thjs is my first time owning a camper. i have a 2005 wildwood 335 BHBS fifth wheel. when i plug in shore power the only thing that works is the plugs. not sure if im doing something wrong or what. the heat or air wont work and the fridge wont either. do i have to change something when plugged into shore power or should it do it on its own. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Do you have a microwave? If so, does it work?
I suspect you have a bad/dead battery or your battery disconnect switch is in disconnect mode. Those appliances you mention need 12v current from your battery at least for their thermostats.
the battery is bad as we just had it tested tonight. wasnt sure if it needed it for the other stuff to work. no the microwave wasnt working either. also where would the battery disconnect switch be at
If the battery is dead and you plug the RV in, the converter will try to charge it and may blow the 30-40 Amp fuses in the fuse panel. Check them. They are usually orange or brown. See attached photo. Also check the resettable breaker ( usually under the frame near the hitch). There is a button on the side of the breaker to reset it.
The AC, microwave, and tv are 120VAC ( shore power). The furnace, lights, water pump, Water heater control all operate on 12VDC ( Battery or 12V from converter).
I suspect it doesn't have one. I had a 2009 Keystone that had none. My 2015 Wildcat is the first trailer I've owned that had one.
Microwave works off a standard plug. It shouldn't be affected by 12v problems. It may be unplugged OR it may have blown a fuse.
Bad battery will mess all those appliances up. I helped a fellow volunteer on a church building project determine that his A/C failure was due to a bad battery. We removed his bad battery and jumped from his truck battery to his trailer's battery cables and his A/C started!
Be very careful to hook up your cables correctly when you install a new battery. If you reverse the cables, you'll blow out two "Reverse Polarity" fuses in your power center (near the other fuses but not in line with them). Battery cable colors don't always match what you see in a car. Be sure the cable to the Neg. (-) post is attached to the frame/ground.
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I'm not familiar with your specific trailer, but to give you a rough idea of how it works.
You have 120 Volt (shore power) entering the trailer, this power goes into the converter panel where it supplies 120 Volt AC power for appliances like the air conditioner, microwave, tv, electric water heater and here is where it gets interesting, 120 Volt AC also enters the AC to DC converter where it gets transformed into 12 DC power for the slideouts, lights, propane furnace, LP gas alarm, landing gear and the battery charger. The AC outlets/appliances are protected by electric breakers like the ones you find in a house, the DC "appliances" are protected by automotive fuses.
These are two completely different systems. The air conditioner can be different because in many cases the thermostat for the furnace and the air conditioner are tied together and runs on 12 Volt DC power but the air conditioner itself is 120 Volt AC. Edit: This means the air conditioner may need both AC and DC power to function, again depending on the setup.
In most (many) rv's the 12 Volt side (lights, landing jacks ...) can get supplied directly from the converter, which may or may not a separate fuse behind the panel cover and does not need a battery. This means if your lights aren't coming on when the trailer is plugged into shore power there is probably no power going into the converter, check the 120 Volt breaker labeled 'converter'. If it is on and you know there is power going to the microwave and the tv then you probably have a dead converter that needs to be replaced. This could also be the reason why the battery is dead, because if the converter doesn't produce 12 Volt DC power then no DC power goes to the battery.
It can actually be a bit more complicated but this is it in a nutshell, however with many variations.
Try to post a picture of your converter panel with the manufacturer and model # if you can.
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I doubt that a 2005 Wildwood has a factory battery disconnect switch.
Unless a previous owner installed one.
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i have checked everything and was assuming the convertor was bad. the battery was dead before i plugged into shore power. I'm putting a new battery on it today. is there an easy way to tell if the convertor is bad after putting a new batery on it
Paul, can you provide a little more information, as there are so many variables at play here that could be affecting your outcome. I'll try to number them.
1. Is your RV of the 30 amp (3 prongs on the shore power cord) or the 50 amp (4 prongs on the shore power cord) type?
2. What are plugged into for shore power EXACTLY (ie, are you plugged in at your house, and if so are you using any kind of adapter on the shore power cord to accomplish such, using a generator, etc)? If using an adapter (especially on a 50 amp cord) is it store bought or of the home made variety?
