furnace/fridge/water heater not working!

beauwsanders · 02-21-2018, 05:18 PM

hello everyone, I am new to travel trailers me and my wife purchased a 2009 surveyor sv 303 from some family about 6 months ago, we are currently in the process of building a house so this is our residence for the next few months, about 3 weeks ago I was getting ready for work and the propane sensor was going off, at the same time the furnace and fridge both stopped working, we also could not turn on the hot water heater. after a couple of days we had a repair man show up and he was there for 5 minutes and did not touch anything and everything turned back on and worked fine for 2 weeks, he could not locate anything that would cause it to stop working. last weekend the same thing happened again on Saturday and on sunday evening everything started working again. does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be causing these issues. last night before I went to bed everything stopped working again. we want to keep the trailer to take on trips after the house is built but want to get this problem fixed. thanks in advance

**Mr. Dan** · 02-21-2018, 05:21 PM

All of the appliances you mention require 12v DC to operate unless your 2009 is not like the others. You MAY have a problem with a battery disconnect switch (if installed) or you might have loose or dirty battery cable connections.

Kaadk · 02-21-2018, 05:23 PM

Hasn't happened to me personally, but I've heard stories of the propane alarms being tied into shutoff valves in some rigs. Alarm goes off, propane gets shut off, everything on propane doesn't work anymore. Alarm resets, propane resumes flowing.

I'd be checking into why the propane sensor is going off. There are a few possible causes:

1) you have a propane leak (that's what the sensor is there to detect after all.)
2) You're using chemicals (like certain cleaning agents) that it's mistaking for propane.
3) you have a faulty sensor that needs to be replace (they do expire)
4) Probably a few other reasons I don't remember off the top of my head.

beauwsanders · 02-21-2018, 05:32 PM

as far as I know we don't have a battery disconnect switch, we checked for propane leaks but do not appear to have one, everything seems to work fine, tv stove microwave lights, anything we have plugged into the outlets works fine, from what I was told by the repair guy that came to look at the trailer said the propane sensor will also go off is there is low voltage, we put a meter to everything that was connected to 12v and nothing had low power

rockfordroo · 02-21-2018, 05:45 PM

The propane sensors have a limited life, too; around 5 years. Find out who made yours and google it. It may need to be replaced. There may be a "replace by" date on it, too.

cavie · 02-21-2018, 05:47 PM

Remove the battery and have it load checked at your local auto parts store. Check and clean (make shiny) battery connections. All the things you mentioned use 12 volt to ignite the gas. My money is on a bad battery connection.

**Flybob** · 02-21-2018, 05:55 PM

If the previous owner did not replace the battery and it is original it is most likely a bad battery. Even if plugged in to shore power, a shorting or bad battery will cause the 12V side of things to drop too low operate the things you mentioned.

beauwsanders · 02-21-2018, 07:17 PM

Okay I’ll check the battery and see if it changes anything, the soonest we can have it looked at is two weeks so I’m hoping to figure something out before then

**Bama Rambler** · 02-22-2018, 01:07 PM

As others have said, have the battery checked. However, you also stated that you couldn't turn on the water heater. Could you not physically flip the switch or would it just not heat water? If it's just not heating, were you trying to run it on gas?

beauwsanders · 02-22-2018, 01:17 PM

we tried to run it both gas and electric and it wouldn’t light

D W · 02-22-2018, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

All of the appliances you mention require 12v DC to operate unless your 2009 is not like the others. You MAY have a problem with a battery disconnect switch (if installed) or you might have loose or dirty battery cable connections.

X2. The common denominator is your 12v power.

**KyDan** · 02-22-2018, 01:51 PM

Check for clean and tight connections at the battery before you do anything else!! Also check the battery is not dry inside!!!

Water heater doesn't light on electric....

You need a volt meter and do some checks.

Open your fusebox and look near the top.
Should be 2 heavy connections there.
Battery Plus and Minus.
Check voltage there.
No need to remove battery and lug it to
the store for testing until you check
voltage in the fusebox and tell us what you found.

