Battery and Power Problems

[RRM63]

I have a 2012 Grey Wolf by Forester. Was having some problems with electrical as battery was going bad. Put a new battery on and now everything works fine as long as power is plugged in, but if power is not plugged in, most things don't work. These things that only work if battery is hooked up, work fine as long as power is plugged in. (lights, water pump, water heater, fridge controls, slide out, awning, etc.) All fuses and breakers seem to be fine and battery is strong.

Any ideas?

Rick

[Timtation]

RRM63 wrote:
I have a 2012 Grey Wolf by Forester. Was having some problems with electrical as battery was going bad. Put a new battery on and now everything works fine as long as power is plugged in, but if power is not plugged in, most things don't work. These things that only work if battery is hooked up, work fine as long as power is plugged in. (lights, water pump, water heater, fridge controls, slide out, awning, etc.) All fuses and breakers seem to be fine and battery is strong.

Any ideas?

Rick

Not sure how soon the batteries are dead but there is a lot of parasitique drain on the batteries so I use a disconnect at the battery terminal. FWIW

[opnspaces]

RRM63 wrote:
Man you guys are great. Thanks for all your help. I now have several things to try. Two quick questions, my new battery could be hooked up wrong, as memory serves me there is a white and a red (faded pink) wire and I probably have the pink as positive. Also, if the battery is hooked up backwards would the tongue jack still work?

Thanks, Rick

I had to edit my original post (thanks for spotting the error westend) as others have stated, your red wire should be positive and the white wire ground.

[handye9]

RRM63 wrote:
Man you guys are great. Thanks for all your help. I now have several things to try. Two quick questions, my new battery could be hooked up wrong, as memory serves me there is a white and a red (faded pink) wire and I probably have the pink as positive. Also, if the battery is hooked up backwards would the tongue jack still work?

Thanks, Rick

I think you have the battery hooked up correctly.

Check both wires, for location of where they connect to the trailer. The one that goes directly (I would suspect the white one) to the trailer frame, is the ground (negative). The wire going to a short stop breaker, or, into a junction box (I would suspect the red one), is the hot (positive) wire. Positive / hot wire should also have an inline fuse.

It is common to see Red - Positive and white - negative.

If the polarity is reversed, your tongue jack would still run, but, it would operate in reverse. IE the up button would make it go down, the down button would make it go up. You would likely, also have some blown fuses.

When you find and fix the problem, please lets us know, what it was.

[ScottG]

If you hooked it up backwards then the jack will work backwards - but still work.
You need to check the reverse polarity fuses at the converter and follow the neg lead for the battery down to where it connects to the frame to verify polarity.

[RRM63]

Man you guys are great. Thanks for all your help. I now have several things to try. Two quick questions, my new battery could be hooked up wrong, as memory serves me there is a white and a red (faded pink) wire and I probably have the pink as positive. Also, if the battery is hooked up backwards would the tongue jack still work?

Thanks, Rick

[handye9]

RRM63 wrote:
yes that fuse is good, as the front power hitch works whether plugged into power or not. again, if plugged into power all is well.

Could be a 12 volt auto-reset (AKA short stop) breaker. Inline on the positive battery lead, mounted on trailer frame, near a junction box where 12 volt enters the trailer. Look for one of these. Some have a little reset button, some are auto-reset. It won't reset if it is bad, and it stops 12 volt from getting to the fuse panel. They come in various amperages and are available at most autoparts stores.

Methods to test:

1. Disconnect shore power and check for 12 volt power between the two terminals.

or

2. Disconnect shore power and battery, then check continuity between the terminals.

or

3. Disconnect shore power, check for power at your fuse panel. You should have 12 power between the two sides of each and every fuse.

Changing this breaker should be done with shore power and battery disconnected.

Power to your tongue jack, comes straight off the battery (not through the fuse panel), with its own fuse protection.

[prichardson]

Your problem could also be on the ground (-) side of the battery system. Physically check the connections; battery to frame and frame to interior of TT.

[carrnutt]

May sound silly, but... battery disconnect?

not necessarily that it's off, but perhaps a bad switch or connection.

[westend]

All is good!

[opnspaces]

I would say 1 of two things.

1) Your battery might be wired incorrectly. Most trailers the white wire is negative. The red or black wire is usually positive. I would grab each wire at the battery and hand trace it until it either goes to the frame, or into a junction box.

2) You have a blown fuse or circuit breaker. Follow the positive battery wire from the battery post until it goes into the trailer. Somewhere on that wire is either a circuit breaker or a fuse holder.

If it's a fuse holder, try swapping in a known good fuse like the one for the tongue jack to see if anything changes. If it's a circuit breaker try wiring around it or look for a very small reset button.

Last thing is to open the fuse panel in the trailer and check the two big 40 amp reverse polarity fuses. It's possible that one of them is blown. In a pinch you can put in a smaller fuse like 25A and see if the lights come on. It's perfectly safe to put in a smaller fuse than designed, just don't put in a larger fuse.

Do you happen to have a multimeter or 12 volt test light?

[westend]

There has to be an interruption between the 12V distribution panel and the battery or the battery is very low.
An electric tongue jack is usually connected directly to the battery terminals and has it's own separate fuse.
I would suggest to look at the battery connections and under the trailer's frame to see if there is a junction box. The box may contain a circuit breaker or you may discover a loose connection inside that box.

All is well with your 12V devices when plugged into a 120V shore power connection because the onboard converter is powering the distribution panel.

To illustrate all of this to yourself, you can connect a separate wire from the battery's positive terminal and connect it to the main 12V power lug on the distribution panel. You will regain 12V power when unplugged by doing this. That is, as long as the battery is charged.

Reading between the lines, it may be that you had a battery issue, the battery was replaced, and within the course of doing this, the battery -> distribution circuit breaker was tripped. It may have reset but the converter would not have been able to charge the battery while the breaker was tripped.

[sch911]

From your description of the issue it sure sounds like your battery is bad. When you're plugged in the converter is providing the 12VDC power. Sounds like your battery is not connected correctly, there is a blown fuse between the battery and converter, or even a blown reverse polarity fuse inside the converter.

[RRM63]

yes that fuse is good, as the front power hitch works whether plugged into power or not. again, if plugged into power all is well.

[westend]

Have you checked to see if a circuit breaker tripped or fuse is out between the battery and the distribution panel? There is usually one within a few feet of the battery.