battery question

[oldnewguy]

took my two batteries out to trick change them , put them back in and nothing working on battery power. check disconnect ,that is on wired same way as I removed them . took a pic before I took the cables off. everything works on shore power, I am at a loss of what next . I am missing something simple any help thanks oldnewguy

[Bob K4TAX]

I trust you meant to write "trickle charge" them. So did they charge? Measure each one with a volt meter. Should be greater than 12.5 volts if they are 12V batteries. For 6 V batteries, each should measure about 6.2 volts.

What about the battery switch? Did you switch it to the correct position?

Bob

[BehindBars]

Without photos of the work done, we are taking your word for it that the batteries were re-installed and wired correctly, and that they were properly charged.

Do you have a voltmeter and know how to use it? If not, you are just troubleshooting by guess work and working blind.

Just to be clear, when you say "everything works on shore power", do you mean everything - lights, water pump, furnace, refrigerator, roof fan, A/C, etc?

[Duckogram]

After making many assumptions concerning what you wrote my guess is that you may have tripped one or more of the battery protection breakers. Photo below.

Normally this is caused by improper battery disconnect/re-connect method.

[tomkatb]

Read the voltage of the battery with a voltmeter. Should be 0-12.6 volts.

Then plug in the shore power. You rv should have a converter to charge the battery at 13.7 volts soon after you plug it in. Make sure the battery disconnect is in the on position.

It would take months to charge a battery with a trickle charger. If ever.

If the voltmeter reads 0 the real fun begins! Many possibilities. Dirty loose wires. Bad breaker. Etc. many possibilities.

[Duckogram]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

Read the voltage of the battery with a voltmeter. Should be 0-12.6 volts.

Then plug in the shore power. You rv should have a converter to charge the battery at 13.7 volts soon after you plug it in. Make sure the battery disconnect is in the on position.

It would take months to charge a battery with a trickle charger. If ever.

If the voltmeter reads 0 the real fun begins! Many possibilities. Dirty loose wires. Bad breaker. Etc. many possibilities.

The OP has a PD Charge Wizard. When you plug into shore power or genset it will go to 14.4V boost mode until the batts are up to 90% then it will drop down to 13.6V. If the batts read 0V when they are tested, they are not batteries, they are lead weights. 100% charge voltage varies by battery manufacturer and age. Use of the word(s) about or approximately will eliminate misinformation.
Option 6 selected.

For the OP a trickle charger should not be used on a deep cycle battery. A smart charger or a
battery maintainer designed for storage use are much better choices.

Additionally, check the reverse polarity fuses on your converter. They are automotive type high amp and there are more than one next to each other.

[NavyLCDR]

Did you reinstall the cable that connects the two batteries to each other?

[GolfingDave]

Pictures, pictures, pictures. Why people do not attach pictures with posts I do not understand. I helps in ruling out some things right off the bat or gives people an idea of what people are posting about.

Show us what you had and what you have now. You already have the before pictures.

[18LT]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

Read the voltage of the battery with a voltmeter. Should be 0-12.6 volts.

Then plug in the shore power. You rv should have a converter to charge the battery at 13.7 volts soon after you plug it in. Make sure the battery disconnect is in the on position.

It would take months to charge a battery with a trickle charger. If ever.

If the voltmeter reads 0 the real fun begins! Many possibilities. Dirty loose wires. Bad breaker. Etc. many possibilities.

Tomkatb, how've you been? Long time no see. Due to health issues my wife and I were not able to make it to the Air Force Museum in 2022. I'm hoping we'll be able to make it there this year. It's on my bucketlist. It's been 30+ years since our last visit and I'm anxious to see the changes they've made.
Sorry, I didn't mean to stray off-topic.
More often than not, a wire gets dropped when the wires are disconnected from the battery posts. It's always worth a look alongside and underneath the batteries to see if a wire is hiding down there.
Just my two cents' worth.

[Duckogram]

Originally Posted by GolfingDave

Pictures, pictures, pictures. Why people do not attach pictures with posts I do not understand. I helps in ruling out some things right off the bat or gives people an idea of what people are posting about.

Show us what you had and what you have now. You already have the before pictures.

You are asking the OP to prove to you that he can or cannot duplicate the connections from a photo he took so he could duplicate the connections.
Option 5 selected.

Here is a photo of what it should be.

[Duckogram]

Originally Posted by 18LT

More often than not, a wire gets dropped when the wires are disconnected from the battery posts. It's always worth a look alongside and underneath the batteries to see if a wire is hiding down there.
Just my two cents' worth.

As you can see in the photo above, there is really nowhere for a wire to “hide” in the battery box. Underneath is right out as the battery would likely be too high for the lid to close. Also noteworthy is that the posts are unused.
Option 5 selected.

[GolfingDave]

Originally Posted by Duckogram

You are asking the OP to prove to you that he can or cannot duplicate the connections from a photo he took so he could duplicate the connections.

Not so much for me but for you guys that are more adept at helping. Too many years in the service business where customers called and said they put things back together and now it doesn't work. Sometimes if they texted me a picture I could see what they did wrong. Sometimes it was something very simple they just did not see.

Two people prior to my post asked if he was sure about it being correct. Pictures just help verify.

For me I refused to take on calls for the most part where people attempted fixing things themselves. One of the benefits of being self employed. Would try to steer them in the right direction though.

Never liked when previous customers decided to try their hand at repairing something. Being a previous customer I then felt obligated to see what they did. Almost always a simple job they then made into a bigger/nightmare job.