Forum Discussion

firefightersink's avatar
Aug 02, 2016

Battery vs. Shoreline fan issue

This weekend I was dry camping and used my twin Honda gen set up and the air worked great as well as the fans. When i went off generator power, all I got was a click out of the fan solenoid. When I plugged back into the generator, it worked fine. Any ideas? I reset all of the breakers and checked all of the fuses. I do a few dry without generators and I am worried the fans won't work off battery. It worked before so I am not sure what is going on. I tried it on lo/hi and auto with nothing but a click. Thanks in advance for your help.
  • firefightersink wrote:
    And my selector has fan/AC/heat. Fan has a selector for lo/hi/auto and that is what i was looking to run on 12V.


    Ther A/C fan, controlled by the lo/hi/auto switch is 120 volts. It will only run when the Rv is connected to shore power or adequate generator power.
  • Are you talking about the selectors on the AC unit? If you are, that is your problem. Nothing connected to the AC will work off of 12v electric. The AC fan only will only work if plugged into 120v AC circuit or have a generator running.

    firefightersink wrote:
    Thanks for the info. I will check the fuses again. Thank you for the diagram, mine didn't come with a layout so this will help. And my selector has fan/AC/heat. Fan has a selector for lo/hi/auto and that is what i was looking to run on 12V. I have 2-6V batteries which were just replaced and I have about 256 amperes from them and they were fully charged. The fan ran before and this was the first time I had an issue with it only running of the generator power. Again, thanks for the info.
  • mbopp wrote:
    If you're talking about the air conditioner blower, that's 110 volts AC. The heater blower runs on 12V DC but it's a big battery draw.


    x3.... the a/c fan (normally) doesn't work on batteries only
  • firefightersink wrote:
    And my selector has fan/AC/heat. Fan has a selector for lo/hi/auto and that is what i was looking to run on 12V.
    now I'm confused. What selector are you talking about?

    No a/c I'm aware of has a 12v fan.
  • Thanks for the info. I will check the fuses again. Thank you for the diagram, mine didn't come with a layout so this will help. And my selector has fan/AC/heat. Fan has a selector for lo/hi/auto and that is what i was looking to run on 12V. I have 2-6V batteries which were just replaced and I have about 256 amperes from them and they were fully charged. The fan ran before and this was the first time I had an issue with it only running of the generator power. Again, thanks for the info.
  • The first answer is correct. The lo/hi/auto comment is a clue he's talking about a/c fan.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    This is a typical 30A Power Distribtion Block Diagram...

    As you can see the HUB is the 120VAC and 12VDC Power Distribution Center where the 120VAC Circuit Breakers and 12VDC FUSES are located.



    The RV UNIT is desgned to work from both 120VAC and 12VDC.

    The 120VAC Shore Power or Generator will run all systems on the RV Unit.

    NOTE: The 12VDC Lights which include the ceiling lights all operate from 12VDC. This is powered by the 12V battery or the 120VAC Converter/Charger unit which develops 12VDC...

    When on just your battery only the BASICS is powered up that run only from 12VDC. This eliminates all of the 120VAC Appliances. The only way to run a few of these 120VAC Appliances is to have an POWER INVERTER which is optional and is run from your battery bank. The Power Inverter will draw alot of DC Current from your battery bank so alot of pre-planning is required to have a Battery Bank large enough to run the BASICS systems and the Power Inverter.

    You need to identify all of the different 120VAC items and the 12VDC items in your RV unit. The above block diagram lists most of the those different items for you...

    Hope this helps with your understanding of how the typical RV unit works...

    In my Off-Road POPUP trailer I have mostly 12VDC Fans associated with the Propane Furnace Fan and the Fantastic 12VDC Ceiling fan. These are powered by my 12V battery Bank. My roof mounted Air Conditioner Fan is a 120VAC Fan which is only powered by Shore Power or Generator. I also have a couple of portable AC/DC/D-cell fans to use when camping.

    Roy Ken
  • If your 12 V fans are not working off the battery, you have an issue with the battery or associated connections. If I had to guess, there is a fuse or circuit breaker blown/tripped between the converter/distribution panel and the battery. If the battery has been left in a discharged state for a long period of time, you'd do yourself a favor by replacing it.
  • If you're talking about the air conditioner blower, that's 110 volts AC. The heater blower runs on 12V DC but it's a big battery draw.