Battery + Converter

[Brightsu]

We took our 04 3326 out for Memorial Day weekend, I had packed it the day before we run it on 110 almost all the time, I'd never noticed a problem, when we got to our campsite set up and started for supper beeper started going off before we left the campground, we went in and turned the air off and the sound was coming from that detector located next to the floor in the kitchen it showed low voltage so we checked the campground meter where we had plugged in and thought maybe that the 30 amp circuit breaker was bad, we popped it and went on to supper, the beeping didn't start again until the second night when we needed the furnace and the lights seem to be going dimmer by the minute, at that time I checked the tester at the sink and the battery was totally drained, it appeared as if we had been using the battery the entire time, we put the frig on gas and we took the T/V and charged the battery enough to get us thur the night, we still didn't know for sure if it was our converter or the campground so we headed home, now our monitor for our electric TM brakes wouldn't lightup, all of the brake lights and turn signals worked fine, but we had out Mountaineer doing all the brakeing, which seem to work okay, when we arrived home we plugged the TM back into the 110 outlet we have for it, no power to the TM and the battery is dead, my husband recharged the battery and it will charged to about 3/4 but not all the way, he added water a while ago, we'll see what happens. The power converter we have has a 3 year warranty and we've only has it since last May, our TM came with the 7300. Any ideas guys? We feel the converters went bad, but does this have anything to do with our brake system, we have the Tekonsha Voyager, I know its not the best but it as served its purpose in the past, is there a fuse somewhere that works the braking system and is there a fuse for the converter? We checked the inline fuse at the battery case in the TM and it seem to be fine , I told my husband while putting things under the bed storage the fuse panel seem to be rather hot the fan seem to be running at that time but I didn't notice when it stopped. I read about a switch that is put between the converter and battery but I don't know if ours has that or not. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Pam

[Joe]

>so we checked the campground meter where we had plugged in and thought maybe that the 30 amp circuit breaker was bad, we popped it and went on to supper,<

Do you mean that you turned the circuit breaker OFF? If so, that would have further drained the battery.

Now that you are back home I have a couple of suggestions.
Get a digital voltmeter. Radio Shack has them in the $20 - $30 range.
Disconnect the TM from the 110 VAC source and measure the voltage across the battery terminals. If your battery is not fully charged it will read something less than 12.6 VDC.
Now connect the TM to your 110 VAC source and remeasure the voltage across the battery. It should be higher than your first reading, probably about 13 to 14 volts.
If it is, that means that your charger is working.
If the voltage has not increased, go inside the trailer and measure the voltages on the fuse panel in the converter. They should definately be more than 13 volts, probably in the 14 to 15 volt range. If they are, you will need to troubleshoot the circuit between the converter and the battery. That inline fuse causes a lot of problems. Also take the wires off the battery terminals and see if there is corrosion on them. A thin layer of corrosion can offer a lot of resistance to the current.

You mentioned that the fuse panel was hot and the fan was running. That's a pretty good indication that the converter is OK. That leaves the connection to the battery or the battery itself.
If the water level in the battery got below the top of the plates it's very likely that the battery will never hold a full charge again.

I hope this helps.

Joe

[Brightsu]

No we just turned it on and off, it appeared as if the power from the outside source would not pass into the TM, therefore we were using the battery the whole trip, the only way we could charge the battery was with the T/V, I'm sure we drained the battery not knowing we were using it the whole time, is there a way to know when you are using the battery and not the 110, I thought the converter used the 110 only when plugged in, does the battery need to have a full charge for the converter to work properly, as far as the fan at the converter, I only noticed it working the one time after we set up.

Pam

[rtcassel]

You said in your first post that you turned the air off. If by air you meant air conditioner, then 120v was getting into the trailer. After plugging in at a campground, you could test one of the TM's 120v outlets with the tester you used to test the campground's power supply for proper wiring in order to check that 120v is actually getting into the trailer.

[Brightsu]

My hubby thinks the converter is bad, we're going out now to check something else, all I know is it was fine at home, I ran the frig and AC while getting everything loaded, we have a hook up here at home, he says he's going to try one more time the battery has a full charge now and we're going to see what happens after hooking back to our electric here.

Pam

PS I have an appointment to get the new Prodigy brake system put on tomorrow.

[Denny_A]

...be useful.

Hooked into your battery circuit, an Ammeter will allow you to determine when current is flowing from, rather than toward the battery. Here's a link to a 2002 thread; look at post #4, by Bill:

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...hlight=ammeter

HTH - Denny_A

[Brightsu]

The water was low in the battery, we filled it allowed the battery to charge and then discharge to see if it would recharge with it hooked to our electric. I went down to the TM a minute ago and it had almost been completely recharged. I guess this means our converter is working.

