Ramblen
Out West
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Joined: 06/28/2004
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Had the batteries changed in my 05 HR Scepter today, both house and chassis. Mechanic is a fellow who has done other work for me but never on my MH. Took the coach in and asked him to look at the batteries and replace them with the same batteries from NAPA. I've had lots of good performance out NAPA batteries in the past.
When I picked up the MH last night it was after hours and I got in to drive it home. I turned on the ceiling lights in the living room and fired it up. I immediately smelled something hot and shut it down to investigate. About that time the ceiling lights went out. I looked things over in and out but couldn't see what the problem. Checked all my instruments but didn't see any thing wrong at the time. Mechanic left the coach out front for me and he is in a part of town where I didn't want to leave it out all night so I switched the house batteries off, left the chassis batteries on and drove it home. This morning when checking things out I determined that the electric step, the keyless entry and the ceiling lights didn't work. I called Monaco tech support and they walked me thru several things but didn't have any real suggestions. I called the mechanic and told him about the problems and he said to bring it right in.
when I got there we looked everyhing over and everything still looked right.He went to get a volt meter to check the batteries and I called Monaco again.As the mechanic was putting the voltmeter on the batteries and saying" Yeah its putting out 24V" the Monaco guy is saying " If they are hooked up right they should be putting out 12V" The LIGHT BULB went on and we realised the mechanic put in four 12V instead of four 6V batteries.
I'm writing this not to brag about how DUMB I am, but to ask for input. Obviously I blew out the step, the remote door opener and the ceiling lights. WE fixed the step, are ordering the controller for the door and 3 new ceiling lights ( toasted the capacitors). We also went thru every breaker and fuse box we could find and once the batteries were done right we checked all the circuits we could think of. Had three guys working most of the day. I'm worried that we may have missed some circuit or component that will fail down the road at the worst time.
Any advice or thoughts on what else could be damaged that I may have overlooked? Sorry this is so long, but I sure appreciate any and all ideas. Ramblen
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Gale Hawkins
Murray, KY
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Joined: 07/22/2007
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Sorry to hear that. The 12 volt items not turned on should be OK.
Did you just rewire the batteries correctly after you realized they were miss wired to produce 12 volts or pull them?
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tvman44
Southwest Louisiana
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I sure hope the mechanic is footing the bill for repairs.
Papa Bob
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pulsar
Lewisville, NC
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Moved from Forum Technical Support to Tech Issues.
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Ramblen
Out West
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As soon as we realized the mistake we rewired the batteries. I choose to leave the 12V batteries in and just rewired to output 12V.
The mechanic has accepted full responsibility and is taking care of all the costs. He is a real standup guy.
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J Walker
Oakton, Va
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There could be lots of things that saw the 24V. One way to find out is to exercise all of your 12V appliances you can possibly turn on. Your converter might have seen the voltage. God forbid your chassis might have seen it also if you have an automatic interconnect between house and chassis batteries. I would call Monaco for some guidance on this also.
Jim Walker
2000 34' Damon Ultrasport DP
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Harry Havasu
Lake Havasu City, Az.
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Ramblen wrote:
The mechanic has accepted full responsibility. He is a real standup guy.
Maybe so.
But he also is a real dumb guy. Who doesn't check out his work before turning it over to the customer.
Harry Havasu
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hershey
Albuquerque,(fulltime) NM, USA
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A laps in memory or judgment can happen to any of us. Seems like it happens to me more frequently 
But I'd really look for a different mechanic once your satisfied that things are back to normal.....A mechanic who doesn't immediately recognize the difference in a 6 volt battery and a 12 volt battery shouldn't be trusted to do anything more complicated than check the oil. BTW: does NAPA even sell 6 volt deep cycle batteries? Did he at least use a deep cycle 12 volt battery or just regular batteries.
On edit, I couldn't find a 12 volt deep cycle battery in NAPA's website. Please check and insure you have deep cycle batteries.
* This post was
edited 09/05/08 09:16am by hershey *
hershey - albuquerque, nm
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Ramblen
Out West
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hershey
You are right on both counts-- my mind is also going somewhere without me and I won't take it back there:-)
The new battreies are NAPA DeepCycle Marine/RV.
Thanks for your input, really appreciate the time you guys take to help out.
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Hurricaner
Hurricane Utah
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Joined: 02/17/2007
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Your average mechanic now days has probably never seen a six volt battery so he would never even consider it. If the guy was familiar with RVs he should have known better but many mechanics are not and the fact that it only had three fill holes probably meant nothing either.
Sam
Sam & Kari
Hurricane, Utah
2004 34' Damon Challenger 315
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