Electrical problem

Split from General / Technical for discussion of anything electrical, electronic... 12v, Inverter, Satellite, Headlights, flashlights etc.
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gclarke
Posts: 3
Joined: January 18th, 2018, 3:11 pm
Location: Burlington, Washington

Electrical problem

Post by gclarke »

Hello all, I am a new owner of a 2001 Chinook Destiny (on a 2000 chassis) with a 7.4 L engine.
I removed the house battery’s to clean the terminals and add water, when I replaced the battery’s nothing works in the rv. The starter battery is fine, everything in the cab works.
No electricity at the lvd. Any help would be appreciated.
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SMan
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Joined: February 17th, 2015, 1:57 pm
Location: 7 Lakes, WA

Re: Electrical problem

Post by SMan »

First off welcome and hello. My Chinook Premier was originally purchased in Burlington by my cousin and her husband in 2004. I live a bit south but am also from Washington.

I am not great on the electrical side and just suggest you go back over all your work and make sure things are correctly wired and all breakers are on. Do you have a coach battery switch on the cab ceiling? Hopefully you have a manual. Not sure if this is the correct one but... http://www.chinookrvclub.net/CareandMai ... se2000.pdf

Hopefully Blue Go or one of the more knowledgeable members will chime in. I'm sure you'll get it figured out. Be sure to use the search function here and you may come up with some good suggestions. There is a reference section that also has some good info, manuals and diagrams.
Steve aka SMan
2004 Premier V10
chin_k
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Location: Southern CA

Re: Electrical problem

Post by chin_k »

I suggest you start from the house batteries, and trouble shoot to the LVD. Did you connect them together correctly? Is there 12 V at each battery? Test the voltage at the start of the wiring to the LVD to confirm there are power sending to the device.
2000 Concourse dinette, on 1999 6.8L Ford E350 Triton V-10 Chassis
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kdarling
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Joined: October 20th, 2015, 6:57 am
Location: Northern NJ

Re: Electrical problem

Post by kdarling »

Welcome!

It’s not uncommon for it to turn out that a major wire or two fell behind the battery box while you had everything undone.

You might need to create a hook out of a coat hanger and see if a wire dropped back and is hidden.

Did you photograph all the wires beforehand as a reference? If not, perhaps someone here can post a photo if their circa 2001 battery wiring.

Luck!
Kev
1994 Concourse dinette, Ford 7.5L (460 V8)
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Blue~Go
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Joined: July 31st, 2014, 1:01 am
Location: 1999 Concourse

Re: Electrical problem

Post by Blue~Go »

Hello, welcome, and congrats on your new Destiny!

As was said above, if the power worked before, and you un-hooked and re-hooked, I'd look to be sure everything is back onboard, and in the right places. On my Concourse, well.... let me think back to how it was originally... Granted yours might not be the same, but maybe this will help.

I had two house batteries. Positive leads included the jumper (to the other battery), the lead in from the start battery (via the separator which was under the hood), and the lead in from the brown box/charger/load center (via the LVD). Also a small wire with an inline fuse from the solar panel (via the solar controller). I think that was all. On the negative side, there was a jumper, a cable leading to chassis ground (on the driver's side frame rail inboard of the battery box area), and the small negative solar wire. Obviously make sure there are no positives that go to negative or vice-versa.

My house system had two little automotive style self-resetting breakers on the main positive cables that were tucked up underneath the coach, just forward of the battery box in a white molded fiberglass cover. Those are known to rust/die (so maybe they wouldn't re-set?) (you may have different ones as I know they went to thermal breakers later).

I have also read (years ago) of someone's LVD breaking/dying when a mechanic had disconnected/re-connected the house batteries, but I have no idea how or why that happened (and I have eliminated mine so I didn't have a big reason to delve into it). I presume you didn't remove anything from the LVD in the process, but if all else fails you could try bypassing it to see if that makes any difference. Basically (at least on mine), the large wires come in/go out top and bottom, and all the other/small wires do various little functions (one goes to "store" switch; one goes to the buzzer to tell you to take it out of store when you are charging; one goes to the self-jump-start switch, etc.). So you could jumper the two large wires together, bypassing the LVD to see if that brings things alive.

(Oh, as was mentioned above, the "store" switch is on, right? Presuming you have one?)

As usual, I should say I'm not an electrician, don't do anything with electricity you're not comfortable with, etc.

