Weird battery power problem

[Mogy]

Hi all. I have a 2012 Arctic Fox 1150 with two group 29 batteries. Also have a 240 w solar panel. Have always had weird problems, like not being able to run all 4 jacks at the same time - a relay (or breaker) would kick out, then reset itself with an audible click after a few seconds and I can continue (plugging into shore power doesn't help). Running 2 jacks at a time is OK tho. I replaced the batteries, didn't help. Also, 2 or 3 times when we were out in the boonies, the power just died like someone hit a switch. We were only running one light at the time so almost no draw. After 10 seconds or so it reset and power would come back. Now I have no power at all on battery - dead. However, on shore power everything is fine. Fuses are all ok, and batteries test ok - I'm guessing a component failed, but I don't know what. Any guesses? Let me know if I omitted any pertinent data.
Thanks!

[GeoBoy]

brholt wrote:
Be sure your battery connectors are well crimped. When I got my 2013 I found the main cable to the battery was barely crimped and I could almost pull out the wire. It wasn't obvious from a visual inspection, Somebody else had the same problem around here.

I have made it a habit to replace the factory connectors with HD crimped and soldered connectors for the battery and solar connections.
All four of my jacks go up and down without any problems.

[ticki2]

Mogy wrote:
Just to follow up on this, the dealer confirmed with the factory that 15 amp is the correct rating for that breaker.

That's interesting because on this page from rieco/titan the thermal circuit breaker is 60 amps .

https://www.riecotitan.com/camperjacks/electricjack.php#base

[Mogy]

Just to follow up on this, the dealer confirmed with the factory that 15 amp is the correct rating for that breaker.

[Mogy]

Thanks guys. mkirsch, an under-size breaker would make perfect sense for the jack probs... I have tripped that thing dozens of times over the years, so maybe it just had enough.

Bob (CA Traveler) I do have a multimeter, which is how I determined the breaker was bad. That's a good idea to measure power draw while the jacks are in operation though.

Fyi, in the past I did speak to both the dealer and the maker of the jacks (Rieco-Titan) and neither mentioned anything about just using two at a time. In fact, they both said it should be possible to use them all at once (since the remote has an 'all' button). If using just two at once is indeed a limitation, it's a poorly-documented one. I will also post the response from the dealer (about the correct breaker amperage) when I have it.

[CA_Traveler]

If you also had a ammeter to measure the current while lifting that should also help to determine if there is a problem or not. I carry a Sears clamp on ammeter that measures DC amps which is a great tool for all kinds of measurements.

[CA_Traveler]

Jacks use significant amps which in turn lowers the battery voltage when they are used when dry camping (should not be a issue with gen or shore power). Lower voltage adds more stress to motors and they run slower. So it's possible that the smaller auto reset breaker is intentional to limit you to 2 jacks at the same time. It could also be related to the wire size to the jacks which could be to small to allow 4 jacks to operate at the same time.

Plus after a night of dry camping the battery voltage is lower in the morning.

I would starting with a fully charged battery (12.7V), shore and solar off, measure the voltage as 2 jacks are lifting the camper. At that point get a good AF technical person to discuss your situation.

For example let's say you measure 11.7V with the jacks lifting. Then if the battery was 50% SOC (12.1V) then you would expect about 11.1V with 2 jacks. With 4 jacks lifting the voltage would be even lower.

[mkirsch]

15 Amp doesn't sound like enough. I seem to remember that the main should be 30 Amp.

That may be why you couldn't run all four jacks at once. Then repeatedly tripping the breaker wore it out. These things are poorly made, and only have a limited number of cycles.

[Mogy]

The dead one I pulled out was a 15-amp. I'm trying to clarify now with the dealer if this is correct.

[brholt]

Be sure your battery connectors are well crimped. When I got my 2013 I found the main cable to the battery was barely crimped and I could almost pull out the wire. It wasn't obvious from a visual inspection, Somebody else had the same problem around here.

[ab257]

The picture looks like a 30 or 50 amp fuse

[Junket]

I had s chased a similar problem a year but only when I used the slid was a bad ground no more problem.
Ken

[Mogy]

Thanks for the replies. I did replace the switch and I again have battery power! The photo doesn't show it, but the wires are held in place by a clip just out of the photo, so shouldn't be any weight on it. However, the mounting bracket of the dead one was bent a couple of different ways so clearly it had some stress on it at some point. Hopefully the problem is solved, and I learned something in the process.

Good idea about the separate power line for the jacks, too.

[Driftwood132]

Something I did was to run a separate fused wire to the jack controller. No more problems . If you lost power to the camper that way the jacks will still work unless the batteries went dead.

[2oldnslow]

Your description sounds like a mechanical failure inside the breaker.

You might want to use "P" clamps or something to support those cables close to the breaker. The weight of them hanging on the terminals may be what caused it to fail.