Power converter on a coachmen

I'm not sure on a trailer that old if things should come on automatically. My 1986 popup has a switch on the converter that I have to flip to get battery power in the coach.

I would unplug the shore power cord so I was safe. Then I would go read battery voltage at the battery with a meter. Then go into the trailer and disassemble the front of the converter\charger until I saw the wires coming into the DC fuses. Then use the meter to see if I can find battery voltage on the thick wires that feed the 12v fuses.

If you have power there then the wiring is good back to the converter\charger panel and the panel itself is suspect. If you can't find power at the converter\charger panel then you need to find the fuse or circuit breaker out on the tongue that is interrupting the current. It probably wouldn't hurt to check and clean up where the battery negative cable connects to the frame.

Have you looked for a fuse or circuit breaker on the trailer tongue. Normally around where the umbilical cord from TV changes to rig's wiring system.
It could be in the small metal box if equipped.

Couple ways to check. Take the black and white leads off the converter then take a multimeter set it to read dc volts plug the trailer into shore power. When you check across the lugs where you removed the cables you should get a 13.5-14V dc reading. If nothing, disconnect cables from battery you should get the same reading there if the battery is good. If battery is good reconnect battery cables then plug in a battery charger and hook charger cables to blk & wht lead from converter. Check your dc lights. This is the process I followed when my converter went out.

So it seems the battery had low voltage, battery is only about a year old. I unplugged the trailer and connected my battery charger to it. After about an hour I went in and pushed the switch down manually.. So am I still missing an on off switch somewhere or should it manually kick on to the d.c system?

"offline" in my mind would be not connected to 120 volts AC. You would only have DC power. Check near battery for a fuse or circuit breaker

Ya I will check the power tomorrow on the battery itself , I've been looking for a switch but can not find one
Thanks

Some of the older units required the BATTERY to be in good working order before the converter/charger would work. Need to make sure the battery is charged by measuring across the battery terminals and read the DC VOLTAGE without shore power turned on.. It also may be the battery is switched off with a disconnect switch...