Power converter question

The converter charges your battery and powers the 12 volt DC systems when you are on shore power, 120 volt AC. It wont power the Air Conditioner or outlets from the battery. Is that what you were trying to accomplish?
Getting 120 Volt AC power from your battery requires an inverter. a totally different piece of equipment.

There seems to be some lack of knowledge of how things are suppose to work and what they are called...

Here is a typical 30AMP Trailer Electrical setup showing how everything works around the 120VAC Power Distribution Panel where the BREAKERS are located and the 12VDC Power Distribution Panel where all of the FUSES are located...

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As you can see here these two panels are the heart of your trailer operations... These two power distribution panels is where every thing in your trailer gets it power from...

The items you are describing for replacement are called an DC Converter (Sometimes called a Power Converter or a Converter/Charger) and its function is to take the Shore Power or Generator 120VAC output and convert it to 12VDC which in turn feeds the 12VDC Power Distribution Panel to power up all of the 12VDC items you see above.

This has nothing to do with the 120VAC Breaker side of the 120VAC Power Distribution panel. When plugged into shore power or running off of generator the Power Converter unit also will become a battery charger for your trailer battery.

Not having any 120VAC around the 120VAC Power Distribution Panel BREAKERS means something is wrong with the Shore Power or Generator connection feeding the trailer. Need to check your 120VAC Input Source...

Totally confused here on what you are wanting to do from your description of events...

Roy Ken

Ok. I guess I'm a little confused as well.

I have my TT hooked up to 120v external power. Everything worked like it was supposed to last week. Now all the 120v stuff isnt working. The way this whole panel is wired up is kind of confusing to me.

My battery was completely dead when i plugged the TT into shore power. If I disconnect my 120v source, all the 12v stuff works. So this tells me my battery is working.

If I pull my breakers and test the bus bar behind them, I dont get any voltage at all there. You guys are saying that that bus bar should have 120v power all the time when connected to the house? The DC converter is connected to the breaker that is for the GFCI outlets in the TT. If my converter was bad, I would still have 120v, just all my 12v stuff would be gone once the battery drained......correct?

As long as I am connected to a 120v outside source, all my 120v stuff should work?

The distribution part of the unit is pretty simple- power goes in to the main breaker, through the stab block the breakers hook to and out the branch circuit breakers. The most common failure on these is the neutral buss being fried due to a loose connection. It is pretty rare, though not unheard of for the stab block to fail, more common for the main breaker to go bad.

IOW, a lot to look at before replacing the whole thing, but if you did, Progressive Dynamics is the way to go.

kris77 wrote:
Ok. I guess I'm a little confused as well.

I have my TT hooked up to 120v external power. Everything worked like it was supposed to last week. Now all the 120v stuff isnt working. The way this whole panel is wired up is kind of confusing to me.

My battery was completely dead when i plugged the TT into shore power. If I disconnect my 120v source, all the 12v stuff works. So this tells me my battery is working.
Yes all correct Yes, correct to this point.
If I pull my breakers and test the bus bar behind them, I dont get any voltage at all there. You guys are saying that that bus bar should have 120v power all the time when connected to the house? The DC converter is connected to the breaker that is for the GFCI outlets in the TT. If my converter was bad, I would still have 120v, just all my 12v stuff would be gone once the battery drained......correct?
Are you still plugged into the house power at this point?
As long as I am connected to a 120v outside source, all my 120v stuff should work?

Yes
First, are you sure you still have 120 AC house power at the outlet? If you were plugged into a 15 amp outlet turning on the Air Conditioner and some other items at the same time may have tripped a breaker or GFCI in the house. Test the house outlet with a droplight or other appliance to ensure you have power there, and then if the trailer still isnt getting power check the breakers there.

A note- the power goes *in* through the 30 amp breaker, so if you pull "all" the breakers you cannot have power to it.

To answer above. If my converter was bad and i was still plugged into the house power, i should still have my 120v stuff. Just the 12v stuff would be dead and the battery wouldn't charge.

And Chris, you just opened my eyes on how this panel actually works. I've wired up a house before and put in breaker panels and have done electric work my whole life, but for the life of me i couldn't understand how this panel was wired up. Now I feel like an idiot.

I did test the main breaker and I had 0v coming into that. So somewhere between there and my house, something is wrong. This gives me a good understanding of what to check now.

Thanks guys. Sorry to be such a pain. Its pretty simple now that it clicked in my head...lol

I plug into my house 120VAC Receptacle in my garage all the time. This was a receptacle used for an air compressor at one time and is fed by a 20AMPS House Circuit Breaker... There is nothing else on this 120VAC 20AMP House Service. Perfect for me to use for my trailer Shore Power cable.

