I've searched the archive's and cannot determine if what I have in my 2004 Georgetown XL is a converter/charger or not. Please forgive my dumbness but What I have is a WF-8930/50. This is printed on the distribution panel,but does not say charger. I don't seem to be charging my batteries when on shore power. If this is not the charger then where would I find it in my coach. Example,if I turn on the fridge it draws the batteries down to nothing. The fridge is plugged into 110 on outside of coach at panel but does not work without the battery switch being on? Sorry that this is so long but I am taking a trip in 2 weeks and would like to have the peace of mind that this is working. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank's

That is just the distribution panel as seen here.Your converter could be just about anywhere. Ours was under the drawer below the stove!Even if it's plugged in to the 120 AC your fridge will need 12 volts to run the control board . It shouldn't draw a lot of current.Your converter should look something like this.

The WF-8930/50 is a WFCO AC/DC Distribution Panel.....used for either 30A AC service OR 50A AC service and 12V DC.The converter positive is attached to one of the lugs at top of DC Fuses (should be 2nd from left next to battery positive cable) and converter negative should be left of DC Fuses on vertical terminal strip.The converter is located behind panel.......with a WF dist. panel you have a WFCO converter.You can test converter output while on Shore power and battery disconnect off....with 110V AC in converter output should be 13.6V DC.Contact BestConverter.com for replacement and better info.

How much boondocking, wilderness camping do you do? Without benefit of plugging in?

exclusively. Been in a park 1 time in 15 yrs. I prefer the forest & desert to being crammed in like cattle.

Yes the fridge needs 12 volts for the control board to operate properly.If you have a humidity switch turn it off. This is a heater to reduce condensation around the front of the fridge unit.Yes the WFCO will charge you battery fine. But many WFCO do not shift into boost mode as you would expect when batteries are low (50% charge). Check charging voltage steadily rises above 14 volts next time you expect to charge low batteries. If you only see 13.4 to 13.6 then it is stuck in normal mode and will take 8+ hours to get a decent charge and 2 days to get 100%.How many batteries do you have?

converter/charger question | Good Sam Community

13 Replies

time2roll
Nomad
Oct 12, 2013
georgetownxl wrote:
Thank's everybody for your help. Found the converter and with the battery switch off and on shore power I had a reading of 11.25 and also I have two 12volt house batteries

So with the battery switch on all is good :B

Any chance you checked voltage rose above 14?
Or was it just stuck at 13.6?
Bobbo
Explorer II
Oct 12, 2013
georgetownxl wrote:
with the battery switch off and on shore power I had a reading of 11.25

Call Randy at http://www.bestconverter.com/. He is good and will not steer you wrong. He will ask questions to help him determine what you need and recommend a quality replacement.
georgetownxl
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
Thank's everybody for your help. Found the converter and with the battery switch off and on shore power I had a reading of 11.25 and also I have two 12volt house batteries
KJINTF
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
Converters in general range from $20 to $50 for repairs with most of them being about $35 - Majority of the repair time is getting into the unit darn cheap junk cover rivets Vs proper screws

The fuses are in series with the output connectors either you have an internal output stage issue or something external is shorted - my guess it's an external issue
KJINTF
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
Hi RJ

Have your "I have a relate" send the defective ones my way - very simple and low cost to repair
Typical repair cost is about $35
RJsfishin
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
KJINTF wrote:
RJ

My experience having repaired several hundred Inverters and Converters over the past few years does NOT match your statement. What I have seen is that the Parallax units have the highest failure rate then the Iota units along with the off brand stuff then the WFCO units and PD units.

Many WFCO units have or can except a pendant that will manually up the output voltage as needed. I put a 75amp WFCO with the Pendant in my personal rig - winter storage a constant 13.1 Volts. Generator powered battery charger it easily outputs 14.6 Volts with up to 75amps.

My statement is backed on what I've read here in 10+ yrs, and I have a relate that is on their 3rd replacement. The sad part is even before they fail, most don't work right.

BTW, how much to fix a PD9145 ? Reversed polarity, fuses blew, but new fuses didn't fix
KJINTF
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
RJ

My experience having repaired several hundred Inverters and Converters over the past few years does NOT match your statement. What I have seen is that the Parallax units have the highest failure rate then the Iota units along with the off brand stuff then the WFCO units and PD units.

Many WFCO units have or can except a pendant that will manually up the output voltage as needed. I put a 75amp WFCO with the Pendant in my personal rig - winter storage a constant 13.1 Volts. Generator powered battery charger it easily outputs 14.6 Volts with up to 75amps.
RJsfishin
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
WFCO converters are known to have the highest failure rate of any converter ever made. Unless you have a lotta luck on your side, yours is just another one of those.
time2roll
Nomad
Oct 12, 2013
Yes the fridge needs 12 volts for the control board to operate properly.
If you have a humidity switch turn it off. This is a heater to reduce condensation around the front of the fridge unit.

Yes the WFCO will charge you battery fine. But many WFCO do not shift into boost mode as you would expect when batteries are low (50% charge). Check charging voltage steadily rises above 14 volts next time you expect to charge low batteries. If you only see 13.4 to 13.6 then it is stuck in normal mode and will take 8+ hours to get a decent charge and 2 days to get 100%.

How many batteries do you have?
64thunderbolt
Explorer II
Oct 12, 2013
exclusively. Been in a park 1 time in 15 yrs. I prefer the forest & desert to being crammed in like cattle.