Lightning Strike

[Jim4929]

After dealing with all the things destroyed in the house from a lightning strike, I finally made it out to the trailer to start work on it. It has been plugged into shore power for the last three weeks. I first tried to open the slide and neither of the three would budge. So here is what I know. Battery reserve is in the red with some alarm sounding due to low power. The micro wave it working off the shore power, at this point I have unplugged shore power and replugged and the battery "appears" to be charging some what. In the past the slides and other items have worked with the battery removed and on shore power but will not do so now. Any ideas?

[whitecloud]

This is a great forum. People here seem nice and really helpful.

[Allworth]

I would certainly claim the converter on my homeowner's claim. You are already paying the deductible once.

The new battery might be a push.

A

[Jim4929]

Unhook your battery. Secure your battery terminals so they do not touch metal.
Hook up to shore power. Turn on several 12 volt lights. If the lights do not come on or are not at full brightness, you need a converter. Putting in a new battery only tells you that that battery currently has a good charge. It does not tell you if the converter is doing it's job.

I bought a new battery today because the dealer confirmed it was dead. I performed the above test and unlike a previous use of shore power without battery, this time I had nothing. Looks like it is a multi problem of converter and battery. So I guess everyone was right in one way or another.

[schlep1967]

Unhook your battery. Secure your battery terminals so they do not touch metal.
Hook up to shore power. Turn on several 12 volt lights. If the lights do not come on or are not at full brightness, you need a converter. Putting in a new battery only tells you that that battery currently has a good charge. It does not tell you if the converter is doing it's job.

[bpounds]

I still expect your converter to be fried. The power surge did not kill your battery without also killing the converter.

Good idea to replace the battery, but check your converter.

[ScottG]

MinnCamper wrote:
Did u have a surge protector on the camper? They work if so!

They do not protect from a lightening strike.
If lightening hits and you have a surge protector it will explode and pass the spike on to the RV's electrical system.
They are good for some things but not that.

[jaycocamprs]

Went thru the same thing about 10 years ago. It blew the converter in our case. If you have to replace the converter stick the receipt in the middle of the Home Owners claim. If they toss it ok, they paid ours. You have nothing to lose.

[Jim4929]

Did u have a surge protector on the camper? They work if so!

Sorry to say I had a progressive "in the trailer" ie storage area but not hooked up. I just never considered using it at home....point well taken.

[MinnCamper]

Did u have a surge protector on the camper? They work if so!

[NC_Hauler]

Jim4929 wrote:
Must be battery. Hooked to truck and everything is working now. Time to go to gladly go to the battery store. With everything I had to replace in the house from the strike I guess I was a bit paranoid. Thanks for all the help!!!

Good you had a spare battery...they come in handy sometimes....Hey, once you have the new battery in place, try everything again...hopefully only thing you had was a dead battery:)

[Jim4929]

Must be battery. Hooked to truck and everything is working now. Time to go to gladly go to the battery store. With everything I had to replace in the house from the strike I guess I was a bit paranoid. Thanks for all the help!!!

[NC_Hauler]

Agree about the battery, thus the reason I stated that 1 or 2 cells may be "dead"....Also recommended that he try another battery and THEN try to turn on 12volt circuit (lights), and try to extend the slides THEN....IF they won't extend, or no 12 volt output, will agree it's the power supply/converter/inverter....

Guess, with shore power plugged in, he could see if his 12 volt lights work...."IF" they don't, something is wrong with the inverter......no 12VDC output with 120 AC coming in...unless, as stated, power in side is fused and fuse is blown., (safety circuit), or breaker tripped.

[MFL]

I am thinking the battery is toast, with that low of meter reading.

If you need to open the slides, you could jump from the truck battery, to RV. It would also tell you that the RV systems are working properly.

Jerry

[TucsonJim]

I'd really suspect that your converter has died. You could pull it out and see if the lightning somehow caused the reverse polarity fuses to open, but that would be a little odd. Disconnect the negative lead from the battery. Plug into shore power and use your DVM to measure DC voltage from the negative battery lead to the positive battery lead. If you have the proper voltage, the converter is likely good, and the battery is completely discharged. But once again, I highly suspect your converter is not working because the lights are dim when you are on shore power.