Power problems

[springer02]

I need to debug a problem in our 2001 Cheyenne this week that we noticed today when popping down. Here's how it looks:

--Battery is fully charged.
--Power is making it out of the battery, at least as far as the little white plug near the hitch (the one I disconnect during long non-camping spells so I don't drain the battery with the propane detector). I checked both sides of the plug, so I know that's not the problem.
--When I'm plugged into 110v AC, propane detector, other 12v appliances, lights work.
--When I unplug the 110v AC, the 12v circuit dies, as if there's no juice in the battery.

So, I'm thinking connection on the converter? Could it be a problem with the converter itself?

Thoughts?

[Gone-Camping]

Sounds like a fuse in the converter or power panel, or the converter itself. When you plug in the 110vac, the converter should take over for the battery. Obviously it's doing something, so I'd start checking all the fuses first. If you have a multi-meter, then you should be able to check the power input as well...

[mike4947]

The most common cause for this condition is having the battery wired up backwards. It's not the standard 12 volt DC wiring. It's wired as if it were residential wiring.

This blows a fuse in the converter. IIRC in your case it'll be a 20 amp fuse.
The second most common problem is just having the fuse blow for no apparent reason.

[springer02]

At least my problems have been easy to solve lately.
It was the 20 amp fuse on the converter. I need to look at a wiring diagram sometime so I can figure out how an output circuit on the converter blows but allows AC power to flow to 12 v accessories when plugged in.

I am guessing that the circuit for the battery (and, by extension the battery charger) is isolated from the system by a 20 amp fuse. When there's AC to the converter, it's throwing out a charge to the battery. When there's no AC, the battery feeds a charge back through the same circuit to the PU. Makes sense, but not how I envisioned this working.

Dave

[aw738]

In this thread I explain a problem not to far removed from the one you encountered.

http://www.arveeclub.com/showthread.php?t=52625

[mike4947]

Dave, newer converters such as yours are what's called automatic. They have a circuit that senses whether the trailer is plugged into shore power and "automatically" switches the converter back and forth from battery to transformer for the 12 volt power.

Older converters had a switch on the front panel that had to be changed to switch from battery to transformer when hooked up to shore power.
 
A common reason for that 20 amp fuse blowing (BTW it's the fuse that protects the converter from from the battery, the other fuses control the output from the converter to the various 12 volt items) is a really dead battery and the charger in the converter (if so equipped) tries to charge the battery with more than the 20 amps the fuse is rated for. So it blows.