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Old 07-09-2018, 05:28 PM   #1
Roccos Adventures
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Converter/Inverter

Hello all,
New to the fourm, not new to camping. So this is the first year Ive left my camper unattended and not plugged in over the winter.
With that being said when I came back to the camper this spring my lights and slides did not work off there battery as they should and usually did in the past. Yes it was a new battery and yes it was charged. So once I start my generator or plug into shore power everything works fine as it should.
Does this sound like the converter to you? If so where can I find where this is located, I have a 2015 fusion 371.
Any and all help will be much appreciated.
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Old 07-09-2018, 05:40 PM   #2
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Welcome to the forum
If your slides work when your hooked up to a 120VAC source, your converter is probably okay. The slides use 12V to move, and the converter produces that. I would take a second look at the battery(s).
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Old 07-09-2018, 06:21 PM   #3
Roccos Adventures
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My slides and lights always worked off my battery or while plugged into the truck. Now they dont. Battery is fine. Put 2 different ones in. Even hooked up a charger to the battery and still nothing
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Old 07-09-2018, 06:42 PM   #4
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As Chuck said, it's the battery, an autoresetting fuse, cable, or ground but from what you stated the converter is working.
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Old 07-09-2018, 07:06 PM   #5
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Maybe its not the comverter, thats what i was told it could be. Its definitely not the battery, both batteries are new, and have plenty of crank amps. Theres only 1 ground wire and it is properly hooked up. Where would this auto resetting fuse you speak of be located ?
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Old 07-09-2018, 07:11 PM   #6
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Do you have 2 batteries hooked up or just one? When you put the battery(s) in did you make sure you put the correct leads on the battery(s)?

If you even just as much touched a trailer lead to the wrong post for an instant, you blew the reverse polarity fuses and it would act just like it is now.

If you have a stand alone converter then it’s most likely behind the breaker panel, in a fifth wheel often times it’s behind the back wall in the basement. If it’s part of the breaker panel, it’s the bottom half. You will be looking for a pair of 40A fuses.
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Old 07-09-2018, 07:19 PM   #7
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Think thru it;

It worked fine last year; you disconnected the trailer for a year? months? The batteries died...but you say they are in excellent condition - if you disconnected the trailer a year/6 months ago and it has just sat, the batteries are an issue - with the way you say it is working the converter is a non issue

You either have a problem with the batteries (don't know how you know they are "good" but a year just sitting hooked to the trailer without support will kill them), or if the batteries are actually good, something happened to kill the feed from the converter to the batteries. You would know those kinds of things.
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Old 07-09-2018, 08:01 PM   #8
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Yes the trailer did sit with no power hooked up and or battery (only takes 1 battery). The battery that I put it was brand new, when i thought that might be a problem I bought another brand new battery, nothing both times. When you say the kill feed do you think the battery on/off aka disconnect could have went bad? Thats the only thing I haven't looked at or tried replacing yet
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Old 07-10-2018, 02:59 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roccos Adventures View Post
Yes the trailer did sit with no power hooked up and or battery (only takes 1 battery). The battery that I put it was brand new, when i thought that might be a problem I bought another brand new battery, nothing both times. When you say the kill feed do you think the battery on/off aka disconnect could have went bad? Thats the only thing I haven't looked at or tried replacing yet
Is this what you did:
1. Put trailer away for winter and did not plug in.
2. Replaced dead battery with new one in the spring. No bueno.
3. Bought another new battery, put it in, still no bueno.

Is this a correct summary?

Sounds very much like you hooked the battery up backwards and blew out the reverse polarity fuses. They are the red fuses in this picture.Click image for larger version

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Old 07-10-2018, 03:16 AM   #10
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Check the battery cable crimp connections. On mine, I could easily wiggle the wires in them all. These may also be some inline fuses in positives coming off battery.
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Old 07-10-2018, 04:02 AM   #11
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Resettable circuit breaker, typically located on the trailer frame. The studs can corrode and cause problems and they are very inexpensive to replace.
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Old 07-10-2018, 05:57 AM   #12
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As much as Id like to say I did hook up the battery the wrong way , unfortunately I did not. All the fuses are fine and in working condition that was some of the first things I checked. That's why somebody originally said it could have been the converter that's why I was inquiring about that. The only thing I can think of at this point is that mice got into the battery disconnect the on-off switch
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Old 07-10-2018, 11:04 AM   #13
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Check the battery disconnect. When plugged into shore power the converter supplies 12 V.D.C. and you said everything works when plugged in so the converter is O.K. Sounds like you have the power from the battery interrupted somewhere so get a VOM or test light and start tracing it out. On another note, you stated the battery has plenty of cold cranking amps. That is useless in a trailer as you aren't starting an engine. What you need is a deep cycle battery and the more reserve capacity the better.
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Old 07-10-2018, 01:11 PM   #14
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You need a voltage meter. It makes finding these electrical problems so much easier. They are relatively cheap and easy to find. I was surprised at how much I used one when I finally broke down and bought one.

