No interior lights when dry camping

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 11:40 AM

So like the title says none of my 12v lights in the trailer are working accept when I'm plugged into shore power.They Don't even work with the pickup connected. My slide outs and jack works. The fridge works on propane. The propane detector works. Battery is new and fully charged.

**chuckster57** · 07-12-2015, 12:10 PM

Time to start checking fuses. If the converter is working and it sounds like it is, then I would suspect the main in from the battery to the fuse panel. When you put the new battery in, your sure you connected it right? WHITE is ground.

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 12:17 PM

Battery is certainly in correctly. all fuses would have to be bad if it were a fuse issue cause all 12v lights are failing. Didn't have my circuit tester with me but no fuses looked burned.

**hankpage** · 07-12-2015, 12:20 PM

Do you have a battery disconnect switch?????? The problem is with the battery ... perhaps the fuse on the firewall or auto breaker. when plugged in the converter is supplying 12v so no need for battery.

**chuckster57** · 07-12-2015, 12:25 PM

Ok, I'm a bit confused. If all the interior lights work while on shore power, but don't on battery power, I'm not sure where to start.

**hankpage** · 07-12-2015, 12:27 PM

Also when connected to the TV the power goes to the trailer battery not the power panel. Check the fuse or fuses on the battery or disconnect.

PARAPTOR · 07-12-2015, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankpage

Do you have a battery disconnect switch?????? The problem is with the battery ... perhaps the fuse on the firewall or auto breaker. when plugged in the converter is supplying 12v so no need for battery.

If battery is not connected via the disconnect switch you will have no 12VDC to many of the 12VDC devices in the rig. Note that some of the rig devices are not effected by the disconnect switch such as the Jacks. On my rig I have yet to go around and find out what 12VDC devices are or are not affected by the disconnect switch.

When you are connected to shore power the 12VDC is being supplied by the converter and devices will work but the batteries will not get charged if the batteries are disconnected using the battery disconnect switch.

The TV will have no effect since as stated by others it is connected to the batteries and when batteries are disconnected, devices like lights will not see the 12VDC.

Check that battery disconnect switch and make sure it is not in a position where the batteries are disconnected

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PARAPTOR

If battery is not connected via the disconnect switch you will have no 12VDC to many of the 12VDC devices in the rig. Note that some of the rig devices are not effected by the disconnect switch such as the Jacks. On my rig I have yet to go around and find out what 12VDC devices are or are not affected by the disconnect switch.

When you are connected to shore power the 12VDC is being supplied by the converter and devices will work but the batteries will not get charged if the batteries are disconnected using the battery disconnect switch.

The TV will have no effect since as stated by others it is connected to the batteries and when batteries are disconnected, devices like lights will not see the 12VDC.

Check that battery disconnect switch and make sure it is not in a position where the batteries are disconnected

I don't think I have a disconnect switch unless it's somewhere I don't know about? I know I didn't install one.

GMcKenzie · 07-12-2015, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptRon

I don't think I have a disconnect switch unless it's somewhere I don't know about? I know I didn't install one.

It really is about the only thing that can explain what is happening. How long have you had the trailer? Is it possible there is a switch in a front compartment?

**hankpage** · 07-12-2015, 04:36 PM

Check the fuse on the firewall for the battery. That most likely is the culprit.

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMcKenzie

It really is about the only thing that can explain what is happening. How long have you had the trailer? Is it possible there is a switch in a front compartment?

I've had the trailer for about 7 yrs.
It's possible that there's a switch but if there is it got disconnected by accident

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankpage

Check the fuse on the firewall for the battery. That most likely is the culprit.

There is an inline glass fuse but it's not burned out.

