Does battery need to be connected to use camper?

[prof_fate]

My camper is in storage (backyard) and the battery is in the house getting charged now and then.

Bought a small generator, due here this week, and want to try it on the camper.

Do I need to hook up the house battery to make things work? (slide in particular)?

[Wiscampsin]

On our camper the slides will not go out/in without the battery hooked up.

[TURBS]

It is recommended to NOT use the slides without a battery.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by prof_fate

My camper is in storage (backyard) and the battery is in the house getting charged now and then.

Bought a small generator, due here this week, and want to try it on the camper.

Do I need to hook up the house battery to make things work? (slide in particular)?

The Clue here is Small Gen! Slide motors like Lots of Power to live a Long Life,Low Power is Life Shorting to Any Motor! Youroo!! Yes Have a Fully Charged Battery also!

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by youroo

The Clue here is Small Gen! Slide motors like Lots of Power to live a Long Life,Low Power is Life Shorting to Any Motor! Youroo!! Yes Have a Fully Charged Battery also!

In addition battery will filter the DC voltage produced by the supply. Most DC supplies are "dirty" and require to be filtered. As mentioned battery can provide surge current for motors w/o noticeable voltage drop. Protects electronics from damaging surges all small generators experience.

[rracer5]

Originally Posted by prof_fate

My camper is in storage (backyard) and the battery is in the house getting charged now and then.

Bought a small generator, due here this week, and want to try it on the camper.

Do I need to hook up the house battery to make things work? (slide in particular)?

Highly recommend putting battery IN while working on camper with genny running. The battery helps stabilize the DC current being put out by your converter when hooked up to shore power or genny.

[Harkerr]

Put the battery in to avoid a problem.

[DickiedooFlagman]

VinceU and rracer5 say it best. The battery acts to supply current and to smooth out power delivery from the converter.

[prof_fate]

I thought so just wanted to check with the experts here.

Thanks

[Tom48]

Originally Posted by TURBS

It is recommended to NOT use the slides without a battery.

Short answer, YES alway use a well chargd battery--- or two or three or four.

Ours recommended we not even run a load on our electric load leveling jacks (Lance truck canper) while plugged in. They and slides draw more current than most on board charger/converters can handle.

[oldtool2]

All of this is that interesting but I got to questioning it. According to the information supplied by the converter I got it states that if shore power or a generator is hooked up all 12 volts is supplied by the converter to everything that it is needed for. If no shore power or generator is hooked up, in other words no 120 V AC, then the converter switches over to the battery to supply 12 V DC to everything it needs. This does not take into consideration the charging of the battery. If I remember correctly 120 V DC is supplied to the converter my converter is capable of putting out 55 Amps DC. That would be more than enough power to run the DC motors on a slide unit.

I agree that the 12 volts DC supplied from a battery is cleaner than what would be supplied by the converters but that would only be necessary for charging something like a cell phone or laptop. This 12 VDC supplied by the converter is clean enough for the electronic boards on the refrigerator or furnace, and more than clean enough to run a 12 V DC motor. The converter does not care where the 120 V AC is coming from, shore power or generator, it will still switch over and supply the 12 V DC necessary to run everything in the trailer. The one exception I can think of might be the leveling jacks. However, your leveling jacks are normally used before you would hook up your 120 V AC. It is recommended the trailer be leveled before you put your slide units out. I really don't think it is necessary to have a battery in place to operate your slides. Th converter should supply more than enough power to operate the slide motors. This slide motors will run from either the 12 V DC supplied by the converter for the batteries but not both at the same time.

It sounds like some of the members think that the generator is supplying 12 V DC to the trailer and that is not the case, the generator is only supplying 120 V AC..

Jim

[B and B]

I have run my slides in and out at Storage when the battery is at home. I use 12 v charge line from the truck. It is 2 batteries and very clean power.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by oldtool2

All of this is that interesting but I got to questioning it. According to the information supplied by the converter I got it states that if shore power or a generator is hooked up all 12 volts is supplied by the converter to everything that it is needed for. If no shore power or generator is hooked up, in other words no 120 V AC, then the converter switches over to the battery to supply 12 V DC to everything it needs. This does not take into consideration the charging of the battery. If I remember correctly 120 V DC is supplied to the converter my converter is capable of putting out 55 Amps DC. That would be more than enough power to run the DC motors on a slide unit.

