2011 410LEV issues

[Patrice]

Good afternoon all.
Have to admit that I am new to the RV world and acquired a used RV earlier this Spring and finally got to open it up for the first time and discovered a few issues. There were a few blown fuses and after changing them, all appear to operate fine until I found the battery low this morning. The RV is plugged into the house outlet and I thought the inverter would charge the battery at the same time...Put a charger on the battery and am thinking will pull the breaker panel to access the inverter and check to see if it is sending a charge to the battery...Wondering whether this is the right option and which wire to check...

Other discovery is that it appears the water pump is malfunctioning. I filled the fresh water tank to sanitize to 2/3 and when trying to prime the system, the pump works but won't stop and I have no air coming out of the taps... Check all taps to make sure they are shut. Don't know if I forgot to turn on a bypass??

Any advise would be welcome. Other than that, RV is just fine!!

[Terry W.]

There are only two wires coming out of converter that's pretty straight forward. Is there a winterize valve open? Is there a hot water heater bypass open?

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[Patrice]

I switched the winterize valve already. Did not check the hot water heater yet, but don't want water in it either. I will open after dinner and make sure the bypass is uninterrupted.

[ctbruce]

Converters charge the battery and convert AC to DC. Inverters convert DC to AC and are used to power residential fridges and 110v AC appliances. You have a converter.

You can open the bypass to sanitize, it won't bother your water heater. It sounds like you have the winterization valve open and that's why your water pump won't prime. It's trying to pull from where RV antifreeze would be drawn into the pump.

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[Patrice]

Hello Chip. Thank you for the reply and the education on converter vs inverter. To test the converter, we turned on some lights (12 volts) - worked fine while connected to shore power. Then, disconnected the battery and as expected, no more lights! So it would seem the converter might be the problem... I believe it is located behind the breaker panel. It there a reset switch or fuse or is a replacement necessary? My guess would be to get same unit and invest in a power surge protector...
As for the pump, I move the switch away from winterization. I will access the hot water tank tomorrow and see how it is...
Thanks again.

[ctbruce]

I'm no genius on this, but I'm thinking with your battery disconnected, all of your 12v will be disconnected also. How old is your battery and did it die all the way out? Or sit and fully discharge to being dead? You may have a bad battery. You CAN Take It To Auto Zone to be load tested to make sure. Take a picture of how it is connected at the battery for future reference. It's not like a car. Black is positive and white is negative.

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[Patrice]

From my understanding, once plugged to shore power, the converter "converts" 110 volts to 12 and you should be able to run the RV without a battery... With a battery, there is the added bonus of charging it through the converter...
As for the battery I have, its brand new. Since the converter is not charging it, the load had gone down.
I will pull the converter out tomorrow am and test the output, which I believe should be about 13+ volts... By all means, if I'm off my rockers please advise as I'm no rocket scientist either.

[Terry W.]

You must have a good battery period. Yes the converter 110 to 12 volts but all 12 stuff work.off the battery and the converter recharges the battery. You can not work just off converter.

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[BrentB]

I have a different brand of rv, but it will operate 12 volt lights and devices using just the converter. Battery is not necessary.

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by Terry W.

You must have a good battery period. Yes the converter 110 to 12 volts but all 12 stuff work.off the battery and the converter recharges the battery. You can not work just off converter.

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Actually you can. The converter supplies 12V to the coach and charges the battery.

[Terry W.]

Ok I stand corrected. I'll go.back to sleep now

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[JRTJH]

A bit of explanation then some suggested actions:

First, the converter will provide 12 VDC power to the trailer with or without a battery in the system. The "caution" is to not activate a "heavy DC user" without a battery. Operating the slides, landing gear, hydraulic pump, etc without a battery "MAY" (maybe not) put too much load on the converter and damage the rectifier circuit. So, ALWAYS have a battery on the system if you're going to operate anything other than a light or two. If you consider that every 921 light bulb uses about 1.2 amps, turning on 10 light bulbs (that's 5 double fixtures) is 12 amps, the same as the slide motor, so potentially turning on "a few lights" operating the refrigerator control circuit, and then either turning on the bathroom vent fan or the water pump could put the converter in "overload" and damage the rectifiers. A battery "buffers" the load to protect the converter from "overload".....

So, even though the converter "will provide power to the trailer" it's best not to depend on the converter without a battery in the system.

Now, as for the OP's problem. There are two "reverse polarity fuses" on the converter. In "newer" units, the reverse polarity fuses are located on the face of the power center just to the left of the DC fuse panel. On older units they are located on the converter assembly which is usually mounted behind the power center or relatively close to it. Often Keystone installs a "stand alone converter" on larger units, so yours may not be physically attached to the power center.

