I have a 2008 Rockwood Roo 23SS. It has a Paralax power supply 7100 converter in it. I have no 12 volt power. The Battery is dead and not charging even when plugged into household current. I found a diagnostic table online for the converter. I followed it and it says the converter is ok but may be in an over current state a bad battery or bad battery wiring. It talks about pulling fuses to determine where the problem is. I pulled the fuse but then what am I supposed to check to see if that circuit is the problem. It says there may be a short. If there were a short shouldn't the fuse be blown? Also my 12 volt circuits don't work even when plugged in. I am thinking I may have a bad battery and this system used the battery as a buffer? Any help is welcome.

Get a good battery first Many converters will not work if the battery is dead.

Generally you need to separate the battery and converter for testing. If you have an automatic portable charger put it on the battery asap and let it run overnight.Converter is simple. 120vac in, 13.6vdc out. And the converter will run the RV just fine with no battery connected.

scottew71 wrote:I have a 2008 Rockwood Roo 23SS. It has a Paralax power supply 7100 converter in it. I have no 12 volt power. The Battery is dead and not charging even when plugged into household current.(The battery is dead because converter is not working correctly (over current)......get a portable charger on it and recharge....save the battery) I found a diagnostic table online for the converter. I followed it and it says the converter is ok but may be in an over current state a bad battery or bad battery wiring. It talks about pulling fuses to determine where the problem is. I pulled the fuse but then what am I supposed to check to see if that circuit is the problem. It says there may be a short.(Too much load for converter output....you will need to measure converter output as you remove the various DC Fuses for the different circuits in rig. Also check converter output with it disconnected from battery) If there were a short shouldn't the fuse be blown? Also my 12 volt circuits don't work even when plugged in. (12V DC doesn't work due to dead battery AND converter problem)I am thinking I may have a bad battery (Take battery to auto parts store and have them load test it)and this system used the battery as a buffer? Any help is welcome.

Quote: Also my 12 volt circuits don't work even when plugged in.--------------------------------------------------------Forget the battery and converter for now (except do charge the battery)Fix the DC circuit problem first !!The converter can't charge the battery if its not connected !

The first thing I would do is get a portable battery charger, and try charing the RV battery. If you leave a battery discharged for any lenght of time, it will not fully recover, and will suffer perminate loss of capacity. If you do have a short in the wiring, you will need to disconnect the battery from the RV to recharge it. Now why did the battery discharge all the way?If you have the RV stored, and did not disconnect the battery, then you ight have run down the battery from such small loads as the 0.5 amp propane and CO detectors, over a few days will dischage a battery completely. However if you left the RV plugged in, then it should have stayed fully charged. many people like the prices here. www.bestconverter.comI don't think I would use the same brand that failed you this time. You can determine if you have a short in your wiring by hooking up a 10 amp battery charger. If the meter reads 10 amps for a while, then slowly goes down to about 8 amps, then it is charging the battery, and all is normal. But if it keeps reading 10 - 12 amps, you probably have a short circuit, and it might exceed the ability of the charger to overcome that short as well as charge your battery, so disconnect the - line, and put the charger only on the battery.Of course if you are running 2 or 4 lights inside the RV at 1.1 amps each, that will present more load than the 10 amp charger can overcome. And it should take a 10 amp charger about 10 hours to get a 105 amp hour group 27 battery full, double that time if you have 2 batteries. Ressit the temptation to put the charger on the "Start" mode. It will overheat the charger, and it probably states in the instructions that the start mode is for a maximum of 20 seconds, followed by 10 minutes of the charger unplugged to allow it to cool off. Fred.

Converter problems | Good Sam Community

22 Replies

scottew71
Explorer
Sep 06, 2013
Ok thanks to everyone for the tips and help with my problem. I am happy to say that after a battery and converter the problem is fixed. And when the converter works it does supply 12v power without a battery even being connected. I checked before I connected the battery. So I am back in business. Unfortunately we already made other plans for this weekend so it will two weeks before we get to go again. Thanks again for all the advice.
mena661
Explorer
Sep 06, 2013
scottew71 wrote:
This is a link to the flow chart that I followed. http://www.parallaxpower.com/7100/PPS%207100%20Series%20Diagnostic%20.pdf
I got to the point where I pulled the 30 amp fuses and tested the blue wire to ground and that current was good. But then it goes into (note 2) which is kinda foggy to me.
This is getting overly complicated. Converters are easy to troubleshoot.

1. Do you have 120V on input?
2. Do you have 13.6V on output?
3. If you have 120V and no 13.6V, then converter is bad or a converter fuse blew.
4. If you do not have 120V, then find where the 120V is, restore it, then test converter again.
scottew71
Explorer
Sep 06, 2013
This is a link to the flow chart that I followed. http://www.parallaxpower.com/7100/PPS%207100%20Series%20Diagnostic%20.pdf
I got to the point where I pulled the 30 amp fuses and tested the blue wire to ground and that current was good. But then it goes into (note 2) which is kinda foggy to me.
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Sep 05, 2013
Thought you had tested converter and it was OK but in an 'over current' state......demand higher than converter can provide.

With a bad battery converter would go into over current.

Need to borrow that meter back and check converter AC input (110V) and DC output (13.6V) before you put another battery back in.
time2roll
Nomad
Sep 05, 2013
I would hang onto the battery if money is tight. It may have reduced capacity but it seems to charge. Actually you could just use the portable and existing battery in place of the converter until you get this resolved.
BFL13
Explorer II
Sep 05, 2013
Breakers can seem to be ok when they aren't. Simple check is to swap the breaker the converter is on with one of the others. (switch where the black wires go)
John_Wayne
Explorer II
Sep 05, 2013
Does the converter have a 110 plug that just plugs into an outlet? If so plug a light into the converter 110 plug and make sure you have power at that outlet. If not that is your problem popped CB or bad CB
scottew71
Explorer
Sep 05, 2013
BFL13 wrote:
If the two 30a fuses are ok, then the culprit could be the 120v input. This goes through one of the breakers on the AC dist panel, which you can check out and replace if needed.

Often, the converter will be on the same breaker as the 120v receptacles, but not always. If shore power works on 120v things but not the receptacles or any 120v lights, then if they share with the converter on their breaker, that CB is the guilty party.

The converter appears to have its own CB. The recpticals work and all lights are 12v.
BFL13
Explorer II
Sep 05, 2013
If the two 30a fuses are ok, then the culprit could be the 120v input. This goes through one of the breakers on the AC dist panel, which you can check out and replace if needed.

Often, the converter will be on the same breaker as the 120v receptacles, but not always. If shore power works on 120v things but not the receptacles or any 120v lights, then if they share with the converter on their breaker, that CB is the guilty party.
scottew71
Explorer
Sep 05, 2013
mena661 wrote:
What was the voltage on the output of the converter?

Just read battery voltage.

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Converter problems

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