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  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by CoChris View Post
    You do not say what truck you have. If it is a newer Ford, you have to connect the trailer first, have the truck running then step on the brakes (maybe for a couple of seconds) before the truck will start charging the batteries. On my truck, it will only charge the batteries at a low ( less than 10 A) rate, so would take a long time to charge fully discharged batteries.
    Just wrapping up this post...Chris got it with his comment above. I tried this before I started messing with jumper cables. I had the truck running, stepped on the brake for a few seconds, even put it in drive with my foot on the brake for a few seconds too. Within about 5 minutes the generator fired right up!!

    Thank you so much everyone, I’d have been stuck without all the help. Chris, you win man of the thread on this one. [emoji2]

    What a wonderful community. THANK YOU.

  2. #12
    Site Sponsor
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaliMClass View Post
    Just wrapping up this post...Chris got it with his comment above. I tried this before I started messing with jumper cables. I had the truck running, stepped on the brake for a few seconds, even put it in drive with my foot on the brake for a few seconds too. Within about 5 minutes the generator fired right up!!

    Thank you so much everyone, I’d have been stuck without all the help. Chris, you win man of the thread on this one. [emoji2]

    What a wonderful community. THANK YOU.
    Glad to help. Happy it worked out for you. There are a lot of very good people on this site willing to help, share knowledge and learn from each other. I have learned a lot here and try to pay it back when I can.

    If you do not have a volt meter (or better a volt, ohm, miliamp meter some times called a VOM), I would suggest getting a cheap one (they can be had for $10~$50 guessing - point is you do not have to spend hundreds for a usable one) and keep it in the trailer. There have been good discussions on here and suggestions for good volt (also called multimeters). Very handy for trouble shooting electrical problems and answering questions.

    Chris
    Chris & Karen
    Fort Collins, CO
    2017 F-350 SRW 6.7 Lariat Value CC LB 4x4
    2018 Solitude 310GK - Sold 7/2023

  3. #13
    Site Team WhittleBurner's Avatar
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    It's threads and help like this that make this forum such a great place, you all rock!!
    Marcy & Gary
    2014 Grand Design - Reflection 303RLS
    2022 GMC 3500 Denali Duramax Longbed SRW
    2015 GMC Denali 3500 - Retired
    2003 F350 - retired
    Michigan
    We're in trouble now, the dog are bloggin'!
    https://3dogsandatrailer.wordpress.com/


  4. #14
    Big Traveler boyscout's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaliMClass View Post
    Went to pick the Momentum up from storage and it’s dead as a dodo. [emoji853]
    Glad that you got the help you needed and got yourself going.

    As someone else has already said, your batteries don't like being fully discharged - it causes permanent damage to them and can even make them pretty much unusable (won't hold a charge at all). Hope yours have not been ruined.

    You may have turned off the battery "kill" switch when you put the trailer in storage, but on many Grand Design models that doesn't disconnect the battery from all loads. Alarms, leveling system, trailer brakes, even the radio are things that may remain connected to the batteries and drawing a little power from them. Our trailer is not at all uncommon in that it used to draw about 1/2 amp even if the battery "kill" switch was off. That's enough to drain your four batteries flat in about a month and a half, and probably in even less time now that they've been drained dead-flat once.

    We put in a better battery switch and re-wired things so when our battery switch is off the batteries are disconnected from everything - no draw at all. If you don't want to do that work, then the next time you'll be away from the trailer for a while consider at least removing the negative cable from the battery (the blue wire and other associated wires connected with it on the left side of your front-most battery).
    Mark - 2018 Solitude 310GK - 2017 F-350 diesel SRW short box - Pullrite Superglide hitch

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by boyscout View Post
    Glad that you got the help you needed and got yourself going.

    As someone else has already said, your batteries don't like being fully discharged - it causes permanent damage to them and can even make them pretty much unusable (won't hold a charge at all). Hope yours have not been ruined.
    This is not the first time we’ve had this type of problem recently ( but in the past we’ve always been able to plug in to shore power to fix it ). We bought our Momentum used so my guess is the batteries were maybe shot already. At this point they’ve been dead a few times under our ownership ( last 3 months ).

    Sounds like I might be on the hook for some new batteries... [emoji51] Hopefully this isn’t going to lighten the wallet too horrifically. [emoji1787]

  6. #16
    Paid my dues 😁 FT4NOW's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaliMClass View Post
    This is not the first time we’ve had this type of problem recently ( but in the past we’ve always been able to plug in to shore power to fix it ). We bought our Momentum used so my guess is the batteries were maybe shot already. At this point they’ve been dead a few times under our ownership ( last 3 months ).

    Sounds like I might be on the hook for some new batteries... [emoji51] Hopefully this isn’t going to lighten the wallet too horrifically. [emoji1787]
    Whatever kind of batteries you get, you should add another battery disconnect switch right after the batteries for when you put the RV in storage. You wont need to worry about those parasitic loads anymore. Either a new switch or rewire the factory switch to be an actual disconnect will help you in the future.



    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
    2023 Momentum 398M-R
    2023 Ford F-450

    SOLD - 2021 Reflection 311BHS
    SOLD - 2017 Momentum 399TH

  7. #17
    Big Traveler boyscout's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaliMClass View Post
    This is not the first time we’ve had this type of problem recently ( but in the past we’ve always been able to plug in to shore power to fix it ). We bought our Momentum used so my guess is the batteries were maybe shot already. At this point they’ve been dead a few times under our ownership ( last 3 months ).

    Sounds like I might be on the hook for some new batteries... [emoji51] Hopefully this isn’t going to lighten the wallet too horrifically. [emoji1787]
    Four of these will fix you right up - one of the most popular deep-cycle batteries around.

    https://www.solar-electric.com/trt16vo225ah1.html

    (I'm not recommending the seller - don't know anything about them - just the battery which you can find from many sellers.)
    Mark - 2018 Solitude 310GK - 2017 F-350 diesel SRW short box - Pullrite Superglide hitch

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