Electrical issues

[vhaalen]

I have 2007 27' Classic FB and have recently returned home to Bellingham, WA from a 4500 mile roundtrip to Iowa. During the last few days while on the road home, I started to experience some weird electrical issues. First, I noticed the breaker switch (4th from left) was off when I connected to city 110 (this happened for 3 days only). Next, I noticed there was not 110 at the outlets next to coax antenna boxes on the wall and under the dinette table. Finally, while connected to city 110, the battery monitor light fluctuates from orange to green. Orange when using more juice, green when little use. Everything else seems to work. Can anyone tell me what's happening? I replaced the converter 2 years ago and installed 2 new AGM batteries 1 year ago.

Thanks in advance,
John

[HowieE]

You have 2 separate electrical systems in your trailer. The batteries and convertor are for the 12 volt system and the city source is for the 110 volt outlets.

I am assuming you are referring to a 110 volt breaker when you say it has tripped. If so I would look for a problem in or connected to something feed b that breaker. A breaker can only trip while connected to the city source.
There are 3 possibilities, a weak breaker, a short in the trailer wiring, or a bad appliance plugged in. The easy way to test for a short is to swap the wire on the breaker in question with another breaker. If that breaker trips you have a short. If it trips on plug in remove everything using 110 volts and turn the breaker on again. If with everything removed you have a short in the trailer wiring. If the breaker held replug things in one by one watching for the breaker to trip. Keep in mind that the convertor and the frig are feed via a 110 outlet so have to be disconnected for this test.

If everything held after being plugged in the original breaker may just be a weak breaker and should be replaced.

[dkottum]

I think these may be separate issues.

It sounds like the breaker tripping when hooking up is because you have a high current device, or several smaller ones, plugged into that circuit resulting in a momentary current surge. Or the electric portion of the water heater is left on, possibly with something else also on that circuit. Or a worn out breaker.

The outlets you refer to sound like the ones that are powered only when the inverter is on. These are separate from your regular shore power outlets.

I am not familiar with the battery monitor light, but it may be working properly.

[vhaalen]

What worries me most is the possibility that the batteries may not be charging when I'm plugged into 110. Should I pull the batteries and put them on another charger? Will the batteries be ruined if they discharge totally?

[Bill M.]

Is the new converter on the 110 circuit that trips? Do you have a DC monitor to plug into a 12 volt socket to measure the battery voltage? When you reset the breaker does it hold? Any thing else to draw 110 power? It is hard to imagine a healthy converter not being able to keep the monitor green when the trailer is plugged in to 110. But I do not trust the green/yellow/red monitor on our trailer. I assume it all worked fine after the converter install and up to now?

[vhaalen]

Originally Posted by Bill M.

Is the new converter on the 110 circuit that trips? Do you have a DC monitor to plug into a 12 volt socket to measure the battery voltage? When you reset the breaker does it hold? Any thing else to draw 110 power? It is hard to imagine a healthy converter not being able to keep the monitor green when the trailer is plugged in to 110. But I do not trust the green/yellow/red monitor on our trailer. I assume it all worked fine after the converter install and up to now?

Bill, I'm not sure what a DC Monitor is but I do have a multimeter. Can I use it to measure battery voltage coming to the converter? If the batteries are charging, what voltage should I see? If the voltage coming to the converter reads below normal, what is my risk of ruining the batteries? I'm thinking I should take the batteries out and put them on an independent charger. The AGM batteries were expensive.

thanks,
John

The breaker holds when reset, and has not been breaking a circuit lately. What if

[vhaalen]

Still haven't solved my electrical problems, but have determined that my AGM batteries have discharged, registering 11.04 volts on my multimeter. I have pulled the batteries and placed them on an independent charger in my garage.

What would cause the batteries to not charge up when the coach is plugged in to 110 city service other than a faulty converter?

[Bill M.]

Good move on the batteries. Faulty converter, converter not being powered, in our trailer there is a switch that turns off the converter that sometimes gets flipped by accident, bad connections to ground or to the batteries. I am thinking from afar that maybe your 110 problems are somehow related to the circuit that powers the converter. I keep a little $25 thing that shows DC volts and has the red yellow green lights plugged into a 12 volt socket in the bathroom so I know if I am charging or how discharged I am. I still have the original converter in my trailer and am not familiar with the smart ones. At 11 volts on the batteries it should have been putting out full power around 13.5 to 14 volts though.