Greetings from AZ!

eitemiller · 09-01-2015, 05:57 PM

After 10 years of tent camping with my beautiful wife and soon to be 9 year old boy, we finally made the step up and purchased a very gently used 2010 Flagstaff Mac 206ST pop up trailer. I know absolutely nothing about trailers, pop ups, etc. We are going on our first test run this weekend, about a 30 minute drive, up to the mountains and hopefully with hook ups.

Our plan (in the future) is to be able to camp "off the grid" (dry camp) for days on end. We do not plan on running tv, microwave or coffee maker (there is no AC)...but do want to run the lights, charge our phones and laptops, etc.

I have spent the last two months reading about batteries, generators, power inventors, solar panels, etc. Now I am kinda stumped a little bit (just today) because the pop up is all buttoned up and ready for travel...but there is a converter...somewhere. Has to be. Right now, everything works just fine if I am plugged into my home. But nothing works without being plugged in. So this weekend, I will look for that converter...and try running interior lights off of the one battery located on the trailer hitch.

If I am correct thus far, I will increase power storage capacity (not sure yet if I will use existing battery and one more, or dump existing and get two 6-cells). I already bought a tiny generator and a battery charger.

So that is my story. Very happy with my purchase, and cannot wait to use it this weekend. Be glad to share my experiences. If anyone happens to have a model close to mine, feel free to PM me...be nice to have a few "experts" to rely on.

Happy Camping!

rockfordroo · 09-01-2015, 06:11 PM

Hope this helps:

If you're plugged into 110VAC ("your house"), and stuff works (I'm talking lights, fan, fridge if it runs on 12VAC), then your converter is working, as it converts the 110AC into 12VDC to run that stuff. It will also supply charging current to your battery. When you unplug from the 110VAC, the battery should be supplying the 12VDC. So if your stuff isn't working when you unplug from 110VAC, your battery is shot - or maybe not even hooked up. Another option is you may have a battery disconnect switch that's open.

If you're expecting any 110VAC outlets that you might have to work without being plugged into the house (110VAC), you'll be disappointed. They'll only work when plugged into the house. If you want 110VAC when not plugged into 110VAC, you'll need to get an INVERTER that connects to the battery to convert 12VDC into 110VAC. But don't expect your battery to last long doing this.

Many newbies confuse "converters" and "inverters" so I discussed both above.

eitemiller · 09-01-2015, 06:21 PM

Wow, thx for fast reply. Yes, you are correct. When plugged into house, fans, lights, electrical receptors work. I was told battery was new, and it is an battery powered pop up, which goes up and down easily. So is it safe to assume if pop up actually pops up off battery, then battery can't be that bad?

Battery disconnect switch... Hmmm.

Again, will look at the innards of this beast this weekend. I kinda feel like that one battery that runs the up/down pop up should give me interior lights, but it didn't yesterday.

Thx for help thus far. I'll post what I find. This forum is going to be a big help, I can tell.

eitemiller · 09-01-2015, 06:23 PM

Maybe I got a blown fuse somewhere... Beer and time this weekend... This will be figured out.

rockfordroo · 09-01-2015, 06:24 PM

This may help you, too:

Forest River Forums - Downloads - 12 volt side of Life

**bikendan** · 09-01-2015, 07:45 PM

Could also be the inside plunger switch.
If it's malfunctioning, you won't have interior 12v items working.

eitemiller · 09-01-2015, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikendan

Could also be the inside plunger switch.
If it's malfunctioning, you won't have interior 12v items working.

Googleing that now. It makes more sense (to my dumb butt) something like this. I believe battery is good, it pops the pop up up just fine (I could have more fun with that, but I won't).

The guy I bougt this from...he used it once a year...five years in a row. He really knows very little about it. Sad. He keeps telling me there is a 20 gallon water tank...sticker on trailer says 8. Im just saying that because I kinda trust the guy, he works with me....I dont think he sold be junk, he just doesn't know.

I will look for this "inside plunger switch" this weekend when we have it set up. I am sure there is some sort of electrical (under the seats?) somewhere. Thanks for all the tips. Much appreciated. i will pay them back when I learn more

rockfordroo · 09-01-2015, 08:19 PM

Not saying your sticker is wrong, but 8 gal seems a little small. My Coleman had about a 20 gal. Do you have a toilet with black water tank? That might be 8 gal.

**bikendan** · 09-01-2015, 08:33 PM

in most popups, the plunger switch gets compressed down when the sink cabinet is flipped rightside up.
this completes the 12v circuit to the battery.
on our two older popups, it was white. not sure if newer ones are the same.

eitemiller · 09-01-2015, 08:54 PM

rockfordroo & bikendan you two rock. Thank you so much for giving me a place to start with. Best case scenerio, I will get a spot with power, and not have to worry about the issue for the weekend. Worst case scenerio, we dry camp in a very glorified tent. Either way, I will track this issue down this weekend, and post my results here...hopefully for others to learn from.

Thanks...thanks so much. I'm such a noob when it comes to this. I fix PC's for a living...PM me for free advice

Again, can't thank you enough.

**bikendan** · 09-01-2015, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eitemiller

Thanks...thanks so much. I'm such a noob when it comes to this. I fix PC's for a living...PM me for free advice

Again, can't thank you enough.

where were you two months ago when my PC died!

taken me that whole time to figure out what was wrong and fix it.
new MB, 2 new HDs, new OS. hours on the phone with ASUS and Windows, trying to fix all the glitches, with the MB and Windows 7.

so, it finally seems to be working correctly for the past week. i keep waiting for something to go wrong.

rockfordroo · 09-01-2015, 09:29 PM

Break a leg this weekend and let us know how it goes.

Remember: The worst day camping is better than the best day working!

lmiken · 09-01-2015, 09:48 PM

I did that several years ago. Tent camped for 8 years then in 1999 bought a Palomino popup and a lot of dry camping. Never needed a generator. Popup battery lasted 3 days since there was very little to drain it (sometime using the heater drained a little faster). Just plugged in to the truck and charge up the battery. Used an invertor on the truck to charge laptop or other devices. 20 gallon fresh water tank (take a portable water canister to refill your water tank at forest campgrounds). I also had a 6 gallon hot water heater. Nothing on battery runs in the popup until the sink was up (pressing the switch, keeps you from draining your battery by accidently leaving a light on). After 15 years I just moved up to a Flagstaff 32IKWS. Kept the popup.

eitemiller · 09-02-2015, 09:06 AM

Let me know. I hope you stayed away from Windows 10. It will be a good OS, just too many glitches right now.

aceinspp · 09-02-2015, 09:15 AM

Welcome to the forum. Glade folks got you your answers here. I have windows 10 on both laptop and Desk top and have no issues and works really great. Not a whole lot of difference between 8 & 10. Later RJD

eitemiller · 09-07-2015, 01:59 PM

My update, as promised...

The issue I was having with no power appears to have been operator error. I hauled the pop up about 45 minutes away to 7,000 feet elevation. Set her up, everything worked as it should. The interior lights & water pump work off of the battery. Once I fired up the quiet generator and plugged it into pop up, I had full use of electrical outlets.

Nice pop up. I learned a lot this weekend. Thanks for all the help.

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