a4epilot Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 Alternator is not charging house batteries. Charges chassis batteries normally. Alternator outputting normally, for sure. If I press "Batt Boost" switch on dash, house batteries begin to charge. Inverter/charger charges house batteries normally. Obviously, there is a break somewhere between the alternator and the house batteries. What component is the most likely to have failed? Everything else in the 12VDC system operating normally. Thanks in advance, Gary K 06' Windsor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr4Film Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 Does your coach have a BIRD device? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterskier_1 Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 If you have a "big boy" (I think you do) I suspect that it's the problem. Likely the contacts but could be the control circuit. - Rick N 2005 Exec, DD Series 60 2014 JGC Overland Diesel Currently: Casa Grande, AZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4epilot Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 The 2 replies I just received jogged my memory. I believe I did replace a relay a while back. I normally keep excellent maintenance records but cannot find any entry about it. I'm really stumped. I can't remember having a problem that would have required a replacement so I need to investigate further. I do remember many past postings about others having to replace it. Thanks for responding and I'm sure that's the problem. Will get into it tomorrow and post what I find. Gary K 06' WIndsor Just found a receipt dated last year in my flies for a, Trombetta 114-1211-020, Bear 12VDC Contactor, continuous duty. Could that be the one causing the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis H Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 Gary, I would suspect that is your issue. Pretty common. Easy check tho. Use a tester and ground it to the coach. You should have juice to one of the terminals. Have someone press the boost switch and you should have power to both terminals. ...Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwhittle Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 Gary, Have you looked at the Blue Sea ML-ACR to replace your Big Boy and BIRD? i recently did that on our 2005 Signature. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4epilot Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 Finally, I remembered everything regarding the battery paralleling relay:Trombetta 114-1211-020 12 Volt Bear DC Contactor. I replaced it last year. Repeating from my original posting, when using the "Batt Boost" switch on the dash with engine running, the relay closes and the house batteries begin to charge as they should have without using the boost switch so the relay coil is OK as well as the contacts themselves. What is missing is the power to the coil to close it upon engine start as it should and therefore begin charging the house batteries without having to do anything. The chassis batteries charge normally when engine is running as I believe they are wired directly to the alternator. There are 2 small wires going to the coil, white and purple. I'm guessing that one is a ground from the "Batt Boost" switch and the other is a ground from whatever the source is when the engine is running. So, 2 sources to close the relay contacts and the engine running source has failed. Anyone know the source and how to check it? Thanks. Gary K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr4Film Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 Gary, those two connections are the control wires which activates the relay to close. One is 12 VDC positive and the other is the 12 VDC negative. Since your BATT BOOST switch is working correctly which I believe is closing the ground side, there has to be another "control" device which does the same thing but only when the engine starts. My coach uses a BIRD as that control device but is wired to be more like an IRD. Your coaches charging control system is much different than mine so I will yield back to people who have the same charging system as yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4epilot Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 Dr4Film, I agree with your thoughts completely. Now, finding where that control circuit comes from when the engine starts. That's the key. I'm sure others have had the same problem and know the answer. I looked at the run bay where it's located and no obvious answer did I find. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr4Film Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 One other thing I forgot to mention is that I believe the charging control circuit normally functions such that when the engine starts the Chassis Battery has to be completely fully charged FIRST before it activates the relay to start pushing voltage over to the House Battery Bank. Chassis battery has priority over the house batteries when engine is running. Obviously, when connected to a power pedestal or when the generator is running then the House Battery Bank has priority first followed by the Chassis Battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajchapman Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Gary I have been having the same issues with my 05 Camelot. Just revisited the electrical drawings for the coach and I think I found the controller that may be causing our problems. It is the Intellitec Isolation Relay Delay. If you look at the first drawing for the Camelot, just to the left of center is the Relay. Attached are the instructions for the relay and it has the steps to troubleshoot the relay. Hope this might help you. Jack Isolator Relay Delay (Charge house batteries.