Batteries crapped out

[Moose29]

So, on our 5th night off grid and running on batteries ( 3rd outing off grid and no previous issues )
We were camped in the trees, so not alot of direct sun on the 200w dealer installed rooftop solar.
Going to bed the batteries said 11.2 V. They have never been that low. So turned off HW tank, water pump, and HVAC, left the fridge on.
At 2:30am our gas detector beeped as our voltage dropped to 7.5 V , no LED lights would turn on.
So in the am, I started the Honda 2000 generator, but it did not seem to do any charging over 1-1/2 hours.
I had to pull out the jumper cables to the truck to pull in the slide, awning, and stablizer jacks before I hooked up . Then the power jack had enough power to lower onto the ball.
After an hour on the road, the batteries were reading 13V > as usuall!
When trying to charge the batteries with the generator, should it not have given me enough power to turn on the lights and pull in the slide, awning,jacks?
It powered enough for the MW and theater seats to run.
1 month of warrenty left on rig

Any comments would be helpful.

[LHaven]

Too many variables to narrow a guess.

Drain -- a vampire load you didn't find: KeyTV, the radio clock, an inverter?
Battery: at 11.2V, under 10% capacity, already useless by bedtime, plus likely already permanently damaged. 11.7V is the damage line.
Charge via truck: possibly illusory; if you metered the battery while the truck was running you were measuring the charger's voltage, not what the battery was actually accepting.
Generator failure: no idea.

in your shoes, I would bring my battery into the parts store for a load test and be prepared to hear bad news. (I just learned this week that for $10 you can buy your own load tester at Harbor Freight; I just spent $20 on Amazon for a more compact one recommended on this forum, mainly for all the UPS gel cells I have to manage.)

[ChuckS]

With the Gen set running the lights and all other interior items sho7ld have worked fine.

The slides and other large amp draw items will not work when running on shore power or from a Gen set because the amp load draw is too much if the batteries are very low.

As your were.

A quick check with a multimeter and negative battery lead removed would have verified if the converter was working

[LHaven]

The mystery is more about why his genset wasn't charging his battery.

[Moose29]

Yes! I would have thought that just by plugging in the Genset there should have been enough power to bring in the awning, slide and jacks.
Anyone have any idea where I can find the converter?
Its not under the bed, or in the basement.
2021 Cougar 25RDSWE
The Keystone website is no help

[NH_Bulldog]

Very often it is behind the fuse/breaker panel (but not always). When the converter is operating under load you can usually hear the cooling fan and that might help you locate it.

If I needed/wanted a quick charge on the batteries (for pulling in the slides or operating the tongue jack), I would connect my truck directly to the camper batteries with a set of jumper cables. This may not work for everyone, but my truck has dual batteries and dual alternators pushing 397 amps, so I have plenty of power to spare.

[Moose29]

Thanks for the comment Rob.
By jumping the RV batteries with jumper cables is how I brought the slide, awning and jacks in.
Im thinking the converter might be toast, As the genset should have at least powered the LED interior lights . Just have to find it! to test the 12V output.
Will pull the electrical panel for a look behind tomorrow.

After an hour and a half pulling it out of the bush ( on Monday )they were up to 13V.
Today (Thursday ) they are at 13.8V, so they are holding a charge.or at least kept up by the 200w of solar
Not sure if it was the solar or the truck that was charging them coming out of the bush.

[bobbecky]

Is there possibly a battery disconnect switch that may have been opened which would take the converter away from the batteries? Or maybe there is something missing from the dealer installed solar setup.

[Moose29]

Thanks for the reply Bob
No way on the disconnect being off.
I think it has to be a bad converter, as the genset should have at least been able to power the LED lights. The Keystone website says only a small amount of power goes back to recharging the batteries
And I believe the solar is tied in after the disconnect, as I usually turn it off when I store it, and the solar keeps the batteries topped up without anything like the radio draining them.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by Moose29

Yes! I would have thought that just by plugging in the Genset there should have been enough power to bring in the awning, slide and jacks.
Anyone have any idea where I can find the converter?
Its not under the bed, or in the basement.

The genset or shore power is plenty to bring in an awning, but generally not a slide or leveling jacks, at least not well.

In a WFCO brand power center, the converter is attached to the rear of the power center itself. With shore power detached, take four screws out of the front plate and slowly pull the entire box out of the wall. Once you clear the wall, there is usually enough slack to let you rotate it towards you like a door. The converter is usually at the rear bottom edge.

There are a pair of output fuses on the converter. It's quite possible that one of these is simply blown.

[bobbecky]

He hadn’t mentioned removing or installing batteries, so the reverse polarity battery fuses didn’t register. That is possibly why the converter isn’t working to charge the batteries. Only takes a split second to blow those fuses if a battery is connected wrong.

[LHaven]

The reverse polarity fuses are the ones on the tongue, aren't they? I was talking about the overload fuses in the side of the converter itself.

[Moose29]

Is it possible a lightning flash over loaded the solar, as we had a storm go ditectly overhead on Saturday? Batteries crapped out on Sunday night.
I found an inline 10 amp fuse outside the disconnect that was blown that read solar charging on the disconnect wiring schedule. 10 amp seems small!
But that still doesnt explain the gen issue.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by LHaven

The reverse polarity fuses are the ones on the tongue, aren't they? I was talking about the overload fuses in the side of the converter itself.

Those are actually the reverse polarity fuses.. overload fusing is done in the wiring, usually with resettable breakers.

[Traveler2017]

My Converter crapped out on me and DW. Almost exactly what you wrote about at the beginning. Luckily was good timing as my batteries were 4 years old and I was about to upgrade to 12V 200 amp lithium ion. So replaced the converter with one that would charge the LI when hooked up to shore power. Only other expense was changing the charge controller and managed to get a good one through Amazon.

[rlh1957]

If you have the original batteries the dealer installed they are your problem. Units usually have one battery unless you have dealer install two.
The batteries are all crap.

[Moose29]

Are two 6 volts batteries for $600 concidered cheap? They are just Lead acid.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Moose29

Are two 6 volts batteries for $600 concidered cheap? They are just Lead acid.

Not to me!
I bought 6 - 6 volt Duracell FLA golf cart batteries at Sam's Club for $89 a piece, OTD for just over $600.
Even the so called best for golf carts are Trojans at $110+/- each.
Where/what brand of batteries are $300 each?
Edit;
Just noticed you are north of the border so I have no idea what 6 volts might be worth there! $300 may be the going price.

[rlh1957]

Originally Posted by Moose29

Are two 6 volts batteries for $600 concidered cheap? They are just Lead acid.

Cost is rarely the top thing you look at when talking RV.
You have to know what the Amp Hour rating is and that they are true Deep Cycle.
You don’t care about cranking amps and definitely not anything used for a car or tractor.

Many others here can give better guidance on whether to go with two 12V in parallel or two 6V in series.
They can give you the pro & con of each type and the criteria for buying them.

[Moose29]

They are Deka GC-15 1200 series 230AHs .

Getting away from my original post.
Should my 2000w genset been enough to turn on the LED lights , retract the awning, slide , and jacks?
Worked fine on the 120v side.