Charging Problem on '06 Hawk

[MarkL]

I just returned from a week long trip Jeep to Johnson Valley OHV in the Mojave desert and found that the battery in the camper wouldn't take a charge. With the truck running, I check the battery monitor and it shows that it's charging, then I hear a relay click in the cabinet behind the monitor and the battery level goes back to weak. It then clicks again and it's shows charging. I looked around and can't locate the relay easily. I still need to take the battery down and have it checked. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[mtn-high]

Hey Mark.

Can't say I'll solve yer problem whatsoever with my tale but I will relay a similar incident that "righted" itself on it's own.. hopefully yours has/will do the same.

We were in New mexico and stopped for a meal at a tavern/bar (Oso or Los Osos something at Jemez springs). While there they screwed our order up royally and what we thought might be a 30 minute stop ended up being about 2 hours. All the while...Commader Spacecase (dat'd be me) left the fridge on 12 v...........

We drove about 30 mins north and hit the forest and found a spot. When I opened the rear door of the FWC i heard the same clicking sound you are hearing.... YIKES!

I hit the battery monitor button and it said we had 1/4/poor charge. there was a bit of sun left for the solar panel but it wasn't hitting it diirectly.

I freaked..it was COLD already and all I could think of was the heater crapping out at 4 AM and having to break camp. I had a screwdriver in the drawer so I grabbed it and headed for the click. a few panels/screws later I could see the relay(?) and get my hand on it but couldn't get into it with the time//light i had left or the tools I had on hand.

Frustrated...I fired up the truck (and something for my head) and let the truck run for a good hour. After an hour the clicking continued but the battery did charge to 1/2. (but would go no further)

The next AM we were back to 1/4/poor reading..but we were warm. After we drove a good hour or so (in the full sun too) I pulled over and checked it again and saw that the battery was almost fully charged. It has never happened again (baterry/clicking nor leaving the frig on too long on 12V during a stop)

I haven't noticed any negative from this...yet....but then again...s*it happens no matter what so it's all a crap shoot in my book.

good luck. I hope it fixes itself and *something* was wrong like the 12 v stupidity I experienced...not something more.

travel safe

mtn

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

If you can, try plugging the camper into 110/120v shore power (electricty) for a few hours and make sure the small red 12v kill switch is pulled "out" so it is in the "on" position.

This should top off the camper battery and most likely solve the problem.

The main purpose of the battery separator is to save your truck battery from getting too low. If you run the camper battery too low, as soon as your truck is running the battery separator will open up, both bateries will be "seeing" each other, and I'm pretty sure the power from your truck battery will start to drop because the batteries are trying to equalize (the fully charged truck battery will start loosing power over to the low camper battery). Once this happens, the separator will think the truck battery is getting too low and close (in hope to stop charging the camper battery) and recharge the main truck battery. Then after a second the truck battery will get over the voltage point and the battery separator will open up again. This back and forth cycle will keep happening until the camper battery get a bit of a charge on it and doesnt have as much of a draw down effect on the truck battery.

Im not sure if this is the problem, but talking with customers over the past few years, this usually seems top be the case.

Hope this helps.

Feel free to call our service dept. (800) 242-1442 if you need further assistance.

Thanks

Stan The Man


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I just returned from a week long trip Jeep to Johnson Valley OHV in the Mojave desert and found that the battery in the camper wouldn't take a charge. With the truck running, I check the battery monitor and it shows that it's charging, then I hear a relay click in the cabinet behind the monitor and the battery level goes back to weak. It then clicks again and it's shows charging. I looked around and can't locate the relay easily. I still need to take the battery down and have it checked. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[MarkL]

Thanks for the helpfull replies guys. I did a quick search and found similar answers. Stan- I'll try the 110V charge and see if that does the trick

Again, thanks for the help