I agree that the 12 volts DC supplied from a battery is cleaner than what would be supplied by the converters but that would only be necessary for charging something like a cell phone or laptop. This 12 VDC supplied by the converter is clean enough for the electronic boards on the refrigerator or furnace, and more than clean enough to run a 12 V DC motor. The converter does not care where the 120 V AC is coming from, shore power or generator, it will still switch over and supply the 12 V DC necessary to run everything in the trailer. The one exception I can think of might be the leveling jacks. However, your leveling jacks are normally used before you would hook up your 120 V AC. It is recommended the trailer be leveled before you put your slide units out. I really don't think it is necessary to have a battery in place to operate your slides. Th converter should supply more than enough power to operate the slide motors. This slide motors will run from either the 12 V DC supplied by the converter for the batteries but not both at the same time.

It sounds like some of the members think that the generator is supplying 12 V DC to the trailer and that is not the case, the generator is only supplying 120 V AC..

Jim

There's a sticker right by the slide switches on the last three forest river productive owned.
"Must have battery to operate slides"

Wfco converters must have a battery in place for converter to operate without failure.

[Flybob]

Also if battery cables move and short when disconnected , you will blow reverse connection fuses.

[oldtool2]

Originally Posted by TURBS

There's a sticker right by the slide switches on the last three forest river productive owned.
"Must have battery to operate slides"

Wfco converters must have a battery in place for converter to operate without failure.

Learn something all the time. No sticker like that on my 08 Rockwood 5er. Is that suppose to be an improvement?

Jim

[prof_fate]

didn't occur to me with my original post, but I seem to remember that if you say, have a flat car battery and hook up a charger you should not crank the cxar with the charger connected.

And that's what a converter really is, isn't it? A charger for the house battery? If so then the same rules would/should apply.

But it may depend on charger/converter design. A car batter charger isn't a jumper device where it would be expected I'd think that there would be heave loads while the camera/converter is on 120v.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by prof_fate

didn't occur to me with my original post, but I seem to remember that if you say, have a flat car battery and hook up a charger you should not crank the cxar with the charger connected.

And that's what a converter really is, isn't it? A charger for the house battery? If so then the same rules would/should apply.

But it may depend on charger/converter design. A car batter charger isn't a jumper device where it would be expected I'd think that there would be heave loads while the camera/converter is on 120v.

Correct!

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by oldtool2

Learn something all the time. No sticker like that on my 08 Rockwood 5er. Is that suppose to be an improvement?

Jim

"The converter should supply more than enough power to operate the slide motors. This slide motors will run from either the 12 V DC"

In case of hydraulic slides this may not be accurate. Lippert fuses the motor to 120 amps! Way over the converter rating of max 55 amps. A few operations w/o a battery you may be shopping for a new converter.

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by TURBS

Correct!

Not exactly. A converter not only charges the house batteries in parallel with its 40/60/80 (or more) amp DC output to the DC BUSS, it supplies all the DC power required to operate all typical DC systems. Now, the required slide current may exceed the converter amperage output limit and that would be cause to have the batteries installed. A basic car battery charger is just that, a battery charger.

[oldtool2]

Originally Posted by bubbles

Not exactly. A converter not only charges the house batteries in parallel with its 40/60/80 (or more) amp DC output to the DC BUSS, it supplies all the DC power required to operate all typical DC systems. Now, the required slide current may exceed the converter amperage output limit and that would be cause to have the batteries installed. A basic car battery charger is just that, a battery charger.

It never occured to me we could be talking about a hydraulic system but that is possible, need a motor to run a pump, right? My converter puts out 55 amps and I would think that would be more than enough power to operate either type of slide.

However Turbs says the new converter has a sticker saying battery is required for what ever reason so be it. If the new type converters are doing a trickle charge you may cook it? They may not switch over to a full charge when you ran the slide. Then it would make some sense. On trickle the motor could easily exceed the output of the converter.

Jim