Electrical Issue

[sawlines]

We're having a strange electricl issue that leads me to believe either I had a converter going bad or a bad breaker. Here's is what's happening... After retrieving the trailer from storage, I noticed our new battery was pretty much drained. After connecting up the 110 power, I only had limited power - the microwave had power and several of the outlets, but the LP detector was regristering low voltage, the lights would not work and the AC would not turn on. If I flipped the breaker for the converter, the lights would flick once. After about 5 or 6 flicks (very slow and controlled) the breaker for the converter would engage and everything would begin working.
Since the battery was pretty much drained, I had assume the inverter would now recharge the battery. After 12 hours, the converter went out again, lights dimmed, AC shut off, etc, etc... checking the battery level showed only two LEDs and I had to work with the converter breaker again for 10 minutes before it worked.

Is the problem the actual breaker or the converter? I'm thinking of replacing the breaker, but only have a couple of 20amp breakers here at the house. Can I use a 20amp breaker instead of the 15amp? I would prefer the 20amp as we normally trip the 15 amp every morning cooking breakfast outside.

Thanks for the assistance...

[KyDan]

1st. do you have a battery disconnect switch??
If the battery was left connected in storage it is gonna be DEAD.
There are items in the trailer including the power center itself that will slowly
but surely completely drain the battery.
You always want to disconnect the battery when leaving the trailer for more
than a week or two at most.

2nd. If the battery is REALLY dead it might cause an overload on the power
center that's giving you the problems. The battery might not be charging now
due to a blown battery fuse OR you could actually have a bad power center
or the battery could be toast. A shorted or dry cell can cause this also.
Sorry, it's sorta hard to trouble shoot this from afar.
I've seen several posts in other forums over the years where a person
had a totally dead battery and it blew the battery fuse when they plugged
into shore power.

3rd. I would not hesitate to put it on a 20 amp breaker if it's kicking the 15
but I really don't know what size wire they used at the factory nor do I know
the rating of the power center so you want to proceed on this with caution.

Is the circuit breaker warm to the touch when you are trying to reset it??
If so, you might actually have a problem and a true overload OR it could
just be a crappy breaker.
I have a clamp on amp meter that would tell the tale easily. Do you know anyone
who might have an amp meter you can test it with??

Good luck!

[sawlines]

Dan - thanks for the info. The breaker is not hot to the touch. I swapped the wiring with another breaker and the problem follows the coverter wiring.

I can't upgrade the breaker to a 20amp due the existing wiring size of 14 gauge.

I'm going to take the battery out tomorrow and get it charged and see if that make a difference.

[Fre tech]

what converter do you have in your unit? is it a chen or an Elixir.
and I can tell you this the 12 volt side is not ruining properly
I hope you fine this useful

[KyDan]

How do you know he doesn't simply have a weak/bad circuit breaker
on the 120v side??

[Fre tech]

Trust me I know

[Mike Cunningham]

Travel trailer in storage for only a week and now I have no power on battery and little on shore line. The shore line is plugged in and seems to run only the microwave and TV. I checked the 12v breakers and they seem good the GFI appears to be good. I have power to all the 12v panel wires. Am I missing an in-line fuse or some other problem.

I added a bank of 6v batteries to my dual 12v batteries last year and they worked great until now.

[chevy02]

Ok i be the first to ask Fre tech your quote "I can tell you this the 12 volt side is not running properly" what do you mean by this and how do we fix it or do we need to fix it. Sorry Sawline not meaning to hijack your post

[Mike Cunningham]

Originally Posted by Mike Cunningham

Travel trailer in storage for only a week and now I have no power on battery and little on shore line. The shore line is plugged in and seems to run only the microwave and TV. I checked the 12v breakers and they seem good the GFI appears to be good. I have power to all the 12v panel wires. Am I missing an in-line fuse or some other problem.

I added a bank of 6v batteries to my dual 12v batteries last year and they worked great until now.

Does this sound like a bad converter? I would hate to spend the money to find out it wasn't the problem.

[Fre tech]

Hi Mike
I would say yes on the bad converter
your converter it not puting out full power you will need to replace the converter to fix the Issue
I hope you will find this usefull