Bad converter?

[bkenobi]

My dealer keeps telling me that I'm expecting too much from my truck and shore power for charging. They've told me both supply up to 2A as does a generator. They want to sell me a solar panel so I can get up to 6A charging.

I don't expect full charge from dead instantly, but the thing never seems to charge at all and I suspect a bad converter. Using a fuse current tester, I've found that the camper pulls 0.14A when the truck is running and 0.34A when connected to shore when the battery is at 11.8v. I would have expected significantly more. Does that sound like a converter issue?

The converter (Parallax 8345) was new when I bought the TC last April. The dealer replaced ot cause the camper wasn't charging...

[bkenobi]

I stopped by the dealer yesterday and talked ti the tech about the electrical system. He said it was fixed... i pressed and he said "oh yeah, it was a lose connection on the shuttoff switch. easy." Nice that it's fixed but would have been nice if they looked at it last year!

[996Pilot]

Parallax 8345 Converter/Charger manual says it is capable of delivering up to the full rated 45 Amps of charging to the battery. It is, however, a taper charger so the delivery to the battery will taper off as the state of charge increases. That said, if the battery were sitting at 11.8V (about 30% charged), the converter/charger should be delivering quite a few amps (I would think at least 10-15A or more). The voltage during that delivery should be (bare minimum) 13.2 volts but should probably be more like 13.7V. You need to plug in to shore power and measure the voltage at the battery terminals. 13.5 - 13.7V should be present at the battery terminals. If not it can only be two issues;
1) Dead cell(s) on the battery (easily measured at home with a volt meter and some bare wire or with a hydrometer)
2) Converter/Charger output not making it to the battery. You need to trace down the wiring and devices between the charger and batteries.

Dealer trying to sell you on solar as a fix to this issue is a crook. RUN

[bkenobi]

I emailed Parallax last week prior to posting here. The lead engineer replied with a test for the tech to run. Then the owner called and we spoke for a bit about the situation. They are both convinced this is an issue down stream of the converter. I spoke to the shop again and confirmed they will investigate it.

They were supposdd to start work a couple days ago but the fiberglass guy had the flu. Hopefully I'll know more early next week.

[AnEv942]

What hes saying is with the truck running, the measured voltage it is supplying to camper.
Some of that charge from truck should be going to battery-which doesnt appear to be. (Along with converters charge power when plugged in or running generator)

My moneys on somthing preventing charge from reaching battery from the converter/charger. Whether wiring, connection or 'some' unit between.
Which is why I think its not the converter, thouhg I may be wrong, due to the 12v from truck seen by camper but not batteries? multimeter would prove.

It seems to me a quite a while ago someone else had simular problem and it was some how related to the on off disconnect switch- electronic fail and it acted as one way pass thru?

[Kayteg1]

ksg5000 wrote:

bkenobi wrote:
I measured 14v between the battery terminals on the converter board with the truck running. The meter above the range indicated charging. The DC outlet by the cab-over shower 13.7v.

Converter only operates when the truck is plugged into shore power - what does the "truck running" have to do with anything?

Well, my diesel truck does have engine oil heater plug somewhere, but how does that relate to TC?

[bkenobi]

I don't know... I'm trying to provide relevant info that others might be able to use to make suggestions. Whatever the issue is could stare me in the face and I'd likely miss it.

[ksg5000]

bkenobi wrote:
I measured 14v between the battery terminals on the converter board with the truck running. The meter above the range indicated charging. The DC outlet by the cab-over shower 13.7v.

Converter only operates when the truck is plugged into shore power - what does the "truck running" have to do with anything?

[ticki2]

bkenobi wrote:
My dealer keeps telling me that I'm expecting too much from my truck and shore power for charging. They've told me both supply up to 2A as does a generator. They want to sell me a solar panel so I can get up to 6A charging.

I don't expect full charge from dead instantly, but the thing never seems to charge at all and I suspect a bad converter. Using a fuse current tester, I've found that the camper pulls 0.14A when the truck is running and 0.34A when connected to shore when the battery is at 11.8v. I would have expected significantly more. Does that sound like a converter issue?

The converter (Parallax 8345) was new when I bought the TC last April. The dealer replaced ot cause the camper wasn't charging...

The dealer is full of it . The parallax8345 is a 45amp output converter . Either the converter is bad ,or the wiring wrong/bad , or the connections .

[AnEv942]

bkenobi wrote:
I measured 14v between the battery terminals on the converter board with the truck running. The meter above the range indicated charging. The DC outlet by the cab-over shower 13.7v.

This is when you should have then checked batteries directly to see if making it there. Also on AC- find where charge stops. Except for the truck charge also not making it does sound like converter but leaning to something between it and batteries. If it does prove to be converter suggest not replacing it with same unit.

I'm unsure why dealer would suggest solar, bypassing issue instead of addressing. Also unsure on the Parallax 8345, 45 amp converter/charger I would think it would supply a bit more than 2 amps (though max on most charger sections ~5amps). The generator doesn't supply any DC amps-it powers the AC side of converter.

Trimetric or other would be nice but wont solve issue. Well unless it is a matter of drawing more than putting back but doesn't sound like it

[SidecarFlip]

bkenobi wrote:
The converer is 45A and fused at 30A to the battery. I beleive the fuse in the truck is 20A.

That TriMetric device looks great and is something I was envisioning having but didn't know it was an aftermarket option. I'll ask about it at the dealer.

The install is easy (other than you have to install a shunt and it has to be secured to something solid (It's an ANL style fuse block with a slow blow fuseable link). The Trimetric runs off the shunt with 4 light gauge wires so you can put it anywhere convenient and it's plug and play and the instructions are easy to follow.

Tells you everything, percentage of charge, amps used, idle voltage and input plus it's a data logger so you can track usage over a time period.

I'm no electrician and I've installed 2 now.

[bkenobi]

I measured 14v between the battery terminals on the converter board with the truck running. The meter above the range indicated charging. The DC outlet by the cab-over shower 13.7v.

[ksg5000]

Have you ever tested the output of the converter? If so what voltage is is putting out?

[bkenobi]

I had the batteries tested a couple times in the past. The last time I took them in, Interstate found a bad cell. This was the first trip with the new unit and I was really hopeful I'd have it all sorted. The battery started at 12v when we left the house. After 4 hours of driving, we overnighted and were at around 11.8-12v (so no change). In the morning we were down to 11.5-11.8v (ran the furnace). After 10 hours of driving we were still at 11.5v.

I stopped at Napa and bought a wire brush, contact cleaner, and dielectric grease thinking it must be the cable. Jiggling things seemed to help, but I couldn't be sure...

So, we impulse bought a generator to make sure we had power for the trip. When running the generator we had AC and the charge light above the stove lit, but the battery never increased more than .1-.2v after hours of running.

If the batteries are bad, the dealer will swap them again, but I'm sure the issues has to be something else (converter, wiring between battery and converter, shutoff switch, etc). If it were the truck, then the AC lead would also be suspect since the generator was problematic too.

[ksg5000]

I would be leary of any dealer who suggested that you were expecting too much from your converter and that solar was the prefered method. If it were me I would take the battery down to any tire/auto parts house and have it tested (it's free) - then check for an auto reset circuit breaker near the chassis battery, if that goes toes up it essentially disconnects the battery from the converter, test the converter by measuring it's output at the converter and while your there make sure the fuses on the converter haven't blown.

If the converter isn't putting out juice then replace - if it's putting out juice but it's not showing up at the battery then it's likely fuse/circuit breaker or lousy wiring.