[bikestuff]

Ok, now I am really confused. I have had lots of battery troubles with my coach...and have replaced multiple sets of engine batteries until the Newell guys found the problem->several bad/corroded connections in the engine bay.

I have been told conflicting information about the merge switch. 1) Leave on all the time, 2) Turn on to crank, 3) Leave off unless you have dead battery, 4) Turn it on for "a while" to equalize voltages between the house and the engine batteries.

Steve, I also have an outback inverter...can you verify that it is setup for the proper kind of batteries. Mine was setup as AGM, but my engine batteries where NOT AGM, so when I merged the two....well I may have done the same thing to at least one set.

I cant believe that merging the batteries (even with bad engine batteries) would "cook" your house batteries.
Can anyone step in here and tell us...1) When is the proper time to use the Merge switch 2) For AGM batteries, how do you monitor the health of the batteries 3) With the merge switch present in our coaches, is it ever wise / proper to have AGM AND non AGM batteries on the same coach?