A/c trouble. Input needed.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Taranwanderer

Lou, if his camper was designed to have a battery and it doesn't, isn't his converter "seeing" a low 12V DC situation (perpetually) and trying like hell to charge something that can't be charged? If so, that's probably pulling a boat-load of power from the 120V AC side of things and could be why there doesn't seem to be enough power for the air con...yes?

There is a big difference between a "low" battery and "no" battery. A "low/dead" battery shows up as a high current short circuit and the converter will drop off line to protect itself. NO battery will just show as an "open".

In fact when testing the output during troubleshooting, the battery is removed. See the troubleshooting section in the WFCO manual (attached).

"Designed to have a battery in the circuit" is correct. However it is used to buffer heavy draws on the 12 volt circuits to prevent overworking the converter. He asked "if a battery was needed" is a seasonal site and the answer is "no".

The corollary is that without one, all 12 volt power must be made by the converter and heavy draws will shorten the life of the converter without a battery "sink" to draw from during times of high draws.

[jimh]

xander, when u turn on the a/c, does the fan blow normally before it kicks the breaker? if the fan slows before the breaker trips, it could be the fan. u can test this idea by keeping the fan on and set the thermostat so that the compressor doesn't come on.

for now, i believe ur on a wild goose chase with the power cord. i believe if it was the power cord the problem would be consistent regardless of time of day. i still believe it is a good idea to get rid of the underground connection but don't believe that is going to solve the problem ur having now.
i recently had a fan motor go bad on my unit. it would get noisy and bog down. i would shut it down before it tripped the breaker. most of the time that will not trip the breaker but the compressor will shut down on thermal overload. in other words, i believe the problem would show up a little different if it was the fan but it is worth observing just to be sure.

i really believe ur going to find low voltage supplied from the campground to be the problem. a voltage check inside the trailer can tell u if this is the problem. if it is low there then check the pedistle. if it is good there, check the power cord connections. if it is low at the pedistle, the campground is the problem.

[RONXS69]

I need to chime in here only because I have (had) the same problem. I had my toyhauler's 50 amp cord adapted down to plug into a 20amp circuit in my garage. I did this just to keep the AC running when the temps got up and keep the batteries charged. Had the thermostat set to 85 in the unit to keep hunidity down etc. Everything was fine until the outside temps started getting above 90 deg. Then my breaker started tripping as well. Electrcity obviously creates heat especially under load. Heat makes electric motors (AC compressor) run hotter also creating more heat and load on the system. Cables exposed to heat and sunlight also are hotter and add to the load. Throw all this on a 15-20 amp undersized, extended wiring and there go the breakers. Probably nothing wrong with your AC unit. I just finished properly wiring 6 guage, 4 conductor wire to an RV outlet mounted outside my garage and have had no issues with the AC running at all. I purchased all materials at lowes for less than $100. The extenson cord to a 20 amp circuit just couldn't cut it inthe extreme heat. Glad I did this as our temps here in VA were above 100 deg. for 6 days straight and a bad storm knocked power out to all of us for 4 days. Lived in the toy hauler!

[Taranwanderer]

Thanks for the clarification, Lou--I didn't know that the converter would cut out if there wasn't a battery in the equation. That's probably a good thing.

Another option to determine if your CG's power supply is sub-par: talk to one of your nice neighbors that have a portable surge-guard and ask them if you can borrow it for 15 minutes. I just bought one of these from CW and, while it wasn't cheap, it does do the job. I had my TT plugged into the garage with a 15 amp cord, 15 amp circuit--fine for keeping the battery charged and running the fridge. So I plugged the surge guard into the system, it read the incoming line voltage and the amp draw. Then when I tried to turn on the air con, it cut all power (like it's supposed to) because the line voltage dropped. If you can borrow one of these from a neighbor, you can at least use it to point out to the CG owner that it really is his problem and not yours. Good luck!

[xander]

You guys have been very helpfully and I really appreciate it.so this weekend I will buy a meter and plug it in when the ac starts acting up. I'm hoping that the problem is somthing that the owner needs to take care of but I doubt he will do anything about it. I am thinking we may need to change lots. Now I have to figure out how to move our deck that is cemented into the ground. I will post up my findings on the problem.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Taranwanderer

Thanks for the clarification, Lou--I didn't know that the converter would cut out if there wasn't a battery in the equation. That's probably a good thing.

You misunderstood what I said. A DEAD battery will cause it to shut down. Not a "missing" one. The DEAD battery acts like a dead short to the converter due to the high current draw. A missing battery is just an "open" drawing no current.

[bclemens]

One other thing since I have seen this happen on my motorhome units.

We used to use a double breaker to cover the A/C and something else...it specs out perfectly fine and worked perfectly fine. However as it gets hot...the breaker heats up and the double would trip. We ended up moving the A/C to its very own breaker and try to move it to the other side of the panel away from other 20 amp breakers. This seemed to solve the issue.

[xander]

Here is a short video of my campground and set up. At :19 you can see the electric box with my hose running to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPtLB...e_gdata_player