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Old 05-29-2020, 11:58 PM   #1
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2018 Forest River Georgetown GT3 won’t start

Our gt3 was working fine However since yesterday it won’t start. When I turn the key the dash lights come on, radio however it won’t start. It only clicks. Nothing was left on on the RV and it’s been connected to house for charge. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
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Old 05-30-2020, 08:16 AM   #2
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Did you try the emergency (AUX) start from coach batteries?
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Old 05-30-2020, 09:16 AM   #3
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Our chassis (and house) batteries will not charge when plugged into shore power unless he house battery switch is actually turned on. Everything inside works but the batteries do not charge. You might want to check to assure the switch is turned on. If not, turn it on and give it an hour or so to put a charge on the batteries before trying again.

As Bubbles noted, that switch on ours is a spring-loaded rocker on the driver's left labeled Battery Boost. You need to hold it, wait ten or fifteen seconds, and while holding it attempt to start the engine. It allows you to use the house batteries to start the engine.

Ray
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Old 05-30-2020, 09:55 AM   #4
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The others have covered off how to jump start your rig with your own house batteries, however......

Did you have the house battery switch ON or OFF?
Did you leave anything turned ON? Headlights? Radio? Key in ACC or ON.
Do you have a digital meter and know how to use it?
Voltage readings of engine and house batteries before trying?
Voltage readings after plugging in?
Voltage readings if/when the engine is running?
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Old 05-30-2020, 03:11 PM   #5
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Other have explained using house batteries to get it started. As for not starting:
Dead cell in the battery; corrosion on a terminal or the cable itself;loose battery connection; low battery fluid levels if it has caps on the top; parasitic draw that drains the battery even though the ignition is off; it has sat for a long period without being charged. The ignition system is getting minimal power, but it takes a good amount of amperage to engage the starter. Starting problems can go deeper than that, but your RV is pretty new.

If it starts on the house batteries, the dash amp gauge should go above half way. Let it run for a half hour, shut it off and see if it will restart. If it does, running the motor will charge the battery or use a charger to bring it up to a full charge. It would be wise to have the chassis battery tested and check the cable connections.
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Old 05-30-2020, 11:19 PM   #6
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Quote:
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Did you try the emergency (AUX) start from coach batteries?
Yes but no luck with the battery boost.
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Old 05-30-2020, 11:22 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by kenandterry View Post
The others have covered off how to jump start your rig with your own house batteries, however......

Did you have the house battery switch ON or OFF?
Did you leave anything turned ON? Headlights? Radio? Key in ACC or ON.
Do you have a digital meter and know how to use it?
Voltage readings of engine and house batteries before trying?
Voltage readings after plugging in?
Voltage readings if/when the engine is running?
House battery was switched on at time of attempting to start.
We checked everything was off.
The readings for engine and house batteries showed house battery 1/3 and engine full. After charging the house battery back to full still wouldn’t turn on.

After everything said and done it did start back up after turning in the generator.

The RV has never done this before but happy it started now after generator turned on.
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Old 05-30-2020, 11:26 PM   #8
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Other have explained using house batteries to get it started. As for not starting:
Dead cell in the battery; corrosion on a terminal or the cable itself;loose battery connection; low battery fluid levels if it has caps on the top; parasitic draw that drains the battery even though the ignition is off; it has sat for a long period without being charged. The ignition system is getting minimal power, but it takes a good amount of amperage to engage the starter. Starting problems can go deeper than that, but your RV is pretty new.

If it starts on the house batteries, the dash amp gauge should go above half way. Let it run for a half hour, shut it off and see if it will restart. If it does, running the motor will charge the battery or use a charger to bring it up to a full charge. It would be wise to have the chassis battery tested and check the cable connections.
We checked for corrosion, fluid levels and battery connections and everything looked good. We managed to start it after turning in the generator. Any suggestions or thoughts on why it started after the generator was turned on? Thank you for the help.
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Old 05-30-2020, 11:36 PM   #9
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Our chassis (and house) batteries will not charge when plugged into shore power unless he house battery switch is actually turned on. Everything inside works but the batteries do not charge. You might want to check to assure the switch is turned on. If not, turn it on and give it an hour or so to put a charge on the batteries before trying again.

As Bubbles noted, that switch on ours is a spring-loaded rocker on the driver's left labeled Battery Boost. You need to hold it, wait ten or fifteen seconds, and while holding it attempt to start the engine. It allows you to use the house batteries to start the engine.