My trailer sits about 50 feet away from this receptacle so I run a heavy duty 10-guage contractor type YELLOW thick extension cord from the garage receptacle out into the back yard where I can plug my Trailer 30A Shore Power cable into it. You can get away with a 12-gauge type cord but stay away from those RED-ORANGE cords you find at WALMART. They are 16-Gauge which is way to small to use here... I use one of these RV30A-15A LONG DOGBONE type adapters from WALMART that looks like this plugged into the end of the long extension cord. I usually cover this outside connection point with a small plastic tub to keep rain water away from it...

First however I use one of these very inexpensive 120VAC circuit testers (WALMART-LOWES-AMAZON) to tell me all three conductors inside the garage receptacle and 50-foot Extension Cord are good and working. If I see the bottom two lights come ON the tester for 'CORRECT' I know the garage 120VAC receptacle and the 50-foot HD extension cord is good to use

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Then I plug in the RV30A-15A Long Dogbone Adapter from WALMART that looks like this... I have never had any luck with the small round RV30AMP Adapters. They always got hot me and burned up my 30A plug on the shore power plug. I am always checking for heat when having my trailer plugged into the garage connections.

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If you have an inexpensive multimeter (WALMART-LOWES-AMAZON) you can also measure around the three sockets on the 30A adapter to insure you have the correct AC VOLTAGES using this Chart...
30AMP RV SERVICE

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Be sure you read the AC VOLTAGES as shown...

Now you can plug in the trailer shore power cable knowing you have the correct AC VOLTAGES available to use. Be mindful that by using the three conductors from the house source also provides your trailer frame ground connection to prevent getting a small AC shock by standing on the ground and touching something metal on the trailer skin. The trailer only gets its frame ground connection from the 120VAC HOUSE SOURCE or PEDESTAL SOURCE when camping at a campground with hookups...

I also have one of these 120VAC PLUG IN METERS from AMAZON that is plugged into a receptacle socket inside the trailer where I can get a good glimpse of it telling me I have 120VAC power.

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Now I know I have a good 120VAC connection from my house/garage receptacle...

Some folks thinks all of this is not necessary to do but for me I don't have to guess about anything. I know it is working normal doing it this way...

My quick test for 12VDC being available either from the shore power connection of just running form my battery when OFF-GRID is jus turn on the ceiling lights. These work from the 12VDC side of the trailer and will light up if the 12VDC is all working...

We plug into our 20AMP Service all the time here at the house so I can work on trailer projects and cleaning routines etc. Also neat to sleep over in the trailer when I get the urge... Grandkids have a ball in ti when they are over visiting and spending the night...

Just passing all of this on to give you some pointers on what to look for...

Roy Ken

So, I will say this.

I did check my house breaker last night just to make sure it wasnt tripped. And it looked fine. I didn't fully have an understanding of how the TT panel was wired up, so I didnt even think to check the receptacle the TT is hooked to.

When I get home today, I'm going to double check the breaker in the house, test the outlet in the garage, test the extension cord, test the dogbone adaptor, and work my way all the way to the TT breaker panel.

I'm sure somewhere, something is tripped or burnt up. I'm guessing its either gonna be the breaker in the house was barely tripped or my adaptor connecting the 30a TT plug to the extension cord is bad. I dont have one of the ones mentioned above, i have one of the yellow round ones i bought from Amazon.

kris77 wrote:


I'm sure somewhere, something is tripped or burnt up. I'm guessing its either gonna be the breaker in the house was barely tripped or my adaptor connecting the 30a TT plug to the extension cord is bad. I dont have one of the ones mentioned above, i have one of the yellow round ones i bought from Amazon.

I would go to WALMART and pick up one of their RV30A-15A Long DOGBONE type Adapters. They are very inexpensive... between $10-$20 I think...

Like i indicated I have never had any luck with those small round adapters holding up. To much Ac Current going them and no where to dissipate the heat I guess... When mine failed in the middle of the yard my 30A Shore Power cable plug ended up looking like this... Now those were expensive to replace...

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You will need a good RV30A-15A Long Adapter to carry with you on trips as well. I also have the RV50A to 30A long adapter to use as well - also at WALMART...

Never know where you may find a 120VAC Receptacle to plug into. We spent an over night at a BASS PRO SHOP parking lot one time and they had 120VAC receptacle there to use... perfect!!!!

On your problem I'm betting you have tripped your house circuit... Its either a 15AMP or 20AMP circuit breaker and your trailer can pull as much as 30AMPS if you turn on the wrong thing hehe... You high wattage items will be your roof Air Conditioner or high wattage Microwave...

Roy Ken