Electric System Mystery
We've got a little mystery on our hands. We've been working on our first rig for a month or so now. It's a 1981 28' Excella Motorhome which -when we're not working - we have been getting ready for a real road/camping test. So far, we've just taken it 30 miles here or there.
We recently noticed that the (still relatively new) house batteries aren't powering much of anything when we're not running the gen or plugged into shore power. All the lights dim, fans slow, stuff fails. etc.
This after a full night of charging, too.
Additionally. The control system panel, when only on house batteries, shows tanks being 'much less full' than they were only moments earlier (when shored) - in addition to the expected 'lower battery' indication.
The previous owner installed two solar panels, which are meant to trickle charge the house batteries via a Pro-Star 15.
Another perplexing thing, is that the after-market jacks that the previous owner added, are weak when we try to put them down. The engine usually has to be running to make them work (which they normally do), but this today, they were sluggish, until we plugged into shore *and* had the engine running. Weird?
We've also installed a BatteryMinder for charging the chassy battery recently, (not too long before we noticed these problems). Just for being awesome-sake.
When shored, the ProStar shows the solar charge (btwn 3&7), then the battery/shore charge (12.3), and the load (lud) (which has nothing plugged into it).
Any idea what is causing all of this? Or what we might want to troubleshoot? We have a feeling it's something simple, that we've dumbly overlooked.
Very open to suggestions. Thanks :)
-Warren & Rachel
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