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Old 09-29-2014, 12:05 AM   #1
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Chassis Battery Cutoff

We have a new solera 24s. We stored it for 4 weeks and the house and chassis batteries are dead. I used the shutoff for the house but did not use the one for the chassis under the dash near the gas pedal. Short of a tow truck, i cant find any way to jump-start the coach. Here are my 2 questions: 1) does the under the dash battery cut off work well and how long will chassis battery last if this is used and 2) is there any way, short of a tow truck, to jump-start the coach. Thanks
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Old 09-29-2014, 12:41 AM   #2
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I could be completely wrong, but I would think the under dash cut off simply isolates the chassis battery from the house... but is still active for normal driving conditions. So when you shut off the house batteries, the parasitic draw of the coach was eating away at your chassis battery.

Is there some reason why you can't just jump start it from another vehicle? As another thought... if your house batteries have been on disconnect, they may still have some charge to them.
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Old 09-29-2014, 12:48 AM   #3
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The charge from my 2012 sequoia is not strong enough to supply the cold cranking amps. It took the tow truck 20 minutes of sitting connected to the coach to get it started. He said this is not uncommon for the sprinters.
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Old 09-29-2014, 01:04 AM   #4
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Glad you got up and running. That's a lot of juice!! In situations like that it's probably a good idea to have the under dash cutoff engaged (off) as well so you're not loosing any charge back into the house.

Have fun!!
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Old 09-29-2014, 06:26 AM   #5
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From the MB operators manual page 136:

Battery isolating switch
Important safety notes!
Make sure that the key is in position 0 in
the ignition lock and wait at least 20 seconds
before disconnecting or connecting
the battery isolating switch. You could otherwise
damage electrical system components.
You can use the battery isolating switch to
disconnect the power supply to all your vehicle's
consumers. This will prevent uncontrolled
battery discharge caused by off-load current
consumption.
If your vehicle is equipped with an auxiliary
battery in the engine compartment, you will
need to disconnect both batteries. Only then
is the electrical system fully disconnected
from the power supply. Only switch the vehicle to de-energized
using the battery main switch if:
the vehicle is stationary for a lengthy
periodit is absolutely necessary
After the power supply has been activated,
you will need to reset the side windows
(Y page 79).
Switching off the power supply. When you clamp the connector under the
accelerator pedal, make sure that the connector
does not become damaged or dirty.
It may otherwise not be possible to restore
the electrical connection when the parts
are reassembled.
Battery isolating switch in the driver's footwell, on
the right-hand side next to the accelerator pedal
X Remove the key from the ignition lock and
wait for about 20 seconds.
X Press and hold button ; and unplug connector
: in the direction of the arrow from
the earth pin.
X Clamp connector : under the accelerator
pedal so that it cannot make contact with
the earth pin.
All starter battery consumers are disconnected
from the power supply.
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Old 09-29-2014, 08:16 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beaveratc View Post
We have a new solera 24s. We stored it for 4 weeks and the house and chassis batteries are dead. I used the shutoff for the house but did not use the one for the chassis under the dash near the gas pedal. Short of a tow truck, i cant find any way to jump-start the coach. Here are my 2 questions: 1) does the under the dash battery cut off work well and how long will chassis battery last if this is used and 2) is there any way, short of a tow truck, to jump-start the coach. Thanks
The aux positive connection for the bat is under the hood. Find a suitable ground and you should be able to jump the sprinter.
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Old 09-29-2014, 03:11 PM   #7
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Doesn't shore power charge the chassis battery?


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Old 09-29-2014, 03:21 PM   #8
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Yes, but if your not on shore pwr, they all can go dead due to parasite draw.
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Old 09-29-2014, 03:25 PM   #9
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I have it at home now but didn't realize the shore power charged the house and the chassis
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Old 09-29-2014, 03:30 PM   #10
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I only found out about that recently, but it does. Verified through my Scan Gauge II. The Scan Gauge shows the increased charging voltage when the converter starts charging.
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Old 09-29-2014, 03:39 PM   #11
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I stored my 2012 24S from October to April with the chassis battery disconnect removed. When I reconnected it started right up.

