2011 Cedar Creek RE 5th Wheel Low Voltage Battery Issues

My problem has been solved. I seen on my new converter installed last year that it had two 40 amp fuses. One was blown. Everything is working properly. Batteries are full charge. Overhead carriage lights are bright. Residential refrigerator is working properly. Icemaker is working. Thank you all for your comments.

My 2011 was acting the same way. Turned out the inverter or converter was bad. Mine is located under the stairs to the bedroom.

Thanks for all the info. We will try our best. When we find out the cause, we will post.

If you find out that you need to replace your converter, (you can take some measurements to see if it is putting out DC - which I did to confirm my OEM was shot) - Highly recommend the Progressive Dynamics version that comes with a charge wizard (I believe that is what its called). It plugs into the converter and there is a green LED that flashes (I ran mine into my fuse bank, which is located in the front of my main cabin, floor level under my entertainment center). Depending on the flash rate, I know what my converter is doing to the batteries. I love it.

Good Luck.

bertmary wrote:
I have a 2011 Cedar Creek RE 5th wheel. I am having low voltage battery issues. I cannot run my battery operated ceiling lights. My automatic leveling system shows low voltage/error message. I have a residential refrigerator. The freezer works. The refrigerator light is on but will not cool less than 40 degrees. I occasionally have to plug up to my truck to make sure the batteries are charged. The battery compartment says 4-6 batteries; no less than four. I have four. Any solutions?

A couple of the things here stand out. 1st thing is you have a residential fridge which means that if you're not hooked up to shore power then the fridge is running on batteries which in turn then means that it's running off an inverter.

Depending on how large your battery bank is it won't take long to blow through those batteries especially in warmer weather or when the inside of the coach is warm. http://www.gonewiththewynns.com/rv-residential-refrigerator-power

Second thing is that you state the shore power will not charge your batteries. This is not typical as the shore power "powers" the converter that should be installed in your coach. The converter takes the AC and converts it to DC and then into the battery bank. https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-basics.html Two things to check here - 1st you might consider getting your batteries load tested. If they cannot sustain a charge up to 13-14v then you might want to replace them. This really might be the case if the batteries have been allowed to drain lower then 50% repeatedly. 2nd - you may consider replacing your current converter with a smart converter such as one from Intellipower. http://www.progressivedyn.com/about_power_converters.html

Let us know what you find out - I'm curious as to what the issue is. I love the space of a residential fridge but my wife and I found out that it wouldn't make any sense for the type of camping/traveling that we do and the battery power requirements that would be necessary for it to work properly.

Moved from Forum Technical Support

bertmary wrote:
I plug from truck to 5th wheel and start the truck. It starts charging the batteries enough to get by. The shore connection will not charge the batteries.

The shore connection is whats supposed to charge the batteries through your converter. You have a problem with your converter. It takes in shore power and converts it to run the 12V things AND charge the batteries. You should never rely on the TV to charge the batteries unless you've made significant modifications to the TV's wiring.

I plug from truck to 5th wheel and start the truck. It starts charging the batteries enough to get by. The shore connection will not charge the batteries.

Have you check them with VOM, what is the voltge

Sounds like the batteries are close to dead. So how do you recharge your batteries? Do you plug in the shore power cord and then does everything work? The connection to the TV is not sufficient to recharge depleted batteries. Mostly it's only good for maintaining fully charged batteries.