The Reverse Polarity fuses serve ONLY to protect the converter from "reverse battery connections". They do nothing else. Typically, in RV's the black battery cable is POSITIVE and the white cable is NEGATIVE. That's the "opposite of automotive negative cables" and very often gets a new RV owner confused. If you by any chance "even quickly" touched the black cable to the negative terminal on your battery, you've probably blown the reverse polarity fuses. Check them before you do anything else. If they are good, then disconnect your converter from the power center, plug it into 120 VAC and check the output. If it's 13.6VDC, the converter is good and your problem is likely to be your battery. If the output is 0VDC and the reverse polarity fuses are good, your converter is "toast". You may also have a bad battery that caused the converter to "toast" so before you buy and install a new converter, make sure your battery is serviceable or you may "toast" the new converter as well.

Bottom line, I don't recommend using the trailer 12 volt systems without a battery to protect the converter. Always check your battery at least weekly and keep the electrolyte "topped off". If you have a battery cutoff switch, it "may or may not" disconnect the battery from the converter and the battery may or may not charge with the battery cutoff switch open or closed. It will depend on how the factory wired the cutoff switch and whether or not the previous owner may have "modified the wiring". You can NEVER tell with a previously owned trailer what someone might have done and I've seen wiring that makes me "shake my head in disbelief" more times than I've seen wiring mods that seem to be a significant improvement over what Keystone does as standard wiring.

[Patrice]

Thank you John. Appreciate all the input.
As an update, found the 2 X 40 fuses were blown. After a little searching for replacement, found some and behold, the converter is working!
I will monitor, but needless to say was very happy!
As for the water pump, checked the in and out valves and there isn't much pressure which leads me to believe it is toast. Also discovered the pedal for the toilet was broken. I checked at an RV dealer and they tell me that you cannot get a replacement pedal for a Dometic model SC310.

[JRTJH]

Congratulations on "saving" your converter.... You found what many of us have found, those fuses are impossible to find in most stores. Now would be a great time to buy two spares, that way you'll never need them again LOL

As for the toilet, you're right, the pedal mechanism is not available separately. It is a part of the base assembly and not sold as a repair item. The foot pedal is available and the water valve is available, but not the pedal mechanism. Really, it is essentially a spring that transfers downward force from the pedal into linear movement to pull the water valve open and springs closed when the pedal is released. Are you sure it's the spring mechanism that's bad? Usually it's the water valve that is mounted into the pedal mechanism that fails. So a little "digging into what's broken" might save you a new toilet as well...You can download the owner's manual for the Sealand/Dometic 310 toilet at their website. If you can't find the link, post for help and someone will provide you the link.

[PARAPTOR]

That Raptor should have the same 100 amp converter as mine which is a three stage converter voltages should be around 12.9, 13.6, 14.4 depending on the condition of the battery (charge). When hooked to shore power that converter is supplying most of the power, if not all , to the 12V devices in the Raptor as well as charging current to the batteries. There are reverse polarity fuses associated with the converter. Sounds like you solved your pump issue??

EDIT: OOPS having too much time camping missed page two !!!!!!!
Okay back to the fire !!!

[Patrice]

Checked the converter and it is a 75 AMP with output of 7.6.

As for the toilet pedal, there is a shaft in the middle of the pedal (about the size of pinky finger) that goes in through the side and screws into the flap in the toilet. The shaft is broken in 3 pieces beyond repair. I would have thought that a new pedal would have done the trick but was told can't get that piece. I do have a photo if that would help, but will require a little digging as I am using the in-law's computer...
A little search on the WEB also indicates that the spring mechanism also makes it near impossible to hook back up together.

Looking for a new toilet now, unless by some miracle there is a fix for that issue.

[Patrice]

Quick correction on the converter, it 13.6 VDC output

[JRTJH]

I was about to suggest to you that your converter output is WAY below acceptable. The correction corrected that.... As for the toilet, PPL had the 310 toilet on sale with free shipping for $136 last week. I don't know what the current price is, but that was a little cheaper than CW or most local RV parts houses. Honestly, when you consider what a toilet does and how it works, it's not something you want to "piece together" and have fail in the middle of a campground when you're 100 miles from home and reliable replacement parts. I'd urge you to just bite the bullet and get a new one....

An observation, it sounds from the things you've said, that the trailer was subject to not being winterized properly (toilet, water pump problems) so I'd also look carefully at the water heater tank and the holding tanks/valves. You may find more damage that you can repair easily but if you wait, will become a major issue with the water damage that's sure to follow. It's much easier to fix a small problem BEFORE the wood rot takes its toll.

[Patrice]

Great advice John.
When you say holding tank valves, you mean the grey and black water drain valves??

[ctbruce]

Originally Posted by Patrice

Great advice John.
When you say holding tank valves, you mean the grey and black water drain valves??

The black and grey tank valves. Those are the ones.