First night in Las Vegas NM it got to about nine degrees. My converter went out shortly after we arrived. NO 12v to run the furnace all night. Quick thinking we brought the slides in, before we wouldn't have enough power to bring them in, an put out our 120v heater. It kept us in a balmy 50* all night. In a Best Westen in Deming NM right now. Ordered a new 9260 converter from BestConverter Wednesday, was shipped Thursday. Spent $34 fedex 2 day shipping to get it delivered to our place in AZ on Saterday, possibly Monday. Nope apparently there TWO day shipping is means SIX days, as the tracking number says it will arrive January 5th of January! Looks like another motel tonight.

Buy a battery charger at Walmart.

Roadpilot wrote:Buy a battery charger at Walmart.Great advice. Hook the charger to the battery and all is well.

Roadpilot wrote:Buy a battery charger at Walmart.Great advice. Hook the charger to the battery and all is well. Any auto parts store will have one as well. $40 and no worries.

You need furnace heat so your water pipes don't freeze. You may spring leaks when the RV warms up since I expect your pipes froze the first night. Keep an eye out in case.

I had that happen to me some years back when we had fifth wheel. I got battery charger and it looked after us until we got home. I still have just in case and I did use it once to charge the battery on our toad.

Cold heading south-problems | Good Sam Community

15 Replies

FlatBroke
Explorer II
Jan 03, 2016
Found 40amp fuses at winter destination. Converter is now working. New PD9260c is on the way. Wanted that upgrade anyway. wife spoiled for motel in close to zero weather on the way down. Having a couple of bad Afib days so I enjoyed them too. Darn this was an expensive trip. Heck, just use my kid inheritance.
Thanks for all the help and ideas.
John_Joey
Explorer
Jan 02, 2016
FlatBroke wrote:
John&Joey wrote:
When was the last time you checked the water level in your batteries and cleaned the posts?

Brand new, first trip out.

You may have gotten a battery with a dead cell. Don't assume it's good because it's new. You might want to pull it and have NAPA check it for you. BTW, was it a marine/deep cycle battery?

You stated that your truck has good voltage, yet the battery does not charge. A converter needs a battery to work correctly. Don't know if a battery with a dead cell would wreck a converter given enough time. Would be a shame to replace the converter and have that go bad again.
joebedford
Nomad II
Jan 02, 2016
Ditto on the battery charger. Ran my 42' toy hauler for a week on a 15A charger when my WFCO converter died 3 years ago.
colliehauler
Explorer III
Jan 01, 2016
If you get a battery charger get a fully automatic and it won't overcharge the battery.
FlatBroke
Explorer II
Jan 01, 2016
John&Joey wrote:
When was the last time you checked the water level in your batteries and cleaned the posts?

Brand new, first trip out.
rocmoc
Explorer
Jan 01, 2016
We always carry a battery charger, a Mr. Heater, 120v heater, fan & small air compressor with us.

rocmoc n AZ
John_Joey
Explorer
Jan 01, 2016
When was the last time you checked the water level in your batteries and cleaned the posts?
FlatBroke
Explorer II
Jan 01, 2016
Was going to get a charger, should have but didn't. After spending the night in sub zero temps didn't want yo deal with last night. Will be at our winter spot and will borrow a charger from my neighbor. Battery charger will be added to the storage bay in the future. Now I find its not charging off the truck. Approx. 13.9 volts go clear to into the trailer but doesn't get to the batteries. Only fuse I can find is good. Gotta figure that one out. The maintainer solar panel is working, however 2 amps don't do much.
mgirardo
Explorer
Jan 01, 2016
Our converter failed on us 4 weeks into a 6 week stay a couple years ago. I had other problems earlier in our stay and didn't want to be bothered replacing the converter so I bought a decent battery charger from Advance Auto Parts, set it to 2 AMPs and left it on the rest of the trip.

Even though I replaced the OEM converter with a Progressive Dynamics, the battery charger comes with us every camping trip as a backup. Now that we camp seasonally in the Motorhome, I also use it to charge the chassis battery.

-Michael
rexlion
Explorer
Jan 01, 2016
Sure enough, there's more than one way to skin a cat... or in this case, charge a battery! Chargers aren't very expensive and can be bought most anywhere.