I also installed a secondary disconnect between the battery and ground for storage use. There are parasitic loads (CO/LP detector is one) when the house disconnect is off. When this is disconnected there is no way to drain the house batteries since there is no ground path back to the batteries.

Maybe bclemens can confirm but I didn't think MB allowed interconnects between the chassis and house batteries. The alternator does charge the house batteries when the engine is running but I'm not sure what would happen if you were connected to shore power and the engine was running.
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Old 09-30-2014, 10:46 AM   #12
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Correct...its my understanding that we can't feed back into the Mercedes system. So no emergency start switch because that connects all the batteries together which they says is not allowed.

I'll double check that with engineering.
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Old 09-30-2014, 01:20 PM   #13
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Engineering confirmed no emergency start switch. However the battery isolation manager does charge the Sprinter chassis battery. So the generator and shore power would handle that if plugged in. Disconnect would need to be in the ON position for most models. We started wiring that charge line directly to the batteries earlier this year.
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Old 09-30-2014, 02:41 PM   #14
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Chassis Battery Discharge

Quote:
Originally Posted by beaveratc View Post
We have a new solera 24s. We stored it for 4 weeks and the house and chassis batteries are dead. I used the shutoff for the house but did not use the one for the chassis under the dash near the gas pedal. Short of a tow truck, i cant find any way to jump-start the coach. Here are my 2 questions: 1) does the under the dash battery cut off work well and how long will chassis battery last if this is used and 2) is there any way, short of a tow truck, to jump-start the coach. Thanks

Not sure what is going on, but on my 2012 Solera "S" I have regularly left the motorhome for well over a month (more like 2+ months) without turning off the chassis battery disconnect and did not experience a battery discharge problem. I do turn off the house disconnect switch in the stair well. The house batteries have also not discharged significantly over the same period. The house battery disconnect switch on my unit disconnects the LP/CO detector.

Our 2012 has the Lippert "flush floor" slide; don't know if FR has changed that for the newer "S" models. I understand the Schwintech (sp?) slides have a "brain" which does draw some current while the disconnect switch is off. I also understand the new units have a different radio - no idea if that adds to the parasitic draw. I have not experienced significant parasitic draw from either the original Magnadyne radio or the Kenwood I replaced it with. There may be other changes since my unit that add parasitics when the house disconnect is turned "off".

If, as you state, your chassis battery is discharging in a month, I suspect a problem - e.g. under hood light staying on? Courtesy light staying on? With respect to the house batteries discharging so quickly with the disconnect turned off, I would suggest measuring the draw (with the disconnect switch turned off) and try to isolate the source. What you experienced sounds like excessive drain somewhere.
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Old 09-30-2014, 05:32 PM   #15
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Another thought on the chassis battery discharge - our 2012 Solera has two twelve volt (cigarette lighter type) outlets in the cab/dash area - one in the "ash tray" and one below that. The one in the ash tray is turned off by the ignition, however the lower one is not. If you have anything plugged into the lower "cigarette lighter" adapter, it may be a source of a parasitic which could drain your chassis battery. A phone or iPad charger - even with the device disconnected - may have some current draw. Even a 100ma draw over a four week period would consume about 70 amp-hours!
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Old 10-01-2014, 08:22 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JLeising View Post
Another thought on the chassis battery discharge - our 2012 Solera has two twelve volt (cigarette lighter type) outlets in the cab/dash area - one in the "ash tray" and one below that. The one in the ash tray is turned off by the ignition, however the lower one is not. If you have anything plugged into the lower "cigarette lighter" adapter, it may be a source of a parasitic which could drain your chassis battery. A phone or iPad charger - even with the device disconnected - may have some current draw. Even a 100ma draw over a four week period would consume about 70 amp-hours!
Thanks for you input-The lower "cigarette lighter" adapter looks like a good place to plug in a Solar Panel to get some juice back into your Solera battery while in storage, etc.
Respectfully,
CaptDan
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Old 10-01-2014, 10:29 AM   #17
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Just as a secondary thought...if you want to be SURE there is no parasitic drain...simply mount one of these on your negative battery terminal. About $5-7 bucks.


Of course...you have to remember to turn it on for charging and starting!
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