12 Volt Issues

[chark]

I have a 2001 Jayco 5th wheel, last fall I had a new converter put in. When I went to get camper ready for summer I plugged the unit in to electricity, the battery was not charged up at this time, I did run the pump, the converter came on, put slide half way out, all the lights came on stayed on for about 30 min. than nothing it all went dead except the microwave which is on a 110. I have checked all the fuses, threw brakers, put in a new 20 in the 12 volt fuse area. I did charge the battery changed fuse on the battery, cleaned the battery terminals. I cant get it in to a repair shop because the slide is out. I do not know if I can manually put it back in, I can not find any info in the book for this model on putting in the slide.

[Veebyes]

Glad you got it sorted out. Most of the time it is something basic. Start at the battery & work from there.

A good tool to have in your war chest is a battery LOAD tester. A $30-$40 item which will give you the health of your battery bank without lugging batterys someplace to do it for you.

[handye9]

Great news, Happy camping.

[Dakota98]

chark,

Thanks for posting the findings.

[chark]

Its fixed....the wire to the fuse on the battery had shorted out. The fuse was good but no fire to it, also found out that the new battery I bought in the fall had a bad cell which did not help, so replaced with a new one.
Thanks for all the feedback from everyone!
Next thing I got to find the manual way to put in the slide. :)Now hopefully my camping plans for Memorial weekend may happen after all.

[korbe]

My converter will run all my 12volt items with the battery disconnected.

I have a manual crank for my slide opposite the slide on the other side of the rig.

[chark]

will try cleaning the terminals also thank you!

[chark]

handy9 I will get back with you on your answer, going to try the grounded battery voltage output when I get off work this afternoon first. I know I put quite a huge pull on battery that was not charged right off so hopefully a simple fix....if there such a thing. 🙂

[2oldman]

chark wrote:
Batter is new

but the terminals were dirty?

[chark]

Batter is new

[2oldman]

Sounds like bad battery.

[handye9]

The circuit breakers in your power panel, have nothing to do with lights, water pump, slide operations, etc. They only control 120 volt power, going to your A/C, microwave, and wall outlets.

The fuses control power to most of your 12 volt systems. The exception would be slide outs. They have 12 volt auto reset breakers.

Those breakers are not located in your panel with the fuses and 120 volt breakers. They are normally found underneath the trailer, attached to the frame, and probably near the battery. They look like this.. Some have a button for manual reset. Some will reset when you disconnect and reconnect the battery.

Another possible cause of your problem, could be an internally shorted battery. With a battery connected, all 12 volt power goes through there. Even power coming from the converter. If the battery is shorted, it takes up everything the converter is putting out, no power gets through to lights, radio, water pump, etc, and the battery still does not charge.

Unplug shore power, pull the battery and take it to be load tested. Many auto parts stores, will test it for free. While the battery is out, plug back into shore power and try your slide.

First two suspects, I would look at, would be the battery and auto reset breakers. I'm leaning toward the battery because more than just the slide is affected. However, some trailers have an auto reset breaker between the battery and converter. If the battery and breakers check good, there's a wiring issue. Loose / corroded connections or chewed wires.

Please post what your findings and fix are.

[chark]

Thank you I will check that out, I figured it had something to do with the battery area itself but not really sure.

[Dakota98]

Check the voltage output at the battery. I suspect you have a loose or corroded ground connection between the battery and the converter.