Help! On trip with a broke camper.

[georgialawn88]

I am in a tt with a broke camper. There is power to the camper. The microwaves and mini fridge works. Th outlets work. But there's no a.c. and there no lights. For the lights to work it'll only work off the battery. It's 3 a.m. and I'm trying to fix this before the kids awake. Any ideas?

[westend]

georgialawn wrote:
I'll tell ya what this camper has so many moving parts I can see something breaking every camping trip. I'm new to this camping thing but it sure seems like work

Nah, your truck doesn't break down everytime you use it, right?

RV'ing definitely gets easier and less troublesome with experience. Carry a little log book with you and make notes of what needs repair or maintenance. Get to it when you have time or the urge.

X2 on carrying an inexpensive hand-held meter. RV's have two electrical systems and bounce down the road. A meter makes diagnosis much easier.

FWIW, I carry a small stand-alone battery charger. It is a good backup plan, IMO.

[N2ZPY]

Keep in mind that if your tow vehicle has the battery charge wire hooked up you should be able to hook your 7-way back to the vehicle with it running and charge the battery that way or get temporary emergency power. My wife and I dry camp all the time and I have 6V batteries on board. My in-laws usually won't camp unless they can plug in. This past weekend they were dry camping with us and had their battery go dead in the middle of the night. His charge wire was not hooked up and they had 3 slides, electric awning and electric jacks all out. we had to hook our truck to them in the morning to get everything pulled back in. FYI the GM trucks don't come factory with the charge wire hooked up to the fuse box. It was taped to a wire loom under the front fuse panel.

Kevin

[Wally_Walleye]

Check all gfi s

[guidry]

georgialawn88 wrote:
For some reason the fan stopped running. It's like it was stuck. The guy pulled everything out and touched it and started running.

Make sure there are no mud dauber nests on the fan blades or any moving parts. They're known to make nests on fan blades and that will stop the air conditioner until they're taken off.

[georgialawn88]

Thanks guys. Couldn't do it without this forum

[2oldman]

georgialawn88 wrote:
I'm gonna keep a 75 watt battery charger in the camper. Has this ever happened to anyone? I'm new to this camping thing but it sure seems like work

We still don't know if your converter has failed. I would have said that too, but apparently there was some other problem with the a/c. Are you sure it's a "75 watt" charger? That's pretty small.

Camping is work, but this kind of work is much easier if you add a VOM (voltmeter, multimeter) to your toolbox and become very familiar with your electrical systems. That way you can really cut down on the guesswork and having to call the expensive repairman. This is a very good tutorial and darn near required reading. Don't miss part 2.

naturist wrote:
you certainly have a converter. It is unlikely you have an inverted, but possible.

Inverter.

[midnightsadie]

and just some info ,you need to check water level in your batteries , they go dry and you get the bill.

[profdant139]

georgia, hang in there!! This RV stuff gets a lot easier after the usual "newbie" period, which we all have gone through. I think you will find that this is a lot of fun and a great family activity.

Just be sure to ask lots of questions as you go along -- us old timers like to help the new kids avoid the mistakes we have made.

[toedtoes]

georgialawn88 wrote:
Wife was reading and seems to think power converter? Does this sound right? Anyway to fix this on the road?

I hope you told your wife she was right! 🙂

[time2roll]

WNYBob wrote:
Go pickup a battery charger, a fairly large one to get by until you can get a new converter!

+1 although 5 to 10 amps should do it.
Possibly need a new battery but get the charger first.

[Iraqvet05]

Second Chance wrote:
(snip)

12V is often required for AC control, too.
Rob

Bingo. 12V is required at the thermostat. The air condition unit is still most likely energized with A/C voltage but a dead DC thermostat feed will not get the A/C to cycle. I learned that the hard way one hot summer day. I pulled DC voltage from a nearby ceiling light to get the air conditioner going until I figured out my 12V wiring issue at the thermostat.

[naturist]

Firstly, be aware that a “converter” and an “ inverted” are distinctly different devices. You certainly have a converter. It is unlikely you have an inverted, but possible.

As to the repair by touch/wiggle, sounds like a bad connection and if so, it will happen again. The good news is it’ll be fixable via the same technique, at least in the short term. Many electrical devices have thermal shut off if they start to overheat, so a cooling fan that won’t run could easily cause those symptoms. The permanent fix requires fixing the bad connection ang that can take a lot of work to find. You might be better off replacing the converter.

[georgialawn88]

Ok so here's the deal. The guy came out. The inverter is fine. For some reason the fan stopped running. It's like it was stuck. The guy pulled everything out and touched it and started running. Don't know why this happened but it's fixed. Will it happen again? I guess we will see soon. But as of now it's fixed. Thanks for the help. I'm gonna keep a 75 watt battery charger in the camper. Has this ever happened to anyone?

I'll tell ya what this camper has so many moving parts I can see something breaking every camping trip. I'm new to this camping thing but it sure seems like work

[KMLsquared]

I assume no AC means air conditioning and the converter is not working hence the dead batts. If its not tripped breakers, have a problem in your 115vac distribution system. I dont think the AC unit and the converter would be on the same breaker but you never know.