House battery power problem

[Hunter1967]

Hello
I have a question on why my 2014 sunseeker . When I’m not hooked up to shore power my voltage is around 12.6 during the day i have full power to my usual appliances. At night i turn off everything and my voltage sits around 12.7 . But when i wake up in the morning my voltage is 12.7 but I have no power . I turn on my vehicle and after a few minutes my voltage jumps to 14.4 and i full power again . Has anyone had this problem and knows how to fix ? Thanks again for any info ! This is a great forum for us Newbies !

[bubbles]

What does "turn everything off" and "turn on my vehicle" mean?

[Hunter1967]

I turn off all the lights . So i guess the fridge is the only power left on Gas . In the morning the voltage says 12.7 and nothing will turn on . I turn on the motorhome and it starts charging and the voltages. Go up to 14.3 and everything turns back on .

[Flybob]

Is the battery the original one that came in the SS?

[Hunter1967]

From what’s i can tell they look like brand new batteries but I’m not sure . The previous owner didn’t say anything about the batteries .

[Chuck_S]

Sunseeker is a motor home. Not sure how your batteries are wired -- I assume you have separate starting and house batteries -- with the engine running you should get about 13.7vDC or higher (14.4v is fine) on both batteries to charge the batteries.

What does the battery switch look like?

-- Chuck

[Hunter1967]

Yes its a 2014 2700Ds sunseeker motorhome . And yes house batteries are separate from motor battery .and yes when engine or generator is running its about 14.4 volts . Here is a pic.

[dontay]

It seems to me that you are monitoring your chassis battery voltage and not the coach batteries. All 12V items in your coach are off when you go to bed except the refrig which requires 12V whether on gas or 120V to run the controller and solenoids, CO detector, propane detector. If the battery reads 12.7V at bed time which is fully charged then in the morning it should be down somewhat because of the listed 12V items which are always on.
Do you have an inverter? If that is on it will draw down the coach batteries over night.
Are you driving during the day or dry camping? If camped how long do you have to charge with the chassis alternator every morning and is that the only time you run the engine? I am curious why the lights work all day when you are using 12V items but runs down over night.
Where do you monitor the 12V ? Do you have solar power?
Please supply more details about your system.

[Chuck_S]

Curious what the front of the battery switch looks like. Off-1-Both-2?

-- Chuck

[tomkatb]

How or where does the voltage reading come from?

What is the battery voltage at the battery connections. Have to be sure all the systems are turned off. The device that connects the house batteries to the rv batteries and the disconnect.

[NoviBill]

Just a guess - Your batteries are near dead and your relay is "sticky", when you start the truck engine and the voltage in the truck goes above a point (about 14v) the relay connects your house and chaise together. They still this way until the voltage drops below about 13v (there is a bit more to it, the alternator also acts as a smart charger).

So my guess is your house works when the chaise battery is linked and stops working when the voltage drops just a bit.

How to test: Hook up a voltage meter to your house battery and take a reading when the house power is not working (my guess is it will be low). Now start the engine and watch the voltage at the house battery. It should jump to about 14v all of a sudden then shut off the engine and watch the voltage at the house battery. Next turn off the house battery disconnect, you should see the voltage drop sharply.

Just a guess...

[Hunter1967]

So i went out and bought two new batteries .looks like the two old batteries where original. Cleaned out the battery box and cleaned up all the cables . So i hope this fixes the problem ! Thanks for all the great info in this group !

[Capacitor]

Did the new batteries fix the problem?

[CHICKDOE]

the new batteries may mask a problem for a while. you really need to get a multimeter and take battery voltage measurements at the battery terminals. one post above suggested that the reading you were citing may have been from you starting batteries, not the coach batteries. you've spent the money for the new batteries. make sure they are getting charged properly! you can't count on charging them just by starting the engine for a few minutes.

[NavyLCDR]

My vote too is that you are reading chassis battery voltage and not house battery voltage. In the mean while you are destroying your house batteries by discharging them too much before recharging. As someone else already stated you need to put a voltmeter on the battery terminals and see what you have there. I'm thinking you are likely to find less than 12 volts which is discharged too much for lead acid batteries. They should never go below 12.05-12.1 (after being disconnected from all loads for at least 30 minutes.)

[Reverse_snowbird]

Do you by any chance have the heat on at night? The heater fans will draw down the batteries overnight. The water heater and refrigerator electric ignition will also draw down the batteries slowly.
Also, you've got a 2014 and I don't think those have LED lights. If you have a bit of cash left after buying those batteries, consider replacing them with LED.

Buying the new batteries was a smart move. If the previous owner didn't maintain the batteries or if they were original, they probably couldn't maintain a charge or recharge fully.

[Hunter1967]

I did check both sets of batteries and one battery was not charging properly . So after buying the new batteries i had power in the morning with no problems the voltage sat at around 12.5 all night . Thanks again for the great info ! This is a awesome forum !

[mnoland30]

If you boondock, I highly recommend solar power. If you're interior lights are incandescent, you'll wantt to change them to LEDs. I highly recommend Optronics lights from eTrailer. I've tried some cheaper lights with poor results.