Okay, so I know that RV's should run without a battery when they're plugged in. It seems like every time we either move the 5th wheel or if it storms and the power surges (or goes out and runs off the battery), or if it flickers off because of a storm then back on, the battery always goes dead. Every single time; even though we're plugged in to a 50 amp outside. Today we swapped batteries, turned the air on, a few hours later the new battery was dead. So we went and bought a batter charger. Put the charger on the battery, waited an hour (didn't remove battery from charge), still no 12v lights, ac/heat thermostat not working, and fridge not working. We have a 2008 Forest River Sandpiper, model 345RET. We have flipped the breakers, checked the fuses, and nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any idea on what could possibly be causing this?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Thanks in advance 🙂
ddschuman wrote:
With our voltage issue, we lost the microwave and the converter. If we would have made repairs ourself, it wouldn't have cost near as much but being uncomfortable doing so, we took in to have repairs done and probably paid premium. I think what you are not understanding is that most likely your converter is completely shot and not working at all. When your batteries charge overnight with the battery charger, you are able to use everything in your camper again. However, as the day goes on, if you are not extremely conservative, the battery drains quickly because the converter is not working and the battery charger can't keep up fast enough for the usage. If you don't use the lights much, you may make it longer on the battery as it charges with the battery charger. Your lights, the thermostat, various detectors, radio, power awning if you have one, slides and your refrigerator (unless residential) all run off off the battery. The lights, power awning and slides will drain it quicker than anything else.
I understand what you're saying. But we've been here for 3 weeks without any problems and constantly running AC and/or heat and it's not drained. I'm here all day long using the 12v system. Yesterday's the first time we've put a charger on it since we've been here. But it stormed yesterday, power flickered and then the 12v issues started again. It's not the first time the issues occurred though, just the first time since we've been here. That's why I say it's not making sense. Why would it work just fine the majority of the time and hold charge with no issues for weeks, months at a time and the other times not.
For instance, we got to Texas in February of this year. Had the issue, left all lights off for a while, charged the battery. After that charge we didn't have any issues at all. We left last month to come to Wyoming and haven't had any problems with it until the power went out yesterday. If it was a bad converter box wouldn't the issue be constant? Wouldn't we have to keep the battery on charge every day instead of only when the power goes out or surges?
Veebyes wrote:
Wow! Big 5er. Do you have an inverter?
If not & if the converter is bad, now may be a good time for an upgrade to an inverter/charger.
Looking at previous posts you will have to learn up some on A/C vs DC circuits plus understand loads & what can be run & for how long with an inverter given the size of a battery bank but it will open a whole new side of RVing without being tethered to the power post plus having a multistage charger rather than a cheap & nasty converter that so many units come equipped with.
I have no idea. I honestly don't know much about the electrical system in this 5th wheel. I don't know what an inverter is or what it does. I'll go take a picture of our box. Idk if that's where an inverter is located or not.
ddschuman wrote:melissajean0 wrote:ddschuman wrote:
If like ours, the thermostat is run off DC power. Therefore, if the converter is not charging the battery and it runs down, the AC controls will not work either. This happened to us recently. To get by the last two days of our trip, we bypassed the camper battery and plugged directly into the truck. This allowed us to be be able to use AC again since the thermostat would work. However, the lights would drain our truck battery quickly so if we needed to use them, we would start the truck. We used battery operated lantern at night inside the camper. We found that the few DC powered things in our camper other than lights did not have much effect on our truck batteries (we have 2) and camping in Texas mid summer, AC was a must!i think we only had to start the truck a few times in two days. It was definitely experience but beat having to cancel our trip and we were able to sleep well at night with a cool camper. Good luck!
I feel your pain. We just left Houston about 3 weeks ago and are in Wyoming now. Temps this morning were 50, so instead of the AC we needed the heat lol. Of course as the day gets on, we end up turning on the AC. I guess if everyone's right your converter box may have issues as well. Your problem sounds just like ours. We didn't hook it up to our truck though. Instead we bought a 12v charger from Walmart. Think it was about $16. It must've started doing some good at some point last night. Woke up this morning lights work, thermostat working, fridge is working. We're still going to try to figure out something today though.
