Freaky Wiring Issue

[fnataluk]

Hello Friends: I am new to this forum and the RV Community.

I bought a 1995 Terry 5th wheel and discovered after I bought it, it had a bad battery and a freaky wiring issue. I have taken pictures and made a video that I can email if needed to help me figure this out.
After purchasing a new battery, my 2
Slides worked like a charm but none of my 12 volt lights or any other things would work unless we were plugged into shore power or generator, everything I researched made me think I had a bad converter until I had a friend who is an electrician who looked at the issue for me and discovered 2 things. 1. The pole switch near the battery was bad and 2. the negative wires coming off of the converter were wired to the positive side of the battery as well as the positive line. We fixed both issues and the converter was now charging the battery and all of the 12 volt items were working great until we needed to put the slides in. I was frustrated and prayed and then remembered the slides worked fine when it was wired wrong. I put everything back the way it was originally, including the bad pole switch and the slides worked fine but again nothing else did except when plugged into 110. What in the world is my issue? Help! My RV is parked 5 hours on land we purchased so I won't be able to try anything until we get up there again but if any of you have ideas of how to fix this issue, I can try them when we go ip again.

[Swamp_Man]

When the converter is wired correctly, it charges the batteries and everything but the slide out work. Since the converter was wired incorrectly and now the slide outs don't work, it would follow that the slide out controllers are wired incorrectly. I agree with bstark and jsr21. Are the slide out switches marked with an "in" position and an "out" position? Do they work as labeled?

[bstark]

This is where a little knowledge of how to use a VoltOhm Multimeter comes in really handy as the convertor itself may even have a 30 amp fuse on it's rear panel hidden from view.
Previous owner may have reversed polarity and got results as a previous, poster surmised so left it that way thinking it was correct.

Checking for continuity from the batteries inward to panel and convertor inward to panel making sure every wire remains live from beginning o termination may divulge your hidden little breaker/fuse/switch in the most obscure location.

At least if you trace wiring and find one that is dead and should be live you eliminate one more problem, even a temporary lantern 6 volt battery alligator clipped in place of your 12 volt ones would be enough to verify continuity so you don't risk frying something if you're unsure of your test procedure.

[jsr21]

I bet you have a battery disconnect switch you don't know about.
Slides and jacks usually are wired to work even if the battery switch
is activated. This may explain why your lights and stuff work only when
plugged in.
I agree with he above comment about an electrician not being familiar
with the bizarre color coding some of the RV manufacturers use.

With all the wire switching that has been done it's probable that your convertor has blown fuses now and won't charge the battery.
Good luck

[Robert6401]

wlstroud wrote:
Check your DC fuses in the converter panel. The 12v circuits protection fuse may be blown or removed. This is the fuse that protects and is circuit-wise ahead of the other individual 12vdc fuses. It completes the trailer battery circuit and the truck 12vdc circuit when not on shore power.

Can someone tell me where this fuse may be? I'm having an issue where I have seemingly no DC power when hooked up to the truck or running off of the house battery. I get full power when plugged into shore power. Thanks!

[sch911]

Consider this: Assuming that the slides are not hydraulic, they may work fine with reverse DC polarity, their DC motors wouldn't care, but the switches would be labeled backwards. Also, generally white wires on an RV are ground!

[YC_1]

I will pm you my email address. Often an electrician will not understand the wiring on an rv. The colors are not what one would expect in the electrician world Sounds like he almost got there but may have missed it by a hair.,

[RoyB]

Like said above check three fuses. One will be close to the battery terminal and will be an IN-LINE fuse. Two additional fuses back on the 12VDC Power Distribution Panel labeled REVERSE POLARITY should also be checked out.

These THREE FUSES are between your converter/charger output and the battery terminals.

I would also check again for making sure your battery is connected properly. The easy way for me is to find the word "NEG" or the symbol '-' on the battery case and make this is the battery cable that goes to FRAME GROUND. Hand trace the cable to make sure. You really need to do this before you replace any of the blown fuses listed here otherwise they will just blow again when you replace them with new fuses.

Another check that we do often is using a MULTIMETER we like to read the battery terminals without the shore power connected and will read 12.6-7VDC if the battery is fully charged. Then connecting the shore power cable up to 120VAC you should see the DC VOLTAGE at the battery terminals jump up to 13.6VDC telling you the converter/charger is connected through all of the fuses listed above and is charging your battery.

Both the Converter/charger unit and the Battery connection should feed the same 12VDC point on your 12VDC Power Distribution panel where all of your circuit 12VDC FUSES are located. Like you have stated the ceiling lights should light up when you are not plugged into shore power getting its DC power from the battery.

Roy Ken

[wlstroud]

Check your DC fuses in the converter panel. The 12v circuits protection fuse may be blown or removed. This is the fuse that protects and is circuit-wise ahead of the other individual 12vdc fuses. It completes the trailer battery circuit and the truck 12vdc circuit when not on shore power.