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr4Film Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Jack & Gary, That is commonly called an IRD. Some coaches have IRD's some have BIRD's and some have BIRD-2's. IRD = Isolator Relay Delay BIRD = Bidirectional Isolator Relay Delay BIRD-2 = Bidirectional Isolator Relay Delay Diesel-2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4epilot Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 Jack, You broke the code! 👍🙂 Knew there had to be something like that in the circuit. I just gave up looking too easily. 😒 Since my Blue Seas ML-ACR arrived from Amazon today, I'm going to install it in place of the Isolation Relay Delay and Trombetta/Bear isolation relay. (Replaces both) It's a much better device in every way and should be more reliable than what Intellitec made, although that's easy to do given Intellitec's poor reputation. Blue Seas was made for marine use which is a much more demanding environment. Thanks so much!! Gary K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr4Film Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Gary, The Blue-Seas ML-ACR is a FAR better system to anything that Monaco/HR put into their coaches. You won't be disappointed! Once any component of my charging system fails it will be replaced with the ML-ACR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdshill123 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Our 08 Dynasty has the Big Boy but the controller is a board in the rear run bay. I would love to upgrade to the Blue Sea unit. How do I accomplish this? Thanks Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4epilot Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 Bruce, pwhittle posted on January 6 how he did it with pics. Go to his list of postings and find it. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdshill123 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Gary. Thanks. I went to his list of posts but nothing older than Jan.13 is shown? Bruce 08 Dynasty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a4epilot Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 Bruce, I'm having a hard time too finding things on this new site. Going to take more time checking things out to learn all the in's and out's. I went back to find what I told you about and spent 30 minutes trying to locate it again; frustrating, but I did finally stumble onto it. Here's it is. Hopefully, just clicking on it will take you there? Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr4Film Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Gary, I am able to find almost anything that I am searching for by using the "search" feature located at the lower right hand of the large RED header at the top of the page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcl285 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 On 3/4/2020 at 5:32 PM, a4epilot said: Alternator is not charging house batteries. Charges chassis batteries normally. Alternator outputting normally, for sure. If I press "Batt Boost" switch on dash, house batteries begin to charge. Inverter/charger charges house batteries normally. Obviously, there is a break somewhere between the alternator and the house batteries. What component is the most likely to have failed? Everything else in the 12VDC system operating normally. Thanks in advance, Gary K 06' Windsor Your experience is very similar to mine. House batteries would not charge until I hit the boost button. Then they would behave normally. I have an ‘04 Imperial which has an Intellec IRD. The IRD sends a signal when the chassis batteries have reached 13 volts or so, indicating that the alternator has pretty much charged them and it can handle the high current from the additional house batteries. When I investigated my system, I found that the signal to the IRD was always lower than the chassis batteries, causing the IRD to not tell the IRD to connect. It seems that the place the IRD got the chassis voltage was being reduced by loads on that line. My solution was to add another relay which connected the IRD to a solid voltage source. I did this in 2009 and have not had any problem with house batteries being charged since. i don’t know if you have an IRD or not. The Intellec IRD is located on that big fuse panel located in the driver side outside area. Another indication will be that you have a Lambert LE 415 to charge the chassis batteries from shore or genset power. it looks that the files from the old Monacoers group was lost with the new group, but I did a write up which was there. Dick L ‘04 Imperial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdshill123 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Thanks for the link Gary. I will try to add a photo but on the Dynasty the big boy is mounted in the rear run bay. The bird is a board. I think it is intellitec. There are 2 other solenoids mounted next to the big boy. Lots of wires. When i have some time i will post my current (pun) problem with the house charging. It is very wierd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Nodine Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 19 hours ago, birdshill123 said: Gary. Thanks. I went to his list of posts but nothing older than Jan.13 is shown? Bruce 08 Dynasty Here is a post that Paul made on the subject on irv2. https://tinyurl.com/qnlrfom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwhittle Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Here is a link to the post I made earlier here. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdshill123 Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Thanks Bob and Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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