Dash panel is dead & starter will not engage

[Russell E Johnson]

I parked my 89 Southwind, with a p30 chassis, 3 weeks ago.  Went out to start it and there was nothing.  The batteries are fully charged, but the dash does not ight up with the key in the on position and the starter does not engage when the key is turned to the start position.  Also the dash lights do not come on when the head light switch is pulled out.  Any and all suggestions on what to check for will be  appreciated.

[Russell E Johnson]

Thank you Jack, The ignition switch is where I was going to start, I made an operator error about the dash lights not coming on, they do come on, we have not driven the mh at night and the dimmer switch was turned to the off position.  When I turned it to the full on position, I do have dash lights and headlights.

[Russell E Johnson]

Mu batteries set in plastic cases and are supported by a metal base.  I  am going to have a special platform built in the battery area to support more than just 2 12v batteries, I hope to be able to get 4 6v batteries installed.  In a different post, I found 2 problems one was the ignition switch and the other was an access relay.

[Russell E Johnson]

they are not bolted down, and yes the isolator is already installed.

[John "T" Nordhoff]

  Actually, having Four 6 Volt Deep Cycle Golf Cart type Batteries is NOT that strange or unusual or dangerous  (just need mechanical strength for that much weight and of course they need to be properly vented)  some later model larger motorhomes have that arrangement. In fact, in  my 2001 29 Ft Class C I have four 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series parallel with a capacity of 460 Amp hrs. My isolator relay was already in place, you can use a solid state device or a mechanical relay such as I have which is fairly common in motorhomes. Its also easy to add overload protection devices right at the source (battery banks) when you run wires to your DC load distribution panel. One buddy has six batteries and another has 10 in their conversions. HOWEVER I have that many plus 200 watts or rooftop solar panels because we do extended dry camping, but if you're a short term camper or go with hook ups you can get by with far less energy storage.

 John T

[Gil Hutcheson]

I had a similar problem on my Superior (Dodge chassis). The old girl would mysteriously lose all power at the most inopportune times. If I made a ruckus of some type in the coach or opened the battery drawer. I found that the problem was the connections on the starter relay were loose. I spent about an hour of qualilty time under the RV cleaning all of the connections to it and tightening them. Haven't had an issue since.

Hope this helps.

[Russell E Johnson]

Guess it is about time I posted an end result to this problem.  I finally broke down and took the MH into a mechanic shop.  They spent 2 days replacing old wires that were shorting out and blowing fuses and some were making intermittent connection.  $550 later everything is up and running just fine.  The old wires were cracked and the insulation was worn off and others were broken, hence the intermittent connections.  The fun and joys of owning an old RV, still I would not give up the old girl for a new one.

[Rich Thomas]

Glad you got that all sorted out. The price wasn't out of line either but if your like me January's not a good time for extra expenditures no matter how good the cost.

[Dean]

There maybe an inline fuse running from the battery. Also, the battery may be charged all the way but if there is corrosion built up on the connections, you may not get any power.

[Russell E Johnson]

When this problem started, I cleaned every connection and installed new tube fuses when they were corroded too badly to clean properly.  That did no good for the problem I was having as it turned out to be broken wires and insulation worn off.