I think my converter/charger isn't responding as well. I know it has a switch on it for on and off I did switch to off once only because I was thinking same thing and couldn't tell at first if the switch was in off or on position.

When I clicked it into off position it immediately started to sound a alarm beep that changed its tone over time. Perhaps it was telling me no power just like a battery backup supply does when you loose power. So I switched it back to on and left it alone.

This entire weekend trailer was hooked onto 30amp power as it is now but with batteries selected in off position. This way it's not drawing any power from batteries while I'm away.

Funny thing though is I did check my landing gear and operated that as well as front slide when rear slide wasn't moving much just to ensure I had battery power. In fact when I went home last night I brought in my front slide and left it that way and batteries worked for that.

I don't know I'm at a loss right now but still banking on batteries are low power and drained but enough to power some things.

 

If you are plugged in, leave your disconnect switch alone. Use that when stored, but no reason to do so otherwise. The disconnect in most RVs takes the batteries entirely off-line as it is extra work to wire it any other way, except the landing gear normally goes straight to the batteries.

If you can power your front slide, the amp draw is not much higher for the main slide. Normally a 20 amp fuse will carry either of them.

If you have not done much troubleshooting before, this is an easy one to start on because the circuitry is so basic. I have a hunch you might actually enjoy it.

Steve

 

Yea, it almost sounds like your converter may not be putting out 12V to charge your batteries? it could be you ran your trailers 12V load off your batts the entire weekend(some of the lights, waterpump, etc), while the rest of the A/C items worked fine. When everything is working properly, you would leave your battery switch on, and the converter would a) supply 12v to the trailer fixtures, and b) supply a charge to the batteries to charge/maintain them.

 

Okay well without dragging this on longer I got few things on my mind to clear up.

Okay so I have switch in trailer that operates battery on and off. When I'm camping on shore power I should turn batteries off correct? That way nothing is drawing from battery. The only time I need to use batteries is raising or lowering my landing gear and at that point I would obviously be disconnected from shore power because I'm either hooking up or dropping off trailer for storage.

Any other time I would need battery power is if I was boondocking it but then I would need a way to charge batteries.

I'm just finding still odd that my slides didn't work on shore power but only when battery switch was in on position.

I'm also thinking what I thought was my converter/charger is actually a inverter that is in on position which may have drained batteries. The battery charger itself is built into the trailer from the start right like factory option and not a add on?

Now to think of it I wonder now if my front slide works on shore power and my rear only battery indicating maybe wiring issues. Anyways gonna troubleshoot all this Wednesday.

Hey what makes you think I like chasing this needle in a hay stack? I actually don't mind just not when it's stuck at the camp grounds lol at home would be much better

 

Okay just to clear this up as well if I didn't have batteries in, should my slides operate on shore power or do you only operate them with battery because they are 12v motors?

How do your slides work can you do it on battery or shore power? Or just battery is what I'm trying to ask here.

 

I feel dumb guess I didn't do a good job with asking all these technical questions when I bought the damn trailer to know how to operate it lol might have saved me all this questioning. Oh well got to learn somehow just this time the hard way.

 

Leave the switch on all the time except when stored! That is all it is for. You have a converter, not an inverter. Put a jump box on your battery when you go back to your camper and I bet the slide runs in.

Once you get it home, ask questions. This only seems strange because it is new!

Steve

 

Converters like to have batterys when running to smooth out any ac ripple.

 

True, although with the advent of switch mode technology, AC ripple is a rarity until the converter is failing.

Steve

 

As with the one that was tripping out my Norcold fridge at only .7 vac ripple. Thanks again on that one Steve.

 

The converter/charger is something built in though right? What I do know mine has a grey box like inverter thing near batteries. Which I did trace a cord up inside trailer and turns out that cord goes to that inverter and connects into the power strip sitting on my entertainment center for the TV to plug into incase of power surge.

Or maybe it converts battery power into AC/DC like you can in a vehicle power inverter

 

I'll get it fixed bring it home then take all kinds of good photos with any questions I may have which will better help identify to you guys what I'm talking about

 

Mike,

My point was switch mode converters are designed to put out no ripple at all and board tolerance for ripple is normally less than .25 volts AC. Thus when you see ripple it is time for new converter. Filtering using the battery used to be the norm generations ago for electronics, but feeding directly off the converters the way it works now can makes for frustration. Good luck trying to do that with the new boards on the Dometics and the air conditioners.

Steve

 

It sounds like you have a small aftermarket inverter.

Steve

 

Right that's my thinking too so this converter/charger that should be charging my batteries on shore power is located where? I mean like do they have a common place? That and how would I test my batteries to verify it's charging them while hooked up to shore power? Assuming I use multimeter and put a load of some kind on them like lights or any 12v power hungry appliance while testing?