montana battery question

[L0veless]

need education on battery charging.
we unhooked 5th for a day with only the refer running set on automatic. we stayed with friends in there house, which meant no lights or anything else on.
in the morning everything was dead, not a problem. we fired up the new generator was able to extend/retract jacks to hook up. refer fired back up.
off we go not thinking anything about the dead battery. we drove 400 miles (9hrs) when I went to extend the jacks to unhook panel read low battery and grunted but nothing worked. hooked up power cord and everything works great.

my question, I thought while driving the battery would charge up from the truck. obviously I was wrong or is the system missing something? is there a switch to flip? oh yea the battery switch is on.

always looking to improve my knowledge on these things.

thank you

thank you

[BuxCamper]

GM trucks let you connect a wire at the under hood fuse box that will feed 12V to the Bargman. You have to supply the nut. The owners manual will have the details. I'm not sure if other truck manufacturers provide this capability.

-- Mark

[PARAPTOR]

I think after a 9 hr trip your truck charging system would have topped off the battery. Have you ever checked to make sure that charging system is intact,ie, connected and no blown fuses. We have had posts on newer trucks where a connector was not installed by the dealer and thereby disabled that charging feature?? bad connections??

[CaptnJohn]

The truck should charge the battery. Ford will charge only when the motor is running and not drain the truck battery when shut off. Unsure of the other builders.

My 1st thought is the battery is bad ~ even if you have 2. One bad one will be equalized and drain the other. Has the water level been where it should be? How old is it (they). If a residential refer you should have 2 and they should hold much longer. If older than 3 - years or have been completely discharged in the past probably time anyway. Advance Auto can check the battery. If the quick check shows bad there is the answer. If it shows good they need to put it (them) on a charger for at least 90 minutes and check again to be sure.
1st check to see if you are getting juice from the truck and that the pigtail is not corroded.
If those don't tell you where the problem is there are still items to check but most often it will be found here. Hopefully, you have already checked breakers...

[L0veless]

this unit is new (mfg, 7/2016)
I will check battery water level tomorrow (single battery)
I assumed the connections were ok, brakes, lights and turn signals worked.
will check breaker/fuse under the hood, if this fuse was blown would trailer brakes still work?
the consensus is that it should charge off of running truck. the truck is a 2016 Ram 3500.

[PARAPTOR]

Originally Posted by L0veless

this unit is new (mfg, 7/2016)
I will check battery water level tomorrow (single battery)
I assumed the connections were ok, brakes, lights and turn signals worked.
will check breaker/fuse under the hood, if this fuse was blown would trailer brakes still work?
the consensus is that it should charge off of running truck. the truck is a 2016 Ram 3500.

Battery charge is pin 4 (black) on 7 way plug which is separate from thos in red which have their own pins

[BuxCamper]

Check for voltage there with and without truck running. Obviously stay safe and make sure it can't roll over you!

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

[sourdough]

My Ram charges my batteries just fine. Sounds like the battery is fairly new but you never know what they've been through. The first thing I would do is open up the battery box and check water levels and physically inspect the battery. Take readings and make sure that it really is up to snuff. You're problem sure sounds like the battery (and I would install 2....new ones).

[bobbecky]

In the convenience center, where the water hose connects, and there are a couple of cable handles for draining the waste tanks, and several valves for winterizing, there should be a red handled switch that is the battery disconnect switch. If the handle is turned to where the red 'key' will come out, the battery is not connected to the converter, but is still connected to the jacks and a couple of other loads. You should also check that the 120 volt breaker in the electric panel that supplies power to the converter is not tripped. As was already said, you must make sure your battery(ies) are in good shape. If the battery has disharged so low that it will not operate things in your rig, it probably is no longer a reliable battery that will hold a charge for much time.

[bsmith0404]

Here's the diagram for the 7 way connector on your truck/trailer. A simple 12v test light will let you know if your truck is providing power to the trailer. As mentioned earlier, pin 4 is the one you're looking for. If you have power at the truck, you can chase it back through the trailer to see where things are going bad.

[BrentB]

Do you have a residential type refrigerator that is running off an inverter? That could drain your battery overnight and then continue to draw too much amperage the next day for your relatively low truck charge rate to overcome.

[hankpage]

All suggestions are good but my guess would be that the battery disconnect is bad or in the wrong position. As mentioned, if the battery has been fully discharged several times it may no longer be reliable. Your Ram should charge your battery while running. JM2¢, Hank

[L0veless]

wow what a great group. now I have some direction and idea on where to check and how to check.
I'm sure with all this information I can get to the source pretty easily.

again thanks everyone

[MattHelm21]

I have to second Brent's response. Can you confirm whether you have the residential fridge option and if so was it and the inverter switched on during the night and later when driving down the road? Depending on battery configuration, it is easy for they/it to go dead overnight when running this way and later the truck's charge circuit may not be able to keep up with the load on the batteries and still provide a charge. You could be experiencing normal operation for your rig. That is about how ours works.

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by MattHelm21

I have to second Brent's response. Can you confirm whether you have the residential fridge option and if so was it and the inverter switched on during the night and later when driving down the road? Depending on battery configuration, it is easy for they/it to go dead overnight when running this way and later the truck's charge circuit may not be able to keep up with the load on the batteries and still provide a charge. You could be experiencing normal operation for your rig. That is about how ours works.

Only one battery so should not be a residential fridge ~~ but possible as dealers are cheap! I put 2 on my Cougar with a RV fridge.

[MattHelm21]

Only one battery so should not be a residential fridge

I can't speak to the OP's model but our Fuzion would only have been supplied with one 12V battery even with the residential fridge option had I not negotiated for the 2nd.

[L0veless]

this unit has one battery, RV refrigerator. when we get home will upgrade batteries to 2.
yesterday morning slides and jacks worked from charging over night ( plugged in)been on the road and have not had time to follow up on checking things out yet. will let you know what the issue was.

thank you

[dcg9381]

Upgrade to a real battery disconnect also. Sounds like your battery may be toast, it doesn't take very many cycles of full discharge to completely kill one.

The factory battery disconnect is a "sorta" disconnect, FYI. It's very misleading.