Pam

[Brightsu]

We purchased a new battery, now this is the rest of the story. Does the battery need to be hooked up for the converter to work or will it work off shore power and do its converting ? This is all a little confusing, my hubby still thinks the converter is bad, how can you check it? How do you know if its charging the battery and if you are running off the battery or shore power? After putting the new battery in it appeared that the converter was charging, but also after running the overhead fan the battery seem to be dischargeing, I thought we needed to run something in order to see if the battery was being charged or being used, any info is appreciated.

[B_and_D]

Your battery needs to be hooked up to the TM in order to charge off the converter, and you need to be plugged into shore power to run the converter, which is also the battery charger.

One way to tell if the battery is charging is to go buy a voltage meter capable of reading lower voltages (top right in my picture), available at any hardware store. Unhook the battery from the TM wires. Using the proper setting (mine must be set at the 50V to read a 12V), touch the positive lead from the voltage meter to the positive wire coming from the TM and touch the negative lead from the voltage meter to the negative wire coming from the TM. It should register about 13 volts or so. This must be with the converter on, and shore power on. I can unhook my positive wire easily by undoing the fuse holder.

If you turn off the converter, then you will be on battery power, as long as you have the battery hooked up. Try running something. If the lights are bright, then your battery is probably sort of charged up.

I bought the two things in the picture to the bottom and left to help us determine the battery charge. The thing to the left is a coiled 12v cord with a cigarette type socket on one end and battery clamps on the other. The thing to the bottom right is a digital volt meter. You can clamp the 12v cord onto the battery terminals you want to check (it should be checked without the converter on) and then plug in the digital volt meter. It will tell you how many volts the battery is charged to. A fully charged battery should register 12.6 or 12.7. After you have been recently charging the battery, you will get a higher reading until the battery has had a chance to "rest". Mine sometimes registers 13.4 right after charging.

If you have a 12v cigarette type outlet in your TM, then you can use a digital plug-in volt meter like the one I have below in my picture (turn off the converter first) to see how charged up your battery is before and after charging. I ruined my TV booster 12v plug by inserting one of these, it fit too tight, and I pulled out the metal insides when I removed it. Be careful.

Our TM also has a panel indicator that shows how charged up the battery is, but I never use it. You must turn off the converter in order to show how charged up the battery is. When the converter is on, it always shows as being fully charged. However, it will give you a general idea of the state of charge of the battery. If you can make more lights go on after turning the converter on, running it for a few hours, and then turning it off again, then it is charging. Sometimes it can take many hours to charge up the battery using the TM converter.

Keep in mind that these observations are from someone with a 1997 TM, but I don't think things have changed that much, basically, since then.

I'd at least go buy a voltage meter (about $10 to $15) and check to see if any current is flowing from the converter to the battery. This little gadget also makes a good household battery tester, I keep ours in our kitchen drawer. If there is no voltage, it may be the converter, or it may be in the electrical wire. There may be a break in the wires somewhere, or perhaps a short. Sometimes the ground wire will get dirty around the contact point, or jar loose.

Pam

You should be able to tell if your charger is woking this way.

a) Plug into shore power. If the TM converter is charging, the battery condition monitor will be on the highest setting. This is the push-button indicator on the front of your sink. Another indication is that the battery will be bubbling slowly. You can see this with the cover off the battery. All cells will probably be bubbling slowly. It may take maybe 15 or 30 minutes for the bubbles to start. This is a gross test.

a) With the TM not plugged into shore power and disconnected for 20 minutes. Look at the battery condition meter. It will be one of the lower 3 indications. A charged battery will be on the 2nd from the top indication. If the battery is very well charged, I think you might see the very top indication when not being charged. My unit is new and I may have seen the highest indication 1X while not charging. It doesn't stay there very long.

If you can get a voltmeter, you can tell more. I have installed an upgraded converter in my '04 3326 and it came with a lot of info on battery condition that you can tell by reading a voltmeter. Touch the + and - leads of the battery with the meter leads. The following is what I should see using my converter, The Intelli-Power 9160. Yours might not be too much different and the readings without load (lights, etc., off) should be the same.

11.7V Not charged
12.8V Fully charged
12.9 to 13.5V The battery is taking a charge
14.1 to 14.4V, a quick charge is indicated. The battery is taking a good charge.

I hope this helps.

Bob