Never-ending battery issues are leaving us drained
Battery issues have certainly been a theme for us in our RV adventures. Before we even took delivery of our RV, we ordered two lithium ion batteries to replace the stock lead acid ones, and we had them shipped to our dealer, who lost them. On our drive down to pick up Buggy, we frantically tried to get the correct batteries in our trailer. We paid for them and we weren't leaving without them or something comparable. The dealer was able to scrounge for some replacements that they had on the lot. They weren't the brand we had purchased, but they were reputable nonetheless, and so we took them.
During that whole mess, someone somewhere did not change our battery charge controller over to the correct settings. We suspected this for a long time because our batteries weren't holding a charge the way we expected. Every time we camped off-grid, even for one night, we'd get low battery warnings when we shouldn't be anywhere close to low. We suspected that the batteries themselves were fine and immediately tried troubleshooting the charge controller, but we couldn't figure out the settings. Turns out, no one can. We asked countless pros to check our settings and every one of them said it was set for lithium ion. It wasn't until we got our solar installed that our contractor confirmed our suspicions. The charge controller was still set for lead acid batteries, and so our lithium ion batteries were likely only charging to about 30% of their full capacity and our battery monitor didn't know how to read their charges accurately anyway. But by that point, the issue didn't matter anymore because we were replacing those two batteries with four brand-spanking-new ones, plus a new charge controller integrated in our Victron 3000W inverter, and a separate solar charge controller. We were finally free of our battery-related woes!
...Well, for about 6 months. Then we had our catastrophic battery failure over Labor Day Weekend. We were living life at a beautiful campground in the woods, when all of a sudden, our batteries - which were supposed to be full - died, causing a total blackout in our RV, in the summer heat, through the night. Thankfully, the batteries suffered no permanent damage and we were able to revive them once we got on shore power. We have some theories as to what happened, and all of them in some way involve heat. Heat was not our friend this past summer, and while we diligently monitored the temperature in our storage bay where our batteries are located, we think the temperature either wasn't reading properly, or the battery temps were uneven, and we were only getting the average temp of all four batteries. We've since taken steps to hopefully eradicate the issue by venting our storage bay with a fan. Fingers crossed we can prevent this situation from happening again.
Since we tow a travel trailer, we do have one other component to our home-on-wheels: the truck. And don't think the truck was spared its own battery issues. We rented an Airbnb while our RV was getting some repairs, and on the morning of check-out, we went to start the truck, and all we heard were some clicks and then...nothing. We had been noticing that occasionally we'd need to try a few times before the ignition started successfully, but we had taken the truck to GMC's service department and they couldn't find anything wrong. Clearly, they were wrong, something was wrong, and as soon as we got it started, we took it straight back to get serviced again.
The service guys ran a battery test and it showed low performance, and so we got it replaced. We thought that was the end of the story, and that's also where we left off writing about it in the blog.
But we're here today to continue that story. So much happened on our Blitz East that we couldn't share everything, but amidst the mud pits, flash floods, and scary campground roads, we started having truck problems again. When we were in Pennsylvania, we went to start the truck, and it took a few attempts. This hadn't happened in a good six weeks, so it raised some red flags. Over the course of our Blitz East, we were driving more often and the temperatures weren't super cold until we got to Pennsylvania, so those circumstances could have led to a better battery performance. But back in the cold and finally starting to slow down after reaching the eastern US, the problems returned. But clearly, no matter what the circumstances, this just shouldn't be happening.
Then came the dreaded day that, no matter how many attempts, the ignition just wouldn't ignite. We had the new battery, but thought maybe it was getting depleted somehow, or another piece of equipment might be causing a malfunction. We considered that maybe it was the electrical bus board or perhaps the alternator, but we're far from mechanics. The silver lining to this debacle is that we never seem to be in high stress situations when it happens. We're never out in the middle of nowhere, and we're never pressed for time getting somewhere. This time was the most mundane; we were in our Maryland campground, a 2-minute drive away from our campsite, parked outside the office. The truck wouldn't start, and so we just left it there and walked back to our site until we wanted to deal with it. When we did decide to deal with it, we had our jump pack. It was our first time using it - actually our first time ever jumping a vehicle, so we had to read a few manuals and clamp all the right places, but once we figured it out, the jump pack worked like a charm. We kept the truck running for a while to juice up the battery, and Anthony made an appointment at our GMC in Massachusetts for a couple days after we planned on getting back.
That one jump lasted us until we returned home. Anthony did have to jump the truck in order to drive it to GMC, and then we kept it there overnight so the guys could run diagnostics.
The verdict came in the following afternoon: Our truck has a parasitic driver's seat. What?! Yes, it's true. Evidently the electrical component that adjusts the driver's seat wasn't turning off when the engine turns off, and it was draining the battery. They'd need to order the part, and so they jumped the truck for us and we took it home, keeping the jump pack handy for the next week. Being home was a huge plus because we were able to borrow my parents' vehicles when we needed to go places.
GMC called us when the part came in, and they were done installing it in just a few hours. Then came the waiting period to see if this did in fact solve our issues once and for all.
We hoped that we'd be ending the story there, but we're not so lucky. After a few days of normal functioning, I hopped in the truck one rainy morning to discover that, once again, it wouldn't start. Back to GMC it went.
Now before you wonder why we didn't just take it to a mechanic who might be worth more salt than the service guys at GMC, our truck is under an extended warranty, and having it served at a non-GMC mechanic would mean we'd have to pay. Also, our local GMC has always been decent, especially compared to a few other locations we've been to on our travels.
Clyde spent a few more days at GMC, as the guys ran more tests. We thought the parasitic driver's seat was surprising, but when we got this call, we were shocked. After all that hoopla, they told us that the starter needed to be replaced.
That begged the question: If it was something as obvious as the starter, why wasn't it diagnosed until now? We suppose we can trace it back to the GMC in Denver, when we brought the truck for its annual maintenance and also alerted them to the fact that it was sometimes not starting. We assumed they checked the starter then, because why wouldn't they? Our guess is that everyone thereafter assumed the same thing, and so the starter was never examined in-depth. Didn't I just mention that some GMCs have been better than others? All that to say, though, the starter should have been looked at no matter what. It's hard to believe that this has truly been the main issue all along.
The service guys checked as many components as they could to make sure nothing else was draining the battery like the seat was, and we got our starter replaced. Clyde is back home, and we're giving ourselves a trial period where we'll run the engine, then let it sit for a few days, test it in different temperatures, and all the other things we can think of. We don't know if we'll be making another trip to the service department, but this is something we hope to have figured out before we get back on the road. This could potentially be a plan-changer if it's not squared away soon. We do not want to set out with a truck that's constantly dying.
