Battery question

Elf,
I you you are plugged into shore power or using a generator, the answer should be no, and your lights should work as well as all other DC circuits. By 2009 as your camper appears to be, all power supplies (converters) were internally filtered and did not require a battery to deliver adequate DC voltage to the distribution panel and DC circuits. If your battery is not receiving charge, either the converter is shot, there is a fuse or short stop (or other brand DC circuit breaker) tripped preventing the DC from reaching your batteries. Many people that keep their RV permanently stationed in one place just remove the battery and it makes since IF you don't have the old style linear type that required a battery for filtering.

OK now let's deal with reality. Remove the battery or disconnect a cable and plug the main cord into utility power. Do the lights work?

Have you tried charging the battery with a portable charger? Maybe the converter is shot.

The answer is "It depends"
If the battery has a shorted cell or 2. YEs it might
If the battery is HIGH RESISTANCE no it won't so long as you are on shore power
If the battery is Low capacity.. It should not but the lights may go out swiftly if not on shore power.

IN short it all depends on the failure mode of the battery.

In all 3 cases the procedure is the same

Remove battery. Insulate positive lead and check converter (measure voltage) to insure operation.. IF NON_OP repalce converter and battery. If converter working normally replace battery. BUT DO CHECK THE CONVERTER.

OH. If Converter is a magnetek 6300.. UPGRADE to Progressive Dynamics 4600

If you have a Converter, the lights will work when plugged into Shore Power. Battery(Bad) or no battery. Some RV's have a 12 volt battery disconnect switch(manual or push button) and if OFF will not operate the interior 12 volts on Shore Power or on Battery. Turn the battery disconnect ON and still have no battery or bad battery and you will have 12 volts on Shore Power. It depends on HOW the battery disconnect is wired. Some are wired so IF the disconnect is OFF, the Power Converter will still supply power to the RV on Shore Power, BUT WILL NOT CHARGE THE BATTERY. Until you turn the disconnect ON. IF you have an Inverter/Charger instead of a Power Converter, then on Shore Power you will have NO 12 volts if you have a dead battery or bad battery. Most Inverter/Chargers will NOT charge a dead battery until you put a short 12 volt excitation voltage to the dead battery usually less than 5 minutes. Inverter/Chargers MUST have a battery to function to charge and supply 12 volts to the RV, even a bad battery. Doug

PLEASE DEFINE

Type and age of battery

Type and model of battery charging device

Define "Doesn't Charge" In what way? What are the symptoms? :)

Depends on what your voltmeter reads.

The answer is two-fold. It depends upon if you are plugged into shore power or not.

If you are not plugged into shore power and you have no battery power, you will not have house light. House lights run on the 12 volt system.

If you ARE plugged into shore power and you have no battery power, you WILL have house lights. Because, the converter will take the 120 AC shore power the camper is plugged into and the converter will change that to 12 volt DC. The house lights run off the converter then. Batteries not needed.

However, if you have slides and no battery, even plugged into shore power, the slides most likely will not work. Almost all RV need the extra boost of the actual battery. The converter does not have enough output by itself. There are some exceptions, but over all, MOST RV need the battery to move the slides.

The lights are most likely 12V so yes-no battery (assuming it is dead), or other 12V source; then no lights.

Yes, a battery that won’t charge doesn’t have any juice to power lights. I believe you need to read a basic tutorial on RV batteries.