Forum Discussion

shanedank187's avatar
shanedank187
Explorer
Jul 04, 2013

battery charged at 12.7 V, not getting power to the RV??

used a volt tester the battery is brand new and fully charged, but for some reason, its not powering the rv, when i installed the new battery, went camping, turned on a few lights, instantly the lights shut off, when i had one on it was ok, put 2 on it would kill all the power, the weird thing is, when the lights came back on they were bright, not dull, also when i plug the rv into power or generator its fine. what could this be??
  • Just went through this. Ours was the converter. $200 and we were back up and running. The telling tale was the 110 outlets worked when on shore power, none of the 12v appliances worked.
  • Does sound like a corroded or loose battery terminal connection or (as already stated) a loose ground wire on the main terminal block.

    Might be a bad cell in the battery if the battery is only charging fully to 12.7
    13.2 should be a full charge.

    Pop the fill caps off the battery and look at those water levels.
  • On my last travel trailer there was an inline fuse on the positive battery turminal lead.Do you have one and could it be blown? Just a thought from my experience.Otherwise like already stated you need to consider the converter.Disreguard ,I reread your post ,cant be a blown fuse if you are getting power in certain instances.
  • Lots of questions. First of all, were you plugged into shore power (commercial power)? How old is the RV and what brand and model? Does any of the other 12v equipment work? Such as the vent fans. When you turn on the second light and everything quits, does this include other 12v equipment? Sounds like the converter/charger is bad but without further information, that is a guess. First of all I would check the ground wires to the trailer frame and to the converter where ever it is.