2005 Chinook Summit Electrical issue

[Gimlimike]

I needed to take it into the shop and they tightened some connections and claim the electrical is working now. BUT they say a 12v connection to the air bags is malfunctioning causing a battery drain. My questions for the experts here are,,

This unit has air bags ? If so they must be filled by an electric pump of some kind as there is no AIR compressor connected to the battery system.

If the air bags do activate filling from the 12 volt system do the batteries slow charge when plugged into a 15 or 30 amp service ? This would explain dead batteries because it was not plugged in for a number of months. I am used to an airbag system on a DP that has a compressor connected to the engine and then runs all the time and system blows down when the pressure cutoff point is reached.

I am just trying to get a confirmation of air bags to make sure I am not getting mislead on this unit.

Thanks again

Mike

[chin_k]

I do not have Summit, and I am not familiar with the more complicated system associated with it (lever, slide out, inverter, etc.)

Some Summit has the air bag for the seal (slide out) and the suspension. As you said, there has to be some air pump somewhere. I would try talk to the shop and see if they can point out where is the air bag(s) that is draining the batteries. Just want to make sure it is not the air bag system for the chassis (the one that protect passenger from collision.)

I would look for the circuit that control the air bag, and see if it can be replaced, or the pump serviced. It should not drain that much if it is working properly, obviously.

[Gimlimike]

Thank you very much , your response tweaked something in my memory going back a couple of years when my friend told me that the slides have a bag system for sealing the slides , this must be the bags the technician was talking about. I was starting to doubt his air bag story and went off the track thinking a chassis air bag system , you just set me straight, thanks again. Unfortunately I can only get the info through a receptionist and cannot speak directly to the tech , Once this is sorted I am going to go out to the shop and try and ask if he would take 15 minutes after work to review his findings. The chassis system is all ok.

[Gimlimike]

I thought I would update everyone on what we found after taking it to the shop

- some frayed wires needed replacing
- one fuse holder was not holding fuses firmly in place so it was replaced
- some battery connection cables were not tight enough ( my bad as I connected them)
- the slide bag pump was wired directly into the power system and was continually activating the pump to fill the bags causing the house batteries to drain when the coach was not plugged in , the technician rewired so that the air pump would activate only when the system required it to with the key in the on position.
- the generator was serviced as well.

When we got it home the electrical worked like a charm and fired up as designed. Now to run through the levelling and slide operations , (fingers crossed)

Thanks again for everyones input !

Mike

[TheIceKing]

Hi Mike,

I know this post is old, but I have a new to me 2004 Summit and are experiencing the exact same issue you had. Can you share any details on which wires, fuses, etc. they found were the issue? I have spend a decent about of time diagnosing and are coming up short...I too need to fix the HWH air compressor system that operates the slide seal and I believe the leveling system, as the pump does not shut off after the 3minutes like its supposed to so I suspect there is an air leak.

However this does not seem to be related to why when I press the chassis battery on switch above the drivers seat, the coach will not power up its 12v systems despite having three brand new 12v batteries

Any additional thoughts would be appreciated if your still monitoring this post.