3. If plugged into an outlet at your house, have you verified it has power by plugging something else in (you may have tripped a circuit breaker in your house of if using a GFCI protected outlet at the house, it's tripped as this happens a lot when plugging a RV into it). I will assume it does having power to the outlets, but want to absolute verify.
4. Is this your first time trying to use shore power since getting the RV? Have you located the RV's electrical distribution box (similar to what flybob showed in post #4) and verified all the circuit breakers there are turned on?
it is the first time ive plugged into shore powersince buying it. it is a 30 amp service and its plugged into a power pole with rv plug on it.
Fantastic, as we are getting somewhere. OK, now this 30 amp RV plug that it's plugged into, is this a new installation?
Is this 30 amp power plug wired for 120 volts (correct) or 240 volts(incorrect). The way you can tell is the circuit breaker controlling this outlet either in your house or maybe at the power pole subpanel itself, is it the same width as a normal 15 amp circuit breaker in your house, or is it twice as wide?
The reason this is important is that everything in your RV is 120 volts. If you plugged into a 30 amp outlet wired for 240 volts, you burn up the converter, and sometimes the microwave and television. This happens a lot.
I'm involved in one of these situations right now with a member in this thread:
Fantastic, as we are getting somewhere. OK, now this 30 amp RV plug that it's plugged into, is this a new installation?
Is this 30 amp power plug wired for 120 volts (correct) or 240 volts(incorrect). The way you can tell is the circuit breaker controlling this outlet either in your house or maybe at the power pole subpanel itself, is it the same width as a normal 15 amp circuit breaker in your house, or is it twice as wide?
The reason this is important is that everything in your RV is 120 volts. If you plugged into a 30 amp outlet wired for 240 volts, you burn up the converter, and sometimes the microwave and television. This happens a lot.
I'm involved in one of these situations right now with a member in this thread:
The fact that his plugs work...wouldn't that take the wired for 240v out of the question ?
Not necessarily. It can depend on what he used to test the plugs. If he used a multimeter and simply checked the hot vs ground or maybe neutral vs ground, then it would show 120 volts.
Here again, it would depend on how the outlet is wired, and is guesswork at this point.
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as usual do everything that wmtire suggests. I would not put in a new battery just yet. the ones you have may well be shot. did the trailer sit for a long time before you got it? if so, this period with the batteries not being recharged may be why they are dead. once you verify that you are getting proper 110 vac into the trailer the next step would be to verify the operation of the converter. we need to know if it is outputting 12 vdc. if you have a multimeter you could check for 12vdc at the batteries terminals (no battery connected). if you have the indicator lights that show the battery charge level it should show no lights (empty) when not connected to shore power and full (all lights) when connected to shore power (again no battery connected). this 12 vdc power would be coming from the converter. how to proceed will depend on whether the converter is supplying 12vdc power.
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rhe firstthing i did was check the wiring of the pole and the plug o the camper. they are wired corect. the power worked on the battery when fist got it but didnt have shore power at the time. the lights didnt work very long on the batery at all so that and having the battery tested is why i am replacing it. i will check the output with a meter this afternoon but is correct on the plugs. will check the converter to see what it is putting out
rhe firstthing i did was check the wiring of the pole and the plug o the camper. they are wired corect. the power worked on the battery when fist got it but didnt have shore power at the time. the lights didnt work very long on the batery at all so that and having the battery tested is why i am replacing it. i will check the output with a meter this afternoon but is correct on the plugs. will check the converter to see what it is putting out
Your battery won't last very long without being plugged into shore power or some method of charging it. Older model units with incandescent lights are big power hogs too compared to today's LED equivalent versions.
Not only do 12v items drain the battery when using them, many things like an audio center/radio, propane/CO detectors, clocks and such, draw current from the battery even when they are not on.
If you do not have a battery disconnect switch installed, these parasitic loads can deplete a battery in a week or less.
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