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star6443's avatar
star6443
Explorer
Jul 29, 2018

Continued electrical issues

We replaced our battery, it was old and hooked up wrong, positive negative switched. Everything worked great....for 10 hours. Then the Battery completely died again. While it was dead, lights and such would not work from shore power. Which seems to be the issue as the battery is not charging from shore power.

I'm clueless what to do? We are charging the battery on the battery charger now, but where do we start?

Thanks in advance for your HELP!
  • Do you own a volt meter? If not your first step is to borrow or buy one. When plugged in you need to measure your battery voltage. If it's above about 13 then it's charging. If not above 13 then it's not charging.
    Depending on what you had on you could easily discharge a battery in 10 hours of use. I suspect your charger isn't working.
  • We replaced our battery, it was old and hooked up wrong, positive negative switched. Everything worked great....for 10 hours. Then the Battery completely died again. While it was dead, lights and such would not work from shore power. Which seems to be the issue as the battery is not charging from shore power.


    Your lights run off the battery dc side of RV charged by your convertor. Not the shore power.

    Check your converter output. The 'Converter' runs off shore power to charge your battery when parked.

    If you are not hooked up to shore power to power converter and are using the lights, and/or fans both dc power, it will eventually run the battery down because it is not being charged by the converter.
  • star6443 wrote:
    We replaced our battery, it was old and hooked up wrong, positive negative switched. Everything worked great....for 10 hours. Then the Battery completely died again. While it was dead, lights and such would not work from shore power. Which seems to be the issue as the battery is not charging from shore power.

    I'm clueless what to do? We are charging the battery on the battery charger now, but where do we start?

    Thanks in advance for your HELP!


    Sounds like something is either not hooked up, or there is fuse pulled. every thing in my TT will work on shore power, even with the battery unhooked and in storage. The lights are indeed 12V, and run off the inverter when on shore power. Battery does not really need to be there. At least on every camper I have ever had.
  • pianotuna wrote:
    Check the reverse polarity fuses at the converter.


    Don is right. If your old battery was hooked up with + and - reversed, it blew a pair of fuses on the converter that are meant to protect it from just such a mistake.
  • Pianotuna is right on; there are fuses in the converter that are intended to blow when the battery is reversed. The converter will likely be located behind your fuse and circuit breaker panel. My Forest River trailer has a WFCO converter and the pair of reverse polarity fuses are just to the left of the vertical row of fuses in the fuse panel. It should be an easy fix if they did their job and opened when the battery was first reverse connected. My panel is below the fridge.
  • when the reverse polarity fuses are corrected, you should also check the charging circuit from the tow vehicle. i'll bet that fuse will be blown too. it will be somewhere near or in the fuse panel of the truck