30 amp inline fuse

Fuse blows when I connect to 110v or to the TV. Could it possibly be a bad battery?(Interstate deep cycle on an '08 TM) Or could it be caused by connecting when the battery is down to 6v or less? Removed the battery last nite, charged it to 13.56v, 12 hrs later it was 13.18, now 1 hr later it is 13.17. How long should it take to see whether it holds a charge? Any help would be appreciated. I now know how it feels to spend a cold, lightless night on the road in a TM.

[Bill]

You have asked two questions here.

1. Battery in-line fuse blows. Could it be due to the converter starting to charge a very low battery? The answer is yes. The converter is capable of putting out more than 30 amps if the battery will accept it. Normally, a battery will not, but if the battery is down to 6 volts, the converter will run the charge current right up to the max, and the fuse will blow. Now that you have the battery up to a more normal voltage, I imagine that the fuse will not blow. Assuming this is the case, the remaining questions are "How did the battery get so low, did this deep discharge hurt the battery, and how can I prevent it from happeneing again?"

2. The battery was undoubtedly wounded, but apparently not mortally. The only way to know how badly is to put a load on it, and see how fast the voltage drops. The good news is that if it is holding somewhere around 13 volts, you do not have a shorted cell.

So I would reinstall the battery in the TM, connect shore power, and verify that the fuse doesn't blow. Then disconnect the TM from shore power and from the tow vehicle, turn on a couple ceiling ights, and wait an hour. If the lights are stil burning brightly, you have dodged a bullet.

Bill

If voltage is low, what are the other options? Bypass the fuse before connecting, or have access to a charger?

[Bill]

Do not bypass the fuse. The purpose of the fuse is to protect the wiring from over-current, which could otherwise heat up and cause a fire.

If you don't have a charger available, you could pull out the TM battery, take it to the front of the tow vehicle, and use jumper cables to connect the TM battery to the tow vehicle battery. The tow vehicle will put the initial charge on the TM battery. After a bit of charging, you can then put the battery back in the TM, and the converter will take over.

But there should never be a reason to discharge the TM battery that far.

Bill

This is a 12v battery you're working with, right? Mine are 6v. You'd have to pull two to jump them off the TV.

I've used 3 12v batteries to weld steering arms and motor mounts back together out on the trail. They supplied more current than my 220v shop welder. Be cautious with batteries. They pack a big punch.

[Brightsu]

We ran into a problem at the campsite our battery was not keeping a charge the convertor was not running, thank goodness we keep a charger in the camper, when we got home our convertor worked fine, the campground had a bad connection. Next time we'll check that first.

Originally Posted by jcjim4

Fuse blows when I connect to 110v or to the TV. Could it possibly be a bad battery?(Interstate deep cycle on an '08 TM) Or could it be caused by connecting when the battery is down to 6v or less? Removed the battery last nite, charged it to 13.56v, 12 hrs later it was 13.18, now 1 hr later it is 13.17. How long should it take to see whether it holds a charge? Any help would be appreciated. I now know how it feels to spend a cold, lightless night on the road in a TM.

Am monitoring the battery daily. Are the readings normal, or should I continue monitoring. Fri=Full [email protected]; Sat.=13.16v; Sun.=13.13v; Mon.=13.08v. I don't want to hook up to the converter again until I am sure the battery is still good?

Originally Posted by jcjim4

Am monitoring the battery daily. Are the readings normal, or should I continue monitoring. Fri=Full [email protected]; Sat.=13.16v; Sun.=13.13v; Mon.=13.08v. I don't want to hook up to the converter again until I am sure the battery is still good?

Have you connected a "load" to the battery, such as one or more of the TM lights turned on continuously? The voltage readings are very good, if the battery has a load. If it doesn't have a load on it, it is just sitting there, slowly discharging as any battery will do over time.

Do you have a stand-a-lone battery charger, like a trickle charger? You could connect it to the battery to charge it and, then after disconnecting the charger put a light-bulb-load on the battery to determine if the battery can sustain a proper charge.