Coach batteries wont charge from shore power
1995 Thor Residency, 30 amp system.
Suddenly the coach batteries stopped charging when being plugged into shore power. When plugged in, I’ll come out in a couple weeks and they will be dead. This is a lengthy writeup, but the following is everything I have going on to my knowledge as to be as thorough as possible.
The coach batteries will charge when the RV’s engine is running, and when the generator is running. (I put a multimeter right on the battery posts to determine this, and get 13+ volts). Turn the generator and/or engine off, wait 10 minutes and multimeter at the battery posts it shows 11.6 or whatever my batteries were at prior to starting the RV engine or the generator.
The CONverter/charger is under my entry steps in a ventilated metal cage from the coach builder. When plugged into shore power the charger’s LED light is on. I put a voltmeter directly onto its screw/lugs when plugged into shore power and it is outputting 13+ volts. (my coach batteries are maybe 60% now). My converter is more than 10 years old (switched it out 10 years ago myself and it works (or appears to work) great to this day, but it has had lots of Arizona sand and dust presented to it through the ventilation slots in the metal cage, so in advance just in case I bought a spare converter. I have hooked up that new converter in its place. Same result. A three prong outlet that the converter plugs into into in that entry steps cage is fused to the main circuit breaker/fuse panel. The fuse in the circuit/breaker/fuse panel is fine, and I know because the inverter has a power light on it that comes on when plugged into shore power. I unplug the fuse, converter light goes off. Plug fuse back in, converter light back on. Same result with flipping the breaker switch itself. The dual ground lugs etc are hooked up correctly as the old converter was.
My INverter on the other hand is up front next to the TV in the cabinets. It has “Dimensional” as the brand name and said quasi sine wave, but its model number sticker has worn off by now so I don’t know the rating. It is date stamped March 1995 on the underside LOL
I noticed that when the coach batteries stopped charging from shore power, that the inverter also stopped turning on. When I have the coach plugged into shore power, any “AC” 120V stuff plugged into the inverter (like the TV and blue ray) work just fine. But when I unplug shore power, my inverter will no longer turn on and power anything. All connections look fine. The black test button will pop in and out, and the red reset button doesn’t do anything. Even the AC out round shaped breaker push button doesn’t do any kind of reset. It looks as though its push to reset button is pushed in at all times. It has an AC input 3 prong plug that plugs into a 3 prong outlet that is part of the coach. It has a copper ground wire going to its lug, then a purple (to a purple wire from the coach), and white (to a black wire to the coach), and red wire (to a red wire to the coach) going into the “DC” 12v input in the inverter. The white/black wire and the red wire appear to be 10 gauge or thicker. Not sure which of those color wires go where on the coach (red to the coach batteries?) , but anyways it is about 12 to 15 feet maybe to the coach batteries which are next to the metal cage where the entry steps are. 10 gauge at 12 to 15 feet per some chart I saw online can carry like 30 amps or so. My TV and bluray up front are the only reason from the factory to have this converter and per my kill-a-watt meter they only use 40watts together or something close to like .53 amps. So even a small wattage replacement inverter would be just fine. I’m not looking to run PC’s or microwave or any kind of big stuff off of this inverter, just TV and bluray. I’ll use the genny to power those it not on shore power.
My generator is Onan Marquis 7000 I think, and its fuses on the side of it are fine and again it powers everything like microwave, AC, etc all just fine.
So my questions are,
1) why aren’t my coach batteries charging on shore but they do on genny and engine?
2) what type of replacement inverter should I get just due to its age, given the 15 feet distance and 10 gauge wire from it to the coach batteries?
Could an inverter being dead affect the coach batteries charging from shore or vice versa?
Suddenly the coach batteries stopped charging when being plugged into shore power. When plugged in, I’ll come out in a couple weeks and they will be dead. This is a lengthy writeup, but the following is everything I have going on to my knowledge as to be as thorough as possible.
The coach batteries will charge when the RV’s engine is running, and when the generator is running. (I put a multimeter right on the battery posts to determine this, and get 13+ volts). Turn the generator and/or engine off, wait 10 minutes and multimeter at the battery posts it shows 11.6 or whatever my batteries were at prior to starting the RV engine or the generator.
The CONverter/charger is under my entry steps in a ventilated metal cage from the coach builder. When plugged into shore power the charger’s LED light is on. I put a voltmeter directly onto its screw/lugs when plugged into shore power and it is outputting 13+ volts. (my coach batteries are maybe 60% now). My converter is more than 10 years old (switched it out 10 years ago myself and it works (or appears to work) great to this day, but it has had lots of Arizona sand and dust presented to it through the ventilation slots in the metal cage, so in advance just in case I bought a spare converter. I have hooked up that new converter in its place. Same result. A three prong outlet that the converter plugs into into in that entry steps cage is fused to the main circuit breaker/fuse panel. The fuse in the circuit/breaker/fuse panel is fine, and I know because the inverter has a power light on it that comes on when plugged into shore power. I unplug the fuse, converter light goes off. Plug fuse back in, converter light back on. Same result with flipping the breaker switch itself. The dual ground lugs etc are hooked up correctly as the old converter was.
My INverter on the other hand is up front next to the TV in the cabinets. It has “Dimensional” as the brand name and said quasi sine wave, but its model number sticker has worn off by now so I don’t know the rating. It is date stamped March 1995 on the underside LOL
I noticed that when the coach batteries stopped charging from shore power, that the inverter also stopped turning on. When I have the coach plugged into shore power, any “AC” 120V stuff plugged into the inverter (like the TV and blue ray) work just fine. But when I unplug shore power, my inverter will no longer turn on and power anything. All connections look fine. The black test button will pop in and out, and the red reset button doesn’t do anything. Even the AC out round shaped breaker push button doesn’t do any kind of reset. It looks as though its push to reset button is pushed in at all times. It has an AC input 3 prong plug that plugs into a 3 prong outlet that is part of the coach. It has a copper ground wire going to its lug, then a purple (to a purple wire from the coach), and white (to a black wire to the coach), and red wire (to a red wire to the coach) going into the “DC” 12v input in the inverter. The white/black wire and the red wire appear to be 10 gauge or thicker. Not sure which of those color wires go where on the coach (red to the coach batteries?) , but anyways it is about 12 to 15 feet maybe to the coach batteries which are next to the metal cage where the entry steps are. 10 gauge at 12 to 15 feet per some chart I saw online can carry like 30 amps or so. My TV and bluray up front are the only reason from the factory to have this converter and per my kill-a-watt meter they only use 40watts together or something close to like .53 amps. So even a small wattage replacement inverter would be just fine. I’m not looking to run PC’s or microwave or any kind of big stuff off of this inverter, just TV and bluray. I’ll use the genny to power those it not on shore power.
My generator is Onan Marquis 7000 I think, and its fuses on the side of it are fine and again it powers everything like microwave, AC, etc all just fine.
So my questions are,
1) why aren’t my coach batteries charging on shore but they do on genny and engine?
2) what type of replacement inverter should I get just due to its age, given the 15 feet distance and 10 gauge wire from it to the coach batteries?
Could an inverter being dead affect the coach batteries charging from shore or vice versa?
