convertor/charger issue

[maxum1989]

So, I am getting the trailer ready today to leave at the end of the week for Nascar in Phoenix. Running through all the appliances to see if everything wakes up from its Winter sleep. Everything is perfect until I notice my battery isn't charging. I have a trimetric meter so I can see exactly whats going on. I just put a brand new battery in so I thought maybe a wire got missed. Nope, re-did it all and nothing. Everything is working in the trailer, just not charging the battery. Hooked it up to the truck to test that way and trimetric says its charging. Unhook the truck and back to nothing. Then, a half hour later after wondering what I'm going to do, all of a sudden I look and the trimetric is reading normal charging status and has been fine ever since. Do the charger/convertors get sluggish before they go fully bad? What gives?

[Splashers3]

By erratic charging....it would come on for a very short time, lights would get noticeably brighter, and when it went off the lights would dim. The battery would never charge to full, and was charging less and less..as measured by the 4 lights on my control station.

I have a separate battery charger that would always charge the battery back up where all 4 lights would lite.

As soon as I installed the PD converter the battery (Trojan) retained its full charge, and the lights have not dimmed since.

I also didn't mention all the troubleshooting I did with a volt meter in several different configurations before removing the 8955 converter...the key measurement was watching the converter trying to charge the battery (unsuccessfully).

[64thunderbolt]

maxum1989 wrote:

Splashers3 wrote:
My WFCO 8955 only lasted 6 years - and the last straw before it died was the erratic charging (and lack of) of my battery.

My new PD works and charges really well. I also carried it as a spare that last camping season.

You might want to start searching for a replacement.

By erratic charging, do you mean sometimes not at all or less voltage and amps than normal?

When my 8955 went south the voltage would jump all over the place. I replaced it with a powermax boondocker direct replacement into the wfco panel. Call Randy @ Best Converters. I gave the wfco to a member on here that works on them. I'm pretty sure he told me it had 2 bad caps in it. He had it going in a few min. But I don't do that kind of work so my new one works really well.

[drae0814]

c

[maxum1989]

Splashers3 wrote:
My WFCO 8955 only lasted 6 years - and the last straw before it died was the erratic charging (and lack of) of my battery.

My new PD works and charges really well. I also carried it as a spare that last camping season.

You might want to start searching for a replacement.

By erratic charging, do you mean sometimes not at all or less voltage and amps than normal?

[Splashers3]

My WFCO 8955 only lasted 6 years - and the last straw before it died was the erratic charging (and lack of) of my battery.

My new PD works and charges really well. I also carried it as a spare that last camping season.

You might want to start searching for a replacement.

[maxum1989]

smkettner wrote:
Typical WFCO. If you will be charging by generator you may as well replace sooner than later with a three stage converter that actually works properly.

I agree the WFCO isn't the greatest charger/convertor but I have always had decent luck with this one. Its never boiled my batteries and I leave it plugged in all the time. Until today, its pretty much been trouble free in nine camping seasons.

[maxum1989]

Water-Bug wrote:
Some chargers need to sense several volts on the battery befor they will charge it. If a battery is completely flat, the charger will do nothing. Connecting your truck put a small charge on the battery. Once the onboard charger sensed a voltage on the battery, it started to charge it.

The battery was a long way from flat. If fact I am guessing it was around 85% charged. That's what my trimetric meter was telling me anyways.

[time2roll]

Typical WFCO. If you will be charging by generator you may as well replace sooner than later with a three stage converter that actually works properly.

[Water-Bug]

Some chargers need to sense several volts on the battery befor they will charge it. If a battery is completely flat, the charger will do nothing. Connecting your truck put a small charge on the battery. Once the onboard charger sensed a voltage on the battery, it started to charge it.

[maxum1989]

enblethen wrote:
Look where the umbilical cord from truck battery cable and wire to the converter come together. It is inside a metal box in some rigs.
There should be a circuit breaker or fuse to protect the wiring in the rig from possible high amperage over load.

I do have a box like this inside my pin box. I will take a look tomorrow at this as well.

[enblethen]

Look where the umbilical cord from truck battery cable and wire to the converter come together. It is inside a metal box in some rigs.
There should be a circuit breaker or fuse to protect the wiring in the rig from possible high amperage over load.

[Allworth]

There may be two (or even three) automotive blade fuses on the output side of the converter itself (my PSI has 3). I can't imagine why they would just blow without a reversed connection at the battery, but it might be worth a look.

[maxum1989]

I did think about the circuit breaker being the cause but I didn't find one up front before it started getting dark outside. I will try and trace the wiring back to the convertor tomorrow to see if I can find a loose connection or circuit breaker somewhere. I guess its possible that there is a loose connection right within the convertor itself as well.

[enblethen]

Look on the positive cable under the front of the rig. There could be a circuit breaker. Some have a small reset button on them.