Oasis 26db

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by Kabachy307

okay guys, I need some back up/clarification. I recently had a problem where my ac power was only working for my outlets. aka my lights, frig, slide out, etc awning were not working. basically anything that runs off of dc power. when I hooked up my battery with ac connected, everything worked.

so I took my rv (still under warranty) to camping world and received a call today saying that they were confused. Before they brought the trailer in to be serviced, she wanted to clarify. I explained my problem and she advised that in order dc electrics to work, they need a battery. I advised that I had the ac hooked up and that the trailer should convert that power to dc so that the dc electronics would work. She advised me that it was not how it worked. I stated that I have gone several trips without a battery and connected to shore power with no issues in the past. She stated she didn't know how I did that and that I would even need the battery for the trailer brakes to work when driving. I told her that the trailer brakes should run off the power from the car as it was hooked up to the car for the lights. Again she advised that this was incorrect and I was driving without trailer brakes if I did not have the battery hooked up. she said she would tell the techs to look for any electrical issues but doesn't think anything is wrong with my camper. I was advised that my camper does not have a converter.

I am 99% sure she is full of it but want to confirm. So from what she is telling me, dc operated electronics will never work unless I have a battery hooked up to the front of the camper. Even if I plug into shore power. If this is true...my camper was working magically for 3 months and I need to find a new camper because this is bull. To me, it makes no sense to plug into shore power purely to use outlets and air-condition while everything else is still running off my battery.

Can someone please confirm if this is true or has anyone not used the battery but still have dc electronics workings?

thanks for any inputs.

She's probably wrong about the converter, but pretty much right about everything else.

1) You should have a battery. Your breakaway cable (which uses the trailer brakes) requires one. If the trailer cuts loose, it won't be connected to your TV anymore. No Connection and no battery means the brakes won't be applied and then you've got a runaway trailer. Note that in most locations, you're required by law to have a battery on board if you have a trailer brakes specifically for this reason.

2) Yes, the converter (you do have one, this is where she's wrong) will supply DC power, but having a battery connected helps the process. With a battery, you pull from the battery's reserves, and then the converter replenishes it. It saves on the wear and tear on the converter as the converter won't have to run all the time, just when it's needed to top up the battery.

3) The battery also acts as an equalizer, buffering you from overloading the converter since the converter wasn't designed to run everything at once, it was only designed to recharge the battery. You can easily pull more than the converter can output, which then comes from the battery, as the load lessens, the converter can provide more than the current load requires, so that excess is used to replenish the battery.