Quote:
Originally Posted by bigeyes68
I have a 2014 Wildwood Travel Trailer. We have recently moved it out of storage and have parked it by my daughter's house . I installed a 30 Amp Rv plug using 6gauge wire on it's own 30 amp breaker (single pole). This is the issue: When plugged in the battery gauge will read full until I turn lights on then it goes down quickly. I replaced the battery but still have the same problem. To my knowledge I shouldn't need the battery as long as I'm plugged in but for some reason when the battery goes down the lights and anything electrical stops working . The weird thing is when I put a meter in an AC plug I'm getting 120. Has anybody else had these problems?
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OK, first off you have two different electric systems, 12 volt DC and 120 volt AC.
Your microwave, television, air -conditioner, ALL outlets, and fridge on electric have to have 120 volt AC power to operate.
Your lights, fans, pumps, CO detectors, furnace, fridge on propane,, thermostats, all operate off of 12 volt DC. You can use all of the DC items when not hooked to a 120 volt power source as long as you have a good 12 volt battery. This allows you to dry camp or boondock.
Now, you have one more thing in your RV called a converter. This converter takes 120 volt AC and converts it to 12 volt DC. This way, when you are plugged into 120 volt AC, the converter will power the 12 volt DC aforementioned items so you don't run the battery down. The converter is also a battery charger, and tops the battery back off when plugged into 120 volt AC.
When you say nothing electrical works, but the outlets have power, you may be confusing some things.
Does the microwave have power, and are it's lights on? If so, that's almost a good sign you are getting correct 120 volt AC power. You said single pole breaker, so there shouldn't be a chance the electrician hooked the outlet up for 240 volt power, which does happen a lot. Are you positive that the electrician didn't wire it up for 240 even for an instance. If so, that ruins the converter. Did he hook up the hot leg and neutral wire correct?
http://www.myrv.us/Imgs/PDF/30-amp%20Service.pdf
Now, when you said you replaced the battery, Did you hook it back up correct. It's real easy to mix up the wires and hook the battery back up backwards. The converter has reverse polarity fuses that blow that protect the converter from this event. However, when these fuses blow, the converter cannot provide power to the 12 volt items or recharge the battery. The battery will still provide power to the 12 volt things, even hooked up in reverse but will not be recharged since the converter is out of action. If you are connected to the battery backwards, your may have switches that operate opposite. Your slide, or electric stabilizer switches will operate opposite of the way they normally do.
If you have a white and black wire to the battery, the white is negative and the black is positive...like in a house wiring scheme. It's this color scheme that messes people up, as they are used to black being negative as below.
if you have a red and black battery wire, then the red is positive and the black is negative, like in a vehicle.
If the battery is backwards, correct it. Then go to your electrical panel inside the RV, and look for some 30-40 amp DC fuses. These are most likely your reverse polarity fuses for the converter. Replace if necessary. Also the reverse polarity fuses can be on the face of the converter itself and not in the electrical panel.
BTW, if you use the panel monitor to check the status of the battery while hooked to 120 volt AC, it usually always shows full, as the converter is sending a charge to the battery.
Youroo!! 
2011 Flagstaff 831 RLBSS
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