I just put a new house battery into my motorhome and now the steps don't work. I am not certain that my inverter is working either. It has been 2 days and my battery says only half power on my power panel. I have yet to hear it hum as is did with the old batteries. Normally after a little while hooked to shore power it would fully charge to top of the light panel. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions welcomed and appreciated.

Did you get the polarity correct? All wires reconnected in the right places? Did you replace a 12v battery with a 6v? Do you mean converter instead of inverter? Take a picture before disonnecting?

1. Did you clearly label all the wires at the battery before you disconnect them? Note HOW MANY WIRES were connected to the positive terminal and how many wires were connected to the negative terminal and then do "A Sponge count" after the operation was over?#2Go back and re-read # 1

Cycle your battery disconnect to OFF, then back to ON.Check to see if any 12 volt items work with shore powerdisconnected, then try with shore power connected.

99.99% of these problems are preventable. I should know - the school of hard knocks kicked my butt when I first started wrenching as a teenager. I guess there should be a sticky about thisBEFORE YOU TOUCH ONE WIRE ON THAT BATTERY!LABEL IT. I got so lazy, when I went (yawn) to work on the electricals, I (yawn) went to the disconnect switch (yawn) and turned it off, before I disconnected the SINGLE RED positive cable and SINGLE BLACK negative cable. People will spend a fortune for unneeded gizmos then practically end up in the cardiac ward because they didn't bother to find out how to make battery management simple enough to meet the needs of the laziest of engineers. Trust me, electrical engineers, good ones, have Simple to understand battery management systems. I assemble clean stuff, paint the POSITIVE with RED spray paint. I mean GO FOR IT! Lugs, terminals, a a nice splotch around the post. Good enough to ID at twenty feet. The SERIES connections, the NO-TOUCHEES, linking batteries for series I paint with GREEN enamel. I'm going to have to remember to get a can of YELLOW enamel and do the negatives as I really like the idea of doing low voltage negatives in YELLOW, including wire insulation color. The feeder and circuit negatives.

I made the fatal mistake of hooking my new batts up reversed.Cost me a converter also.Best part I even took pic's on old hook up so not to make a dumb mistake.So double check the batt conn. Than your Converter/charger.

New house battery, now steps & inverter not working.....

16 Replies

helperzack
Explorer
Sep 19, 2013
Tested and determined it was the converter for the battery and charging problem. Received new converter and installed. All good.

Next to the problem with the steps.

Thanks for all the help on this.
beemerphile1
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
It is confusing to me what is going on, what you have done, and what the initial problem was. First thing I would do is look for the wire(s) you accidentally left off when reconnecting.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Sep 15, 2013
Hi,

Try disconnecting the battery. If there is still no 12 volt power the converter is toast. There are 3 much better models that what you have.
westend
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
Sounds like you have more than one issue. First, check your converter with a handheld meter. When powered, the converter should be 13.xx volts at a minimum.

If you had a shorted cell in a battery and tried to operate a device (like the steps), the amperage may have been high enough to either burn a wire or fry the device, if it's not fuse protected.
helperzack
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
Fuses are good on the unit.
It is allowing my new battery to drain down and not charging it.

I am wondering if it and/or battery were going bad on my last trip last month as while plugged to shore power lights would cycle dim/bright with the converter fan kicking on/off. The old battery had been topped off with water 4 weeks back and were bone dry the other day. Which is why I replaced, which started this hunt.

This is the unit I have:

Clicky

Still no steps.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Sep 15, 2013
Hi,

What is the make and model of the converter? Mine has fuses for the battery charging circuit right on the unit.
rvten
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
The fan should only run when converter gets warm enough to need it.
Are you putting out 12+ volts at the converter battery terminals?

Give us make and model of converter. Someone may be able to give more help.
I changed my converter this year. from a single stage to a multi stage converter.
helperzack
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
OK, got to the converter and the 2 fuses are OK. However when I flip off the circuit breaker for the converter and then flip it back on, the fan runs for just a second then stops. I noticed a little dust on the fan grade and took some compressed air to it. Still nothing.

Guess I'm in for a new converter? Will have to pick one up and see.
rvten
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
Open the converter panel. Should be a board with fuses on it.
Your AC circuit breakers should be there also.
Is your batt charge switch turned on by entry door?
helperzack
Explorer
Sep 15, 2013
It may have been plugged into shore power when I did it. Red cable to +, Black cable to -.

Now to find the fuse in the converter circuit. Would it be located under the cabinet where the converter is located??

I am getting no charging from shore power. When I start the engine all lights come on bright, so alternator is working.

Still the steps do not work. I tested the back of the step switch this afternoon and had right at 12.43volts, as I would toggle the switch from in to out it would reverse polarity + to -, which is as it should.

Still stumped. Will post if/when I find the problem. Thanks everyone!