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Originally Posted by Bottomland4x4
What kind of truck conversion? I know you said it's a freightliner, but where are the house batteries in relation to the truck batteries? My truck batteries are located close to the driver side fuel tank, then there is a battery isolator and the house batteries are to the right of the truck batts. My unit will automatically charge the house batteries while the truck is running, there is no emergncy start on the generator, it will pull from truck batteries if needed.
9 volts at your lights is very low, could the batteries be severely discharged? I leave my unit plugged in and it keeps the batteries charged and fridge cold at all times. There is also a display to check voltage and it shows around 13volts when plugged in. On my old toter I have seen it as low as 11 volts and then I had to jump the generator to start it back up.
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It is an Elite built by Athena in 2005 now out of business. I have found absolutely nothing about the builder.
House and chassis batteries are in first compartment on pass side along with charger, solenoids, etc. Bank of 4 inboards and three outboards connected in parallel. I assume the inboard bank of 4 is house but the starter cable and heavy gnd are connected to in inboard bank but jumper cables connected to a dedicated jumper post assembly are connected to the outboard bank. Will have to trace all the component wires to see what is going where which I have not done at this point.Hoped to find a schematic from one of the RV conversion companies but no luck so far.
I disconnected, charged, and tested the batteries and they are all good. But, the house batteries(?chassis) seem to run down quickly when not on shore power so one or more things is not right for sure. My previous MH(American Tradition) had a converter/inverter with a Big Boy switch that automatically flipped between house and chassis batteries when on shore, engine, or gen power keeping both banks always topped up. Sure wish I had that now! I too keep mine plugged into 50 amp power so Bush Pilot's observation is probably correct because connections are crossed. Sure wish I had a schematic but going from component to component should work.
Thanks for the help and keep your ideas coming. Would photos of my battery compartment help you guys to sort this mess out?