I need to give you folks a little more background.
About 4 yrs back, I had an issue with a bad resistor in the converter that was not allowing it to charge the battery. There is a thread on it.
Long story short we haven't had time to use the RV this whole time so instead of pulling the converter and changing out the resistor I opted to just use a battery charger set at 2 amps. It worked quite well. Slideouts, fridge, jacks, and all lights have worked without a hitch. We have a good friend building a new home in a fairly remote area and was looking to rent a camper so she could stay on site as opposed to commuting back and forth during the building process. I figured I should do the repair so she wouldn't be dependent of the previous mentioned battery charger. So I installed the new resistor and let it set for a few days to see if it was keeping up. Lights, slideouts, jacks fridge all worked but it was plugged in at the house. Voltage at the battery today was 13.7 volts and the charger had been left off for several days prior to fixing the converter. We got it out to the location this afternoon but her power is not yet hooked up. Slideouts worked, fridge and jacks work but no lights.
It seems something happened from our house to her location.

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankpage

Check the fuse on the firewall for the battery. That most likely is the culprit.

Had no idea that was a fuse. Thought it was just a terminal block!! DOH!!!!

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 05:47 PM

Oh one other thing I noticed when I found the latest power issue.
I was showing her the panel that shows water level in each of the tanks as well as the battery level. I pressed the button on one of the tank indicators and it started to light up for just a second and then faded out. After that nothing would light up on it, not even the charge level on the battery.
I'm guessing that the glimps of light on the panel was just residual current in the circuitry.
I even tried connecting it back to the pickup to see if the current coming from the truck would "turn the lights on" got nothing!!

Cyberian · 07-12-2015, 06:24 PM

Similar symptoms happened to us a while back. I tried everything- Manual charging, new converter, inline fuse, etc. I couldn't keep juice flowing from the batteries.

Laying on my back under the tongue while looking for other fuses or disconnects, I noticed that I had gotten the breakaway cable pinched in between tongue jack blocks- it had pulled out just enough to actuate the brakes steadily for as long as two big group 27 batteries could keep it up and ate up what the converter put out before it ever got to the batteries.

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberian

Similar symptoms happened to us a while back. I tried everything- Manual charging, new converter, inline fuse, etc. I couldn't keep juice flowing from the batteries.

Laying on my back under the tongue while looking for other fuses or disconnects, I noticed that I had gotten the breakaway cable pinched in between tongue jack blocks- it had pulled out just enough to actuate the brakes steadily for as long as two big group 27 batteries could keep it up and ate up what the converter put out before it ever got to the batteries.

Yea but that's not my issue. I have power everywhere but the lights and the water level indicator.

Cyberian · 07-12-2015, 06:44 PM

So did we. Lights and level indicators are exclusively 12 volt DC. If you get a diminishing response from them, something is sucking your 12VDC supply out

CaptRon · 07-12-2015, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberian

So did we. Lights and level indicators are exclusively 12 volt DC. If you get a diminishing response from them, something is sucking your 12VDC supply out

Hmm, but when not connected to anything the jacks and slideouts are 12v DC exclusively as well. May have to head out there tomorrow and see if the battery has lost anything.
I did disconnect the cables and reconnect them. I didn't have any sparking of any kind though.

GMcKenzie · 07-15-2015, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankpage

Check the fuse on the firewall for the battery. That most likely is the culprit.

Wouldn't this breaker affect all the curcuits?

shov · 07-15-2015, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankpage

Check the fuse on the firewall for the battery. That most likely is the culprit.

I was just going to suggest the same thing, I have 2 of these mounted in my battery compartment, and sure as anything i had a bad $5 stepper fuse! Hope its that simple for the OP

GMcKenzie · 07-15-2015, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptRon

Had no idea that was a fuse. Thought it was just a terminal block!! DOH!!!!

It's a circuit breaker. It would normally automatically reset when blown. But I still think if it is fried, it would take out all the power. You could disconnect the wires from it and test it with a meter. If it is an open circuit, replace it. Any auto or RV store would have a replacement.

I think your converter is fried and some circuits are trying to go through the converter. But that is a guess at best.

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