Forest River Trailer Electrical System

[jdreater]

I just purchased a 2017 Forest River Wildwood 201 BHXL X-Lite trailer, and would like to know if my electrical system is working properly.

When my battery is completely drained and I plug into 120 volt shore power my LED lights will not turn on, all my 120 volt items, Air Conditioner, 120 volt outlets and microwave works

When my battery is fully charged all the 12 volt systems works fine.

Is this normal or do I have a problem?

[Mdaniels4]

Originally Posted by jdreater

I just purchased a 2017 Forest River Wildwood 201 BHXL X-Lite trailer, and would like to know if my electrical system is working properly.

When my battery is completely drained and I plug into 120 volt shore power my LED lights will not turn on, all my 120 volt items, Air Conditioner, 120 volt outlets and microwave works

When my battery is fully charged all the 12 volt systems works fine.

Is this normal or do I have a problem?

Sounds to me that you have a problem with the converter. It's not stepping down to 12volts. Which is why the straight through 120 systems are good to go.

[mikakuja]

Agreed, sounds like a converter issue..

[Stank Bait]

When my battery is completely drained

That would be pretty hard on the battery. What do you mean by completely drained?
If below 10.5 volts it's done from what I know.

[jdreater]

That what I was thinking. Thanks

[wahoonc]

