the house batteries with the house 12 volt disconnect on and off and with the van plugged into and not plugged into shore power. No 12 volt entity lit up or worked. I turned the disconnect switch off and then drove the van about 30 miles on the highway.

When I got back from the drive I noticed that the red LED on the TV was on. I checked the inverter and it was on and inverting - showing 0 amps output and a house battery voltage of 12.9. I turned on the battery disconnect switch. The multiplex panel, the Victron charge controller and the power management panel became illuminated and started functioning. The Victron solar charge controller showed the house batteries at 12.9 volts. I then plugged the van into my 30 amp shore power outlet and the inverter/charger started bulk charging at 24 amps at 13.1 volts. Two hours later the inverter/charger was bulk charging at 24 amps at 13.3 volts. Eight hours later it showed float charging at 0.0 amps at 13.6 volts. It must have gone through a short absorb phase in the 14+ volt range.

The Battle Born batteries go into a low-voltage disconnect mode at 10 volts and won’t allow further discharge (Does this mean a reading of zero volts across the terminals?).They will accept a charge at that point but many chargers won’t start charging below a certain voltage. The Magnum inverter/charger faults at 9 volts and clears the fault automatically at 12.6 volts.

The only way to revive dead house batteries is to charge them with the chassis engine alternator through the DC/DC battery separator which is not inhibited by low voltage.

I still don’t know what I did to deplete the house batteries. The breaker panel still has a faint smell of heated electrical. Everything works as it should. Until proven otherwise I am assuming owner fault mode for this issue and will just use the van until another owner fault needs clearing.

Can you confirm that the BB heated battery switch is turned off? If left on, the heating elements can deplete your batteries when activated due to reaching the low temperature threshold. If activated it wont show amps being used via the inverter because the power is being drawn directly from the batteries and doesn’t go throw the inverter/charger. Also, the main disconnect doesn’t play a role in the BB heating elements operations.

billstrong · 01-03-2021, 04:54 AM

Thanks. I did have the heater switch on for a couple nights but the temperature got only into the lower 40’s. The heaters are supposed to activate at 35 degrees and deactivate at 45 degrees. But that could be the explanation.

Wazbro · 01-03-2021, 08:43 AM

The inverter draws about 1 amp when on and not supplying any power. Could draw an additional 1 amp for vampire loads, TV while off, lights on microwave, ect...

**Rocinante** · 01-03-2021, 06:26 PM

Yep, always turn the inverter off unless and until you actually need AC power in the van. When the need for AC power has passed, turn the inverter off again. When left on, the inverter's seek process while its sits there awaiting AC power demand draws enough power to really add up over time.

SWH · 01-03-2021, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billstrong

Thanks. I did have the heater switch on for a couple nights but the temperature got only into the lower 40’s. The heaters are supposed to activate at 35 degrees and deactivate at 45 degrees. But that could be the explanation.

Per the 2021 owners manual: “Built-in sensors will activate the heat pads when the contents of the tanks drop to 44°F. Once the liquid is heated and rises to 64°F the heat pads will automatically deactivate.”

rowiebowie · 01-04-2021, 07:50 AM

Sad to hear AS couldn't do a simple lithium battery upgrade correctly.

Just to show how simple it is, I did my own upgrade to my '2012 Avenue and I know just enough about electricity to be safe and not a whole lot more.

billstrong · 01-04-2021, 09:05 PM

I was thinking the switch was for the battery heaters.

Tireman9 · 01-06-2021, 10:01 AM

Have you filed a safety complaint with NHTSA?

Have you filed a complaint with BBB on the failure of the dealer to promptly fix the safety problem?

Dougsbrew · 01-06-2021, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billstrong

I have posted about my new 2021 Interstate 19 having a bad chassis battery on delivery. It will not hold a charge and loses voltage driving down the road. I am still trying to get that replaced.

Now after sitting for two days my house electrical is totally dead. Two days ago the house battery voltage read 13.2 after driving 150 miles. Today there is no sign of voltage. Plugging into shore power lights the inverter control backlight but the inverter controls are unresponsive. No other backlight works including multiplex, heater, solar control or power management panel. Manually rotating the disconnect switch makes no difference. There was nothing left on in the van. The inverter was off. I understand that the Battle Born batteries can shut down if over discharged. The ambient oudoor temperature was 70 degrees today.

I have alredy been back to the Airstream dealer for a plumbing leak behind the oudoor shower and I have been to the Mercedes dealer twice over the chassis battery and still don’t have a new one. About 600 miles of driving so far for these issues.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the dead house battery system.

Thanks

Look up Darren Sachs on the Airstream Interstate Nineteen Group and he’s been working on this same issue for a couple weeks and has the problem solved. Several new owners describing the same problem and has notified Airstream Factory and they are aware.