Also, of course your Destiny may be different. But I don't think the 2001 Concourse wiring was much different than in my '99, so perhaps yours follows a similar theme.

Let's see if we can turn your "fiberglass tent" back into an RV with power :D

BG
1999 Concourse
BobW9
Posts: 252
Joined: February 16th, 2018, 4:46 pm
Location: Full-Time on the Road

Re: Electrical problem

Post by BobW9 »

Hi, I'm the one that had a mechanic disconnect the batteries and burn out my LVD (around early 2014 in Yahoo Chinook forum). The issue is if the LVD is in the On state and it's ground connection is lost while the positive is still there, then it can get shorted out. The LVD installation papers state that clearly. So if your LVD was On (the green light was on, instead of the Red 'Store' state) and you disconnected the negative ground wire from the battery while the positive was still connected, then there is a decent chance the LVD is gone.

As BG says, quickest way to find if that is the issue is to bypass the LVD.

If you need a new LVD, good luck, as the old ones are no longer made (I got the second to last), and it was unclear to me what would be a drop-in replacement.

Bob
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Blue~Go
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Location: 1999 Concourse

Re: Electrical problem

Post by Blue~Go »

Thanks for posting. I knew I had read that, but couldn't remember who posted or when. It's satisfying to now know the exact details.

gclarke: If your LVD is broken, and you can't source another one, just know that some people choose to not use them anyway (not that you have to take that path, but I mean it's not an essential item). I removed mine (but already sent it to someone else who wanted one).

As an LVD (i.e. to disconnect your house batteries before they are damaged), it's actually no great shakes. To use an analogy, it'd be like having a low-fuel warning that lit up when there was a tablespoon of fuel left in your tank. In other words, IMO, it cut off way too low and your batteries were already WAY past a desirable stopping point. OTOH, there are other LVD's (Blue Sea makes one), and they may be programmable to cut off sooner. Or you could use the money for a battery meter and know where you stand vs. waiting for them to cut off (the stock one is a cut off, but gives you no "gas gauge").

The LVD also does serve as a bit of a roundhouse for some of the "little wire" functions in the overcab. It's possible it could still be used for that, and/or I think there would likely be ways around it (I've changed things around so I don't need those functions and have what are, to me, better replacements).

Maybe the LVD is fine, but figured I'd let you know that all may not be lost even if it is toast and you can't get an exact replacement.
1999 Concourse
gclarke
Posts: 3
Joined: January 18th, 2018, 3:11 pm
Location: Burlington, Washington

Re: Electrical problem

Post by gclarke »

Many thanks to all who have replied to my electrical problem.
I decieded to check the ground cable from the batteries to the frame, it looked very rusty, so I cleaned the ground cable to the frame and was able to check continuity to find the correct ground cable.
I should mention,before this I had removed the sliding drawer the batteries are in to be sure I had all the cables that had fallen behind the drawer. The drawer slides do not disengage, I had to remove all 8 of the bolts to remove the drawer.
I hooked up all the cables and now everything works again!

gclarke
2001 Chinook Destiny
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Blue~Go
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Joined: July 31st, 2014, 1:01 am
Location: 1999 Concourse

Re: Electrical problem

Post by Blue~Go »

Sweet! And many thanks for following up and letting us know.

At least the battery slide is high quality. I never tried to disengage just the top half on mine though. Maybe it's considered too risky for a slide with a couple hundred pounds of battery on it? Of course many other drawer slides that can hold heavy weights probably can be disengaged, so maybe that's not valid (and I realize you wouldn't do it with the batteries on it on purpose).

I did remove mine (surprisingly heavy!), but that's because I moved my battery bank under the couch, and now use that area for a handy, ventilated storage compartment (holds my solvents, outdoor thermometer sensor, and some really effective but permanently rubber-smelling chocks, among other things). Some have also removed the slide to fit more batteries in that same compartment, if/when going to something like AGM's that do not require checking or adding water.

Oh, on the subject of chassis grounds: If your main one was somewhat rusty/corroded, you may want to check/clean the rest of them. I'm not sure where they are on a Destiny, but on the 21-footers there are three on each side. They are right at the rear end of the frame rails by the rear of the coach. These carry the return/grounds for all the "little" DC circuits (lighting, refrigerator, outlets, etc.), plus the AC grounding wire.
1999 Concourse
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