Check the ressetable circuit breaker as flybouy stated above. It is the first component off the battery on the "+" cable. It doesn't even look like a breaker but it is and they are frequent failure items.

Not all RVs are wired the same but frequently not all items are disconnected by opening the battery disconnect. Since you stated that everything worked while plugged in I tend to think the disconnect is fine assuming it's on the positive side and doesn't isolate all loads when open (or broke).

A voltage meter will quickly prove or disprove the switch and the circuit breaker. Do these checks with the camper unplugged from shore power. Shore power would mask your indications.
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Old 07-19-2018, 07:33 AM   #15
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1. There isn’t just one ground wire (battery to frame). There are separate ground wires throughout a camper. Just saw a new 39.5’ Montana at an Arkansas campground this week. They couldn’t level, extend slides, turn on the ACs, nada. New battery(ies) and had spent 14 days in it two months ago. They took it to a CW abouit an hour away where they replaced hardware bits. Came back to the camp site. Nothing worked. Turned out they have multiple fuze boxes throughout the camper; has a Converter plus an Inverter as they have a residential fridge (wouldn’t have one, myself). We had issues with our 2018 Montana HC Jan-May in Texas. Self-resetting 12 volt fuze left us without a furnace in 35 degree weather. Had a mobile tech out: replaced the 12 volt fuze buss (also re-installed the toilet stool; satellite wouldn’t
work; ceiling fan screws fell out; screen door lock fell off; slides allow water to get inside; slide wooden paret fell off; and the list goes on). Keystone uses self-resetting fuzes that may look OK visually, but essentially “melt” or weaken the buss blades holding the fuze; this allows the fuze to flex/move interrupting/stopping power flow. If your Converter is OK, don’t have self-resetting fuzes, and battery(ies) function properely, you can still have a bad/intermittent grouind anywhere in the system. I installed an Performance Dynamics 9245C Converter in our 1964 vintage camper to replace its 15 amp systgem with a 30 amp system. The Converter itself has its own ground wire which might not be fixed down right. Not to mention all the ground connections inside the Converter, at various electronics items, etc. if you have 11q0 volt power, your Converter works. If you blew the fuze at the battery you won’t have 12 volt in the coach. Most items in campers use 12 volts; 99% of electrical problems stem from bad grounds somewhere; so don’t discount bad grounds or bad components. If your camper is new, take it to a dealer for warranty service. Only a good tech (real challenge there!) can trace down issues. And never leave your camper unplugged all winter. A Converter will maintain a battery but make it boil oiut since they are designed to do just that. Sulfation alone is cause to not leave it
unplugged. If you stand on a dealer’s neck, they will fix it. If you start playing around trying to fix it yourself, you void your warranty. My local CW finally capitulated on fixing poor satgellite service by running dedicated coaxes to each TV at their cost. Twenty hours at $145.00 per hour. Keystone didn’t stand behind its warranty..on an issue Keystone caused by putting Diplexers on single coaxes to each TV, for example. We must make dealers and manufacturers support these expensive toys. Only thing worse than electrics is plumbing. And elecgrtics are gawwwd awful.
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Old 07-19-2018, 11:42 AM   #16
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Hav you checked for a battery cut-off switch? Even if its on, remove it and short the posts together. Ive seen them fail. Cheap chinese crap...
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Old 07-19-2018, 11:58 AM   #17
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Also note that not everything is shut off by the disconnect. IE on most the smoke and CO2 detectors are on all the time unless you disconnect the battery post.
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Old 07-20-2018, 05:45 AM   #18
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Old soldier there should be one battery ground to the frame and all loads use that frame as a "common" ground. Losing the ground from one load would only affect that load. Losing the battery ground will affect everything as there would be no return path to the battery.
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Old 07-20-2018, 12:52 PM   #19
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Quick question is it ok to leave a 5er hook up to AC all the time even over the winter? With nothing running except the converter?
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Old 07-20-2018, 02:09 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by ron130fe View Post
Quick question is it ok to leave a 5er hook up to AC all the time even over the winter? With nothing running except the converter?
I leave my TT hooked up all winter w/o any issues. Now a 5th wheel may be different, but I'd bet it's ok. LOL
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