Lights dimming in Jayco TT

[robdnorm]

I have a 2012 Jayco TT that we are living in while building our house. I have noticed there are times that the lights will dim and then brighten back. When this has occurred the air is off, water heater is on gas only. There are two refrigerators that are running and two televisions. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Old-Biscuit]

robdnorm wrote:
I am plugged into a 50 amp supply with no extension cord. Thanks for all the advice. It looks like I should take the proactive approach and replace the converter before it finally plays out.

Before throw 'parts' at it (and $$$$$)

Have you done any testing?

[robdnorm]

I am plugged into a 50 amp supply with no extension cord. Thanks for all the advice. It looks like I should take the proactive approach and replace the converter before it finally plays out.

[Double_Haul]

I had the same symptoms where my lights would brighten up for no reason then dim. This happened for a few months before my converter failed. Replaced the converter and no more dimming.

[CampingN_C_]

Just a guess with the info provided. Since you say you're building a house, are you on a temporary power meter? Are you using to long of a drop cord from the meter maybe?

[myredracer]

Just because the cells are full doesn't mean the battery is good. Take it to a battery shop and get tested.

Earlier this year our battery would not hold a charge and cells were full. The battery was not very old either. As soon as there was no shore power the battery would quickly die. Took it to a shop and found that it had a dead cell. With a new battery, all was good again.

[RedRocket204]

naturist wrote:

robdnorm wrote:
I have checked the battery and all cells are full. I did see a small amount of corrosion on one of the terminals. I will clean that this week. Thanks for all the input.

Checking water levels is about 10% of the job. There are numerous ways batteries can become a problem or fail, water level being just one.

The next step is to take those batteries down to the nearest AutoZone, Pep Boys, O'Reilly's or whatever you have in your neck of the woods and ask them to test them. They will put a load tester on them and test for proper performance for free.

Last time my rig's battery died, the water levels were fine, a volt meter showed full charge, after the gauge in the trailer said they were full, too. But when I'd turn on a light inside, it would come on, burn for about 30 seconds, and then fade out black. Wall gauge would show full charge, still. But when I took it down to AutoZone, their tester revealed that while it had full voltage, it was incapable of actually delivering more than a trickle of current. A new battery fixed everything.

naturist,

Absolutely. I too have experienced a bad battery, granted it was a motorcycle battery, where it would test perfect with standing voltage (12.5V) but hook it to a load, and voltage reading was around 7V.

A load test is the only true way to determine if the battery is good or bad. Almost every automotive location will have a battery load tester, including places like Walmart.

[Dick_B]

X2 on the load test. The batteries may be full now but where they full thruout their lives or were they low at one point?

[naturist]

robdnorm wrote:
I have checked the battery and all cells are full. I did see a small amount of corrosion on one of the terminals. I will clean that this week. Thanks for all the input.

Checking water levels is about 10% of the job. There are numerous ways batteries can become a problem or fail, water level being just one.

The next step is to take those batteries down to the nearest AutoZone, Pep Boys, O'Reilly's or whatever you have in your neck of the woods and ask them to test them. They will put a load tester on them and test for proper performance for free.

Last time my rig's battery died, the water levels were fine, a volt meter showed full charge, after the gauge in the trailer said they were full, too. But when I'd turn on a light inside, it would come on, burn for about 30 seconds, and then fade out black. Wall gauge would show full charge, still. But when I took it down to AutoZone, their tester revealed that while it had full voltage, it was incapable of actually delivering more than a trickle of current. A new battery fixed everything.

[Chuck_thehammer]

I have a 4 stage charger... in float mode.. its 13.3 volts.. but after some battery use... it goes into charge mode... and its 14.6 volts.. and at this time the lights do get brighter...

unplug from shore power.. disconnect battery.. and have them LOAD tested at an auto parts store.. most will do it for Free,, but make sure they do the 100 AMP LOAD TEST.

then reinstall batteries and put a volt meter on battery and plug in shore power.. charger should start topping off battery. 13.6 to 14.6 volts.

[westend]

It's an easy project. About an hour to complete by someone familiar with wiring.

[robdnorm]

I have noticed since we have started living in this full time that the converter makes a faint squealing sound when all the lights are off. As long as one light is on, you hear nothing. While we are on the topic of converter, how hard and long is it to replace.

[Old-Biscuit]

Dimming/brightening of interior lights is also a classic sign of a failing converter

Disconnect battery from converter
With 120V AC input to converter check the DC output at.....S/B 13.2V minimum and steady
Any lower or if fluctuating then converter is bad

[robdnorm]

I have checked the battery and all cells are full. I did see a small amount of corrosion on one of the terminals. I will clean that this week. Thanks for all the input.

[RoyB]

Everytime I have ever seen this was the converter/charger unit kicking in to charge the battery. Usually this happens when the battery is low on fluids and the charger is almost seeing a shorted cell inside the battery kicking out higher than normal charging current..

Roy Ken