Ray
Thank you I will try this next time.

Sorry quick question do you tow a vehicle with your RV? We want to tow our Jeep but want to know how difficult it is to set up base plates, tow bar, wiring, braking system? Thank you for the help
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Old 05-31-2020, 04:22 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mayrag View Post
House battery was switched on at time of attempting to start.
We checked everything was off.
The readings for engine and house batteries showed house battery 1/3 and engine full. After charging the house battery back to full still wouldn’t turn on.

After everything said and done it did start back up after turning in the generator.

The RV has never done this before but happy it started now after generator turned on.
The generator or house battery would have nothing to do with the engine starting unless you were holding down the emergency start switch. Was that that the case? If not, there is still something wrong and starting with the generator running was just coincidence. "Something wrong" could something with the emergency start switch . . possibly bleeding through to the house 12-volt.
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Old 05-31-2020, 07:01 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mayrag View Post
House battery was switched on at time of attempting to start.
We checked everything was off.
The readings for engine and house batteries showed house battery 1/3 and engine full. After charging the house battery back to full still wouldn’t turn on.

After everything said and done it did start back up after turning in the generator.

The RV has never done this before but happy it started now after generator turned on.
Your readings of “showed house battery 1/3 and engine full” are not from a digital meter, so I’m not sure where you’re getting these readings from.

“After charging the house battery back to full still wouldn’t turn on”
How did you charge this battery, and what instrument tells you it’s back to full?

Starting the generator gets its power from the house battery, but unless you hold the “battery boost” button, that battery does not start the engine.

There’s still something missing here.
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Old 05-31-2020, 08:03 AM   #12
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The gen would have provided charging to the coach batteries and also the chassis battery but shore power would also do this. The OP said he charged the coach batteries but didn't say how. If via shore power the scenario would be the same as the gen providing the start. The emergency start energizes the same interconnect relay as does the gen/shore/engine alternator cross charging capability. If the 2018 GT3 has the newer battery control center I think it functions the same as its predecessor.
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Old 05-31-2020, 10:10 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbles View Post
The gen would have provided charging to the coach batteries and also the chassis battery but shore power would also do this. The OP said he charged the coach batteries but didn't say how. If via shore power the scenario would be the same as the gen providing the start. The emergency start energizes the same interconnect relay as does the gen/shore/engine alternator cross charging capability. If the 2018 GT3 has the newer battery control center I think it functions the same as its predecessor.
I agree. Once the house batteries were charged up, the generator would start, and then the generator powered the converter, which continued charging the batteries.

Without an actual voltmeter being used there's no way to know what the chassis battery true state was.

My suspicion is that since the shore power was plugged in and everything worked, the actual house battery switch was not turned on so the batteries were not charging so the batteries slowly got sucked down. I suspect that because that happened to me multiple times. You'll find a couple of posts here from me about this.

Then I figured out that the yellow light on the spring-loaded three-position house battery switch does not tell you that the switch is turned on; it lights whenever the converter is powered OR the house battery switch is turned on. Another wiring WTH?; an indicator light built into a switch that does not indicate the position of the switch. <sigh>


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Old 05-31-2020, 10:19 AM   #14
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Sorry quick question do you tow a vehicle with your RV? We want to tow our Jeep but want to know how difficult it is to set up base plates, tow bar, wiring, braking system? Thank you for the help
I use a dolly and we will be buying a Jeep Wrangler this summer because the dolly is a royal PITA in multiple ways. So I've been doing a lot of reading over here: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f85/

Depending on which variant we end up with, I'm thinking that adding a RockHard bumper or the fifth thing down on this page instead of a baseplate will work better for us: https://www.rubitrux.com/maximus-3-p2.html

Thread about the RockHard: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f85/wran...er-447339.html

This thread on their Entegra forum is also very timely and discusses the accessory Mopar towing harness for the Jeep: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/new...ed-489652.html

I'd love to get a used Rubicon but I'm concerned the weight will be too close to the 5,000 lb hitch rating for my comfort level. I do have enough "GCWR minus scale weight" margin to do it, though.

Ray
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Old 05-31-2020, 08:26 PM   #15
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Our gt3 was working fine However since yesterday it won’t start. When I turn the key the dash lights come on, radio however it won’t start. It only clicks. Nothing was left on on the RV and it’s been connected to house for charge. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks


I had same problem, had ford install brand new battery under warranty, drained again, so I purchased a trik L start and solved issue
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