Fuse boxes typically have 2 sections under one cover.
Circuit BREAKERS are 120v AC- otherwise known as shore power.

FUSES are 12v DC.
This is what you need to check with a meter. What voltage do you have at the main connections on the FUSE side of your electrical panel???

MtBiker · 02-22-2018, 02:16 PM

I would unplug the shore power. Disconnect the battery and then check all the fittings (lug screws) on the power bus bar. A loose power cable will give you the symptom's you described.
ONLY DO THIS WITH ALL THE POWER DISCONNECTED.

**bikendan** · 02-22-2018, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beauwsanders

we tried to run it both gas and electric and it wouldn’t light

Water heater doesn't "light" on electric.
The electric side is only 120v AC and the element heats up, not light up. No flame involved.

McCormickJim · 02-22-2018, 02:21 PM

beauwsanders, please be sure to post your solution when you find it.

TimVWulp · 02-22-2018, 07:14 PM

check the frame ground from the RV battery. It may be rusted or corroded causing a voltage drop in the 12 volt system.

Hope this helps Tim

TitanMike · 02-22-2018, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimVWulp

check the frame ground from the RV battery. It may be rusted or corroded causing a voltage drop in the 12 volt system.

Hope this helps Tim

Amen on the frame ground near the battery.

My TT is a 2018 model purchased last July. While doing some upgrades to the 12V system (Victron Monitor and PD9260 comverter) I removed the screw attaching the single #8 ground wire to the frame.

Self Drill/Self Tapping screw was as rusty as you might expect after 10 years under water and the ring terminal was equally corroded.

Replaced this mess with a new plated screw and panel ground lug. Scraped all the paint off the metal where the lug was to be installed (factory didn't bother) and used some conductive, no corrode, compound to insure the ground connection would remain "solid" for years to come.

This connection was installed in the most out of the way possible and if I hadn't crawled under the trailer and traced the ground wire manually I never would have found it. Every single electron going in or out of the battery had to go through this corroded connection.

I can only imagine what my 12V system would be like in 5 years or so.

rockfordroo · 02-22-2018, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TitanMike

Amen on the frame ground near the battery.

My TT is a 2018 model purchased last July. While doing some upgrades to the 12V system (Victron Monitor and PD9260 comverter) I removed the screw attaching the single #8 ground wire to the frame.

Self Drill/Self Tapping screw was as rusty as you might expect after 10 years under water and the ring terminal was equally corroded.

Replaced this mess with a new plated screw and panel ground lug. Scraped all the paint off the metal where the lug was to be installed (factory didn't bother) and used some conductive, no corrode, compound to insure the ground connection would remain "solid" for years to come.

This connection was installed in the most out of the way possible and if I hadn't crawled under the trailer and traced the ground wire manually I never would have found it. Every single electron going in or out of the battery had to go through this corroded connection.

I can only imagine what my 12V system would be like in 5 years or so.

This can happen to your trailers brake ground wire, too. You should be checking those periodically, too.

OscarsMom2 · 02-23-2018, 12:41 AM

We had something similar to this happen on our last day of camping last year. We usually heat our water with propane and there was no hot water. I thought we had run out of propane, so switched over to the full tank. Tried to light stove and it didn’t work. Hooked up to go and there was a sound from the refrigerator. It was trying to ignite the propane, but didn’t work. Used an ice chest for the trip home. When we got home, I read that the propane regulator may be to blame. I replaced the regulator and reset something on the refrigerator, then everything worked. I don’t know if a bad regulator can be intermittent, but it’s something else to consider.

cody1884 · 02-23-2018, 02:40 PM

I think it is your battery is completely shot and your converter is haveing to run constantly to keep everything working, all your problems that is not working needs 12 volts to work. The converter is overheating and shutting down until it cools down and resets . I would look for a battery disconnect switch before removing battery. If you leave some lights on and disconnect from shore power and the lights go out, you have no battery or it is switched off.

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