2002 Windsor chassis battery not being charged on shore power.

[jakarrels]

I have owned my Windsor 17 years and both the house  and chassis batteries stayed fully charged when plug into shore power. In January I replace the chassis battery and now is not being charge. Where should I be looking for the problem? 

[jacwjames]

I started having trouble with mine last year.  I noticed that the Lambert 415 maintainer was clicking and it didn't seem like my chassis batteries were staying charged.  There is a trouble shooting guide (see attached) for the Lambert but based on that mine was "working" as designed but in the past I never heard it click lick it was.   You might also check the BIRD to make sure it is sending a signal to the isolation solenoid, which is suppose to close when the house batteries get to a set voltage.  You should be able to check the isolation solenoid by depressing the Battery Boost button and checking the chassis battery voltage while plugged into shore power, they should be ~13.5 volt as the inverter is charging the house batteries. 

But instead of wasting a lot of time and money on an obsolete system I decided to remove the Lambert, BIRD, and Isolation Solenoid and replaced them all with a Bluesea ML-ACR See photo.   The Bluesea fit with the Isolation Solenoid was, and easy swap.  But to have full use of the Bluesea's switch control I had to run one wire to the front and replaced the original Battery Boost Switch with the Bluesea switch, this took more time and effort then installing the Bluesea but well worth it.

 

LAMBERT Battery Maintainer LE-415.pdf

[CorinthWest]

You might have a bad BIRD module.  Put a volt meter on it.  I have one on order from Mega Tech in Oregon.  They were out, but they are expecting a new shipment in next week.  Apparently they were waiting on a relay to complete the assemblies.  But they said available "first week in May".

[jacwjames]

Not sure what the BIRD costs but the Bluesea is a much better option for fixing the charging system, at least on my coach.   It's new technology, easy to install, and probably the cheapest option if you have to replace multiple parts. 

 

[Xracer]

Did you replace both batteries? I don’t mess with mine anymore, bought a small battery charger and all is good.

Best of luck 🍀 

[jakarrels]

I have done more checking and feel it's the Lambert LE415 problem, ordered a replacement AMP-L-START unit. Thanks all for the input.

[ready2retire59]

Jim,

When you installed the Bluesea ML-ACR, was the wire you ran to the front of the coach only needed to accommodate the 3-way function of the switch, force or or force off?  Can you just use the on/off boost switch wire going to the relay to force it on when needed. 

The BIRD setup that I have does not allow the chassis batteries to charge when the generator is running.  This Bluesea ML-ACR looks like it WILL allow the chassis batteries to charge with the generator.  Is this true?

Tony and Doreen Chiulli

'03 Windsor, '05 Ram

[jacwjames]

Tony

Not sure on whether you could get by with one wire or not.   I decided to just run the extra wire ( I actually ran 5) and be done with it.  The switch on the dash enables you to have the Bluesea OFF, ON, or Automatic meaning it will combine both battery banks automatically when it senses a charge from shore power, generator, or alternator.  If voltage is low it will not latch both battery banks and will blink to indicated a problem..  

Attached are the instructions I downloaded when I installed mine, it might answer our questions. 

Bluesea instructions.pdf

[ready2retire59]

Jim,

Did you ever get an answer to your question about how the RC7 GS works?  Mine is doing the same thing with the operation of the generator.  The SOC at the RC7 GS starts dropping as soon as I unplug from shore power.  If the generator is activated either manually or with the auto start (at 60% SOC) the SOC doesn't climb higher than approx 75% SOC.  I have an ammeter on the panel near the RC7 so I can tell that the converter(charger) is either at absorb or at float charge but the SOC does not reflect the status of the batteries.  When I'm plugged into shore power (I'm plugged in always at the house) the SOC climbs to 100% after a short time.  I have the BIRD system and it does NOT allow the battery banks to combine when the generator is activated.  The BIRD combines the batteries when the engine is running and when there is shore power. 

I've got 4 liquid cell house batteries that are 4 years old.  I thought that one of the 4 might be bad and drawing down the bank so I isolated each half of the bank at a time and the results were the same.  

When you installed the Bluesea did that fix the problem with the SOC?  Did you also install the shunt that others are talking about and if so how does the shunt operate with the gen autostart in the RC7?

Thank you

Tony

[jacwjames]

I did install the shunt, a Victron BVM712, which appears to provide better information.

My RC7 display had always provided questionable info on the state of charge.  When boon docking I would usually run the generator just before bed but the display would not really show the state of charge increasing that much.  I'd shut the generator off the display would be showing ~80-85% SOC,  I'd go to bed but if I got up in the middle of the night I'd be at ~90%, sometimes higher depending on when I got up.  By morning I may be at 75%.  I came to really never trust the inverter display. 

But it seems the victron does a better job at reporting SOC. 

The Blue sea solved the problem I had with the original charging setup.  I suspect I was might have been developing a problem with the Lambert and the chassis battery never seemed to get charged as I thought it should.  Now with the Bluesea both batteries charge to the same level with charger on ~13.4 volts.  I can isolate each battery if I want. 

[ready2retire59]

Jim,

Do you use the auto start for the generator on the RC7and if so, what settings do you use since you can't count on the SOC from the RC7?

Thanks

Tony

[jacwjames]

Don't use auto start

I have a list of recommended settings and it says 12 or 12.2 volts

[Ivan K]

I personally have set our AGS start at 12.0 because that corresponds to about 12.2 measured at the batteries in my case.

[ready2retire59]

Thanks for the replies.  I'll give 12.0 a try and then turn it off at "absorb" or "float".

Tony 

[jacwjames]

Here is a cheat sheet I have for the setting, I believe I got the information from Richard aka Dr4Film

RC7-GS Remote Panel Programming

 

 

 

 

·       Search Sense              =     Defeat                                     

·       LBCO                          =     ON                                           

·       Battery Capacity        =     500 amp                                  

·       Battery Type              =     Liquid Lead Acid                      

·       Charge Rate                =     80%                                         

·       Set Shore Power         =     30 amps                                  

·       External Shunt            =     None                                       

·       Fuel gauge Cutout      =     11.8 VDC @ 0% SOC                 

·       Generator Start          =     12.0 or 12.2 VDC                            

·       Generator Stop           =     Auto Float                               

·       Generator Quiet Time =     23:59 & 00:01

 

 

You must set clock to military time for Auto Gen Start

Edited November 21, 2022 by jacwjames