Forum Discussion

aclay's avatar
aclay
Explorer
Feb 19, 2015

Electrical Question

I went out to my TT this past weekend (we keep it at a storage unit) and the electrical system was dead. I thought I had the shut off set, but it's possible that it trickle drained. I plugged in the tow cable to my running truck to see if I could get something to light up, but not even the indicator panel (tanks etc) lit up. I left it hooked up for about 10-15 min and nothing, I tried tanks and a few of the interior lights. I checked the breaker panel and everything looked ok (I did reset them).

So thoughts on what the problem is? Is 10 min on the truck enough to get a light to come on? I have two batteries, they are about 2 years old. Could they be dead (as in need to be replaced)? I don't have a way to plug into mains until I take it somewhere.
  • Make sure the RV battery isn't shorted internally before connecting your truck to them.
  • Just to eliminate everything else I'd connect to the truck via jumper cables for 15 minutes while idling... You may not have any voltage on the 12 volt lead in the trailer hookup for several reasons, bad connections, or it may have never been hooked up! Using jumper cables eliminates all of them.
  • I did flip the cut off switch a few times just to make sure, and that didn't help. I did not check the battery connections within the box, that's a good tip. The truck lights worked, I'm pretty confident that wasn't the issue but good point.
  • I would start by making sure the truck has 12 volts DC at the trailer connector. The lights should have shown almost immediately in the trailer.
    Did you try the turn signals, taillights or brake lights? None of these working could indicate a ground issue.
  • It could be as simple as corrosion on one of the cable connections. Did you check and make sure the batteries were still in the boxes?
  • If your positive your Chevy has the charging wire and fuse installed then yes, 10~15 minutes should have gotten things to light up.
    You did reconnect the shut-off switch so power flows to your TT's batteries didn't you? (I only ask because I could see myself doing that..)