Ive just finished removing the rear heater coolant lines and cleaning up the mess from that, then starting the bus and running the heater system with seeming success. But then, a couple hours later, dead battery. or so it seems... I did have the electrical panel opened up a few times to disconnect the rear heater electrical wires, so maybe some problem there... but also, my dual battery system is a little confusing for me at the moment, and im not sure its hooked up properly.
sidenote: Previous owner bought the bus a brand new battery because she thought the one she had was not holding a charge. At the shop they checked the old battery and said it was good, so we took home both batteries. Have only had one connected so far. The bus ran great for the 4 hour trip home, and has been sitting for 2 weeks, no problems with the battery until now.
Last night, I setup the dual batteries to run in parallel and tried jumping from my GMC 3500, but after 45 minutes, i saw only a slight increase in power, not enough to get the brake pedal fully depressed for start, and definitely not enough for any cranking on the engine. Just a subtle "click" upon turning the key. i tried disconnecting the secondary battery, and just charging one, but had even less of a result. Now im wanting to revisit the battery setup entirely and make sure i have all connections proper.
Also, the only thing i did (intentionally) in the electrical panel, was to remove the rear heater wires. I did not remove the wires that run from the control panel/switches to the htr fuse panel, just the wires that ran from the fuse panel to the back of the bus. Would this cause a parasitic drain, or some other problem?
Here are some pictures of my battery connections ...
I read on Skoolie forums some conflicting points of view on jump starting... some say they've done it no problem even with small cars, some say NO NO NO , you must use a charger...