Ours was definitely the converter. We had a voltage issue that zapped converter and microwave. We were lucky that is all it got. Since then we have installed a Progressive Industries EMS system. I never want to go through that again! Damages alone were $1100 plus the cost of EMS but that was our option for peace of mind. The day the problems started, we went to walmart and bought a charger but unfortunately, the only one they had was not sufficient to ever get enough juice back to our battery during our stay. The truck batteries were a life saver with upper 90 temps.
What got damaged? We've not had any damages from anything. Honestly we never have any problems unless it storms and the power goes out. Usually when we move if we just leave the lights, AC, and fridge off for about 8 hours everything works great. That's why none of it makes sense. If it were the converter, I don't understand why it'd work as long as we turn everything off for a few hours. But if we don't, the battery gets drained over the course of a few hours, IF we turn on the AC. But yesterday the power didn't go off that we're aware of, the battery drained, everything on 12v didn't work, woke up this morning and POOF everythings back to normal. But we've not unhooked the charger yet either. It's just very, very confusing to me. Idk why it'd come on sometimes, sometimes not. Unless the converter is 1/2 a** working.
Does anyone know if you have converter problems will it work sometimes and others not?
ddschuman wrote:
If like ours, the thermostat is run off DC power. Therefore, if the converter is not charging the battery and it runs down, the AC controls will not work either. This happened to us recently. To get by the last two days of our trip, we bypassed the camper battery and plugged directly into the truck. This allowed us to be be able to use AC again since the thermostat would work. However, the lights would drain our truck battery quickly so if we needed to use them, we would start the truck. We used battery operated lantern at night inside the camper. We found that the few DC powered things in our camper other than lights did not have much effect on our truck batteries (we have 2) and camping in Texas mid summer, AC was a must!i think we only had to start the truck a few times in two days. It was definitely experience but beat having to cancel our trip and we were able to sleep well at night with a cool camper. Good luck!
I feel your pain. We just left Houston about 3 weeks ago and are in Wyoming now. Temps this morning were 50, so instead of the AC we needed the heat lol. Of course as the day gets on, we end up turning on the AC. I guess if everyone's right your converter box may have issues as well. Your problem sounds just like ours. We didn't hook it up to our truck though. Instead we bought a 12v charger from Walmart. Think it was about $16. It must've started doing some good at some point last night. Woke up this morning lights work, thermostat working, fridge is working. We're still going to try to figure out something today though.
FrankShore wrote:
There should be more guys along to give you more ideas on repairs or troubleshooting, before you run off and buy a new box. Sometimes it's good just to dump the part and start fresh though!
If you do, it's probably a WFCO Box and they run about $150.00 depending on how many amps you have (45 - 55, etc)
PPL RV Parts
Okay thank you FrankShore 🙂 I was just thinking oh lord this is going to cost me $1000! 😕 I am not sure what kind of box it is. It has about 10 breakers in it and a lot of fuses at the bottom. Our 5th wheel is 38ft, 3 slides. I don't know if a specific converter box only goes with a certain sized camper. I HOPE it's not the converter box, but honestly after reading the page you posted I don't know what else it could be. Thanks again for your help.
If anyone else has any other ideas or suggestions, please feel free to speak up 🙂 Thanks!
FrankShore wrote:
Here is a basic primer:
Converter Troubleshooting
They all work the same, so don't be put off that these folks have a small vintage trailer!
Okay, we'll check on that tomorrow when we have light. So if that part is bad, the whole box has to be replaced, right? Any idea on the cost of those? There's a parts place right next to our RV park, I just don't want to get screwed over moneywise since they seem to be the only repair place around here. If we have to wait a few days while I order one offline in order not to pay a fortune I'll do that.
