Batteries, dimming lights, etc.

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?