No Power to Penthouse

seasmith · 09-26-2015, 10:58 AM

Just searched 20 pages of Penthouse and didn't see this, so here goes:

Was recently camped Way up in the boonies and the house battery very suddenly took a crap (Batteries+ 4D). Next day was derigging to head down the mountain and the Penthouse Roof went halfway down and quit! No way to make it down the trail with the poptop up ...
Apparently the Penthouse is wired through the inverter circuits ?
Fortunately we had an emergency gas generator with us, and when plugged into the the shore power socket, the roof went down

Question is: if one does Not have external power, how can the top be lowered when the house battery is dead ?

Thanks

**daveb** · 09-26-2015, 11:22 AM

The motors are 12v. More than likely the separator opened up to protect the starting battery system from the dead house system...no power to the vans interior conversion. You can always jump the separator to supply temp power to get the top down.

But you can drop the top manually, it just takes a method that requires some heavy lifting and rigging.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2908

seasmith · 09-26-2015, 02:19 PM

Good stuff, thank you.

Is the separator (Sure Power 1315-200) a Normally Open device ?
ie. when it's ground lead is disconnected, is it separating the two batteries ?

**daveb** · 09-27-2015, 01:29 AM

Yes if operating correctly. Most of the models SMB installed were 2-way or bi-directional and open up when either side sees 12.8 or lower.

seasmith · 09-27-2015, 11:08 AM

SMB doesn't seem to have connected an indicator lamp to the 1315-200, which would be handy since i can't hear the solenoid click closed when starting the engine, or check to feel if it's warm while driving.
I think maybe that is why the house batt died suddenly somewhere around the time of an all-day rock crawl; maybe the ground wire rattled loose ? (I was checking aux batt voltage every few days, but now check it every day when motoring).

Sure Power recommends a max 250mA indicator lamp, but don't mention wether the lamp stays on while unit is activated, or just lights up when starting??

Does anyone have a lamp connected, who could advise ?

thank you

**daveb** · 09-27-2015, 12:12 PM

Greg Scalf77 can probably answer that. I do know that I had a dirty contact issue and a solenoid failure on a few of that model over the years. At one time the field repair I used was to hit it with a wrench. Not saying to do this but I was desperate and it worked correctly throughout the trip. I gave up on Surepower several years ago and switched to a Blue Sea 7622 + remote. No problems since. SMB also switched after they installed mine but they have used a different model than the 7622 from what I've seen.
Another solution is to add a battery monitor which will tell you what really is going on...well worth the money spent. You can also parallel in a manual battery switch for emergency jumps if the separator fails. I prefer the 7622 because it has manual controls on it and the remote kit if the separator is not accessible. The remote switch is an annunciator as well.

Scalf77 · 09-28-2015, 06:22 AM

first try viewing this and see if answers your questionshttp://www.sportsmobileforum.com/vie...p?f=14&t=15579

Specifically that indicator lamp is only when for when it is start assist mode, you can make your own indicator circuit which is nice, but the number one problem seen on the sure power units is contact resistance build up over time. In that case the indicator lamp would still show that the solenoid is closed but you would not be transferring the current you expect.

-greg

seasmith · 09-28-2015, 11:26 AM

Thanks Greg. While installing a 10A fuse on the ground lead, as per your and Daveb's suggestion, noticed (with the requisite Voltage differences) that solenoid was engaging when hooked up to shore power, but not when motor/alternator were running. A couple jogs with the grounding terminal finally engaged the unit.
Sounds like your "dirty contacts" to me, so am replacing the unit.
It's a 0700**** serial number, so it's probably got some age and cycles on it. The recalls start with 0900**** in 2011, but this baby does get too hot to leave your hand on it for very long ...

arctictraveller · 09-28-2015, 02:28 PM

[quote="seasmith".
It's a 0700**** serial number, so it's probably got some age and cycles on it. The recalls start with 0900**** in 2011, but this baby does get too hot to leave your hand on it for very long ...[/quote]

Too hot to touch certainly means there is a lot of resistance both wasting power and reducing output voltage. I would not expect that under normal circumstances.

seasmith · 09-28-2015, 04:00 PM

What is an example of a decent "battery monitor", and what all info does it provide ?

The house battery has, amazingly, come back to 12.9 V, after it's very brief dip into the 7's !
but i don't really trust it. I wonder if some fault inside the battery is drawing excess charging amps and heating up the Sure Power.
I'm dragging my feet replacing the battery because it's such a pain in the butt and expensive, but ...