New battery, no power?

[bloomis2925]

Spring has sprung and I put a new battery on our TT. Hooked the battery up and I have no power in the camper when on battery power. Shore power, everything works fine. Only thing that works on battery is the power tongue jack, but it is direct connect to the battery.

I checked all the fuses in the converter/ fuse panel, they are all good. Is there more fuses located anywhere else? I've crawled all over the camper looking for anything that may be the issue. I've also searched the forums, but put in "battery" and you get a lot of results.

Not sure if I am missing something simple or not.

Thanks for your help in advance!

[myredracer]

If the OP just wants to do a re & re of the breaker in the same location, they do make a boot/cover that fits over the breakers. The one below is from JEGS. Would be a whole lot better than the silly little piece of tape they typically put on the top of the breakers. Why can't the TT manufacturers at least use these at a minimum?

[handye9]

bloomis2925 wrote:
Thanks for the help everyone. It appears to be the circuit breakers attached to the frame. Power to the first one, no power after that. No reset switch on the circuit breaker. I will have to head out to the auto parts store and see if they have any available. Thanks again for the help!

Most auto parts stores do carry them. They come in various amp (20,30,40,etc) ratings. Check the amp rating on the one you have, or, take your old one with you.

Note: Disconnect shore power and battery while working on this.

[brockwellw]

Not sure if this will help but on my Dutchman there is a auto circuit breaker 30 amp on the frame by battery box. I have had it go bad. Got a replacement at auto parts store for around 5.00.

[westend]

myredracer wrote:

westend wrote:
myred,
That factory job is just sinful. Good on 'ya for fixing it up right.

Thanks! It kinda shocked me when the + wire just fell out. Would not be nice for that to happen when you need the brakes the most. Sometimes I just can't believe the substandard workmanship they get away with all the time.

Yeah buddy.

Before there was workmanship there should have also been some design. How hard would it be to make up a few hundred looms for all the essential 12 V wire and have it lead into a waterproof enclosure, for starters. There would be money saved by looming all the wires to specific length and not individually cutting/terminating the wires. Better quality in the end, also.

[myredracer]

westend wrote:
myred,
That factory job is just sinful. Good on 'ya for fixing it up right.

Thanks! It kinda shocked me when the + wire just fell out. Would not be nice for that to happen when you need the brakes the most. Sometimes I just can't believe the substandard workmanship they get away with all the time.

[westend]

myred,
That factory job is just sinful. Good on 'ya for fixing it up right.

[myredracer]

I would suggest that you inspect all the connections to the mini-breakers and also inside the 4x4" junction box. The factory can sometimes do a pretty bad job of wiring in the A-frame area.

The first photo shows what our 2 breakers looked like in just 2 years - a corroded mess. If that wasn't bad enough, the #10 positive wire on the downstream of the breaker heading into the junction box just fell out of the ring terminal due to a bad crimp job at the factory - see 2nd photo. The ground lug was badly corroded and one of the #10 wires had less than 1/2 the strands under the screw - 3rd photo. Just yesterday I finished installing a water-tight PVC junction box to replace the original leaky indoor-rated metal box. I installed new standard mini-breakers inside it and relocated all splices & connection inside it - shown in last photo.

The marine rated breakers look a good idea. 100 percent better than how the factory does it.

[westend]

bloomis2925 wrote:
Thanks for the help everyone. It appears to be the circuit breakers attached to the frame. Power to the first one, no power after that. No reset switch on the circuit breaker. I will have to head out to the auto parts store and see if they have any available. Thanks again for the help!

Yup, might as well get two while you're there or one of these Marine rated breakers that will also operate as a circuit disconnect.
Or since you have a disconnect switch, one of these Self resetting breakers that should never fail.

[bloomis2925]

Thanks for the help everyone. It appears to be the circuit breakers attached to the frame. Power to the first one, no power after that. No reset switch on the circuit breaker. I will have to head out to the auto parts store and see if they have any available. Thanks again for the help!

[westend]

Check for a small canister circuit breaker, either in a junction box or attached to the trailer's frame/tongue. Some need to be reset by pushing a small button on the case.

If your trickle charger went South, it may have opened a converter fuse if everything was connected (sans switch).

Do you have a meter?

[RoyB]

ALso in the RV worlds Battery cable colors is BLACK or any color is HOT +12VDC and WHITE ONLY is NEGATIVE 12VDC.

In the Automotive world the RED CABLE is always HOT POSITIVE 12VDC and BLACK is always FRAME ground NEGATIVE 12VDC..

SOmething these colors get mixed up because of the installed battery. Always hand trace the cable going to the FRAME ground and this always goes to the NEGATIVE TERMINAL of the battery for 12VDC battery. Or the second 6VDC Battery NEGATIVE TERMINAL in the series connections. Read this SYMBOL on the battery case to be sure...

Roy Ken

[RoyB]

Did you have some sparks for a second when you hooked up the last battery cable connection Only takes a small spark to tell you a fuse got blown down the leg somewhere... There is always an IN-LINE about 12-inches away from the POSITIVE BATTERY TERMINAL that you may have missed. This fuse is there to protect the cables from burning out in case of majpor short on the battery cable at the converter/charger end. The batteries can produce 100's of DC amps in a short time frame that could start a fire...

Are you using just 12VDC batteries in parallel or do you have the two 6VDC batteries in series to give your 12VDC....

Seems like 99% of the time when this post comes up for someone who has just replaced their batteries it falls back to being hooked up wrong...

here is a quick diagram for both 12VDC and 6VDC batteries... We always rely on the battery case markings for POS or + etc... Sometimes the same battery you purchase will move the terminals from what they were before.



Using a multimeter makes it pretty simple to find out where the battery DC voltage stops showing up...

A fully charged battery should read 12.6-7VDC at its terminals when disconnected from shore power. When you apply shore power this reading at the same battery terminals will jump up to 13.6VDC. This tells you all connections between the 12V Distribution Panel and your battery are properly connected.

Just more of what everyone is saying above...
Roy Ken

[ksg5000]

You say you checked all the fuses - but did you check the fuse that's on the converter itself? Also - many rigs have auto reset breakers and they don't look like std fuse or breaker - if the auto reset breaker goes toes up you don't get power (google for pic of breaker). Lastly - make sure you haven't accidentally toggled battery disconnect switch.

Hope this helps.

[bloomis2925]

The battery cables are correct, first thing I checked. I will check for a in-Line fuse or DC circuit breaker when I get home. Thanks for the help.