2000 Lance 920, Battery Not Charging With Alternator?

^Cool! You may have found the issue.
However if you’re getting low erratic voltage already to the hot wire on your trailer plug, somethin else may be amiss.
I won’t try to confuse the issues now until you try hooking up what was unhooked in your fuse box. But hope that fixes it!

KD4UPL wrote:
Most Lance campers use their own cord to connect to the truck. It has #8 wire for the 12 volt + and - conductors. With this size wire and the short distances involved with a truck camper it should charge just fine. It's not like a trailer camper connected to the stock 7 pin connector which has small wire running to it already.
The charge line on a Chevy does not come from the factory connected up. The wire is secured under the under-hood fuse box. It needs to be connected to one of the studs in the fuse box. There is normally not a fuse in there for that stud or sometimes a "dummy" fuse. I have no idea why GM decided shipping the trucks this way was a good idea.
With the truck running you should have 13.6 or more volts between the 12 volt + and - pins on the camper connecting cable. If you do and your battery doesn't charge then the problem is in your camper somewhere. If yo don't have voltage there the problem is in your truck somewhere.

Thank you! I checked for the wire you were talk about, sure enough there is an “Aftermarket 12V Trailer Power Feed” wire that is not attached to the available stud on the fusebox. There was also a 10A fuse laying inside the fusebox which I am thinking will be used for that stud. Currently I don’t have the right nut on hand to attach the wire, but I’ll connect it up later today and report back.

FYI Proper charging of a discharged flooded battery starts with bulk charging raising the battery voltage to 14.6V, then absorb mode holds the voltage as the amps decrease, resulting in float mode maintaining 13.4V.

At 12.56V you are actually below a fully charged battery at rest - RESULTING IN NO CHARGING.

Lwiddis wrote:
12.56 volts isn’t going to charge a battery. Too little pressure.

X2 One possibility is that the charge wire beween the two batteries is to long/small for even minimal charging. Two methods: Install much larger wire, perhaps 8 ga. Or use a DC to DC charger. There are posts on both of these.

Most Lance campers use their own cord to connect to the truck. It has #8 wire for the 12 volt + and - conductors. With this size wire and the short distances involved with a truck camper it should charge just fine. It's not like a trailer camper connected to the stock 7 pin connector which has small wire running to it already.
The charge line on a Chevy does not come from the factory connected up. The wire is secured under the under-hood fuse box. It needs to be connected to one of the studs in the fuse box. There is normally not a fuse in there for that stud or sometimes a "dummy" fuse. I have no idea why GM decided shipping the trucks this way was a good idea.
With the truck running you should have 13.6 or more volts between the 12 volt + and - pins on the camper connecting cable. If you do and your battery doesn't charge then the problem is in your camper somewhere. If yo don't have voltage there the problem is in your truck somewhere.

12.56 volts isn’t going to charge a battery. Too little pressure.

Grit dog wrote:
Yes you are getting power at the 12V pin on your truck side socket or yes you are not getting power at that point?

I am getting power from the 12V pin on the truck side socket, however it fluctuates between 4-8V.

ticki2 wrote:

What terminals are you speaking of that you checked . Chevy has a 40a fuse under the hood for a charge line . Do you have power on the charge line at both ends ( truck and camper ) of the connecting cord .

I was talking about the battery terminals. I checked the truck 40A fuses, they look unbroken. I have power from the truck end charge line. How would I check the camper end, if it has to be plugged in to the truck to get power?

stupendous_man wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
The charge from a TV to an RV is minimal. Are you sure nothing is coming from the truck?

TV = truck?

Yes, I just checked with a voltmeter and the voltage across the terminals stays the same. I believe it used to get up to around ~12.56V with the truck on, but I think that difference could have come from the interior lights switching from on to off, which I didn’t account for at the time.

What terminals are you speaking of that you checked . Chevy has a 40a fuse under the hood for a charge line . Do you have power on the charge line at both ends ( truck and camper ) of the connecting cord .

ticki2 wrote:
What year , make and model truck

It’s a 2009 Chevy Silverado 3500HD SRW 4x4, 6.0L. The alternator is working fine.

stupendous_man wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
The charge from a TV to an RV is minimal. Are you sure nothing is coming from the truck?

TV = truck?

Yes, I just checked with a voltmeter and the voltage across the terminals stays the same. I believe it used to get up to around ~12.56V with the truck on, but I think that difference could have come from the interior lights switching from on to off, which I didn’t account for at the time.

Yes you are getting power at the 12V pin on your truck side socket or yes you are not getting power at that point?