Battery & Electricity Question

Question

I have a small Coachmen Apex Nano 193BHS trailer that I have only used one time.  Last weekend, my son took it to our little farm and set it up by the pond about 315 feet from the electrical outlet and breaker. He plugged it into the electrical outlet and extended the 10 gauge extension cord to the trailer. I estimated that with the power drop he would only have between 2 - 5 amps. available.  He used the electrical outlets extend the awning and to power a couple of portable fans and, although I told them not to, his wife used the microwave for 20 or 30 seconds. When he got ready to leave the site he didn't have enough DC power to retract the awning until he plugged into his 7-pin connection on his truck. I have several questions about this - The battery didn't charge up before they left so I'm wondering if they ever had electrical AC power to the trailer. Second, since the breaker never tripped when they used the microwave I'm guessing that they ran it off the DC power?  I am pretty much inept when dealing with these things. Any ideas?

philh · Answer

Microwave for that trailer is highly likely running off of DC

I haven't looked but my gut tells me that 350' of 10g is not enough. It's voltage drop you should be worried about, and that's a function of amp draw.

If you didn't disconnect a fully charged battery, it is toast in about 2 weeks from the onboard power drain. Was it plugged in when you attempted to wind up the awning? If so, you may have an issue with the onboard converter.

barneys · Answer

The air conditioner, microwave, and elec portion of water heater and normal wall plugs all run on AC power only. They will not run on 12v DC power. Everything else in the trailer is powered by 12v DC.

It is probable that the converter was not charging the batteries when you were plugged in because the breaker was tripped or some other reason. That would account for the battery being discharged and only working when you plugged into the tow vehicle 12v. Perhaps the short use of the microwave blew the breaker.
Barney

time2roll · Answer

OK now that you are home... plug in and measure the battery voltage.  You should see about 13.6 volts on the battery terminals.  Post the results.

troubledwaters · Answer

Does it have a disconnect switch? You won't be able to charge the battery if the disconnect switch is in the wrong position.

kd4upl · Answer

The microwave ran off of AC. If the MW drew 10 amps on 315' of #10 that's a 5.5% voltage drop. If there was exactly 120v at the outlet you would have had 113v at the RV. That should have been fine. I think your dead battery problem is unrelated to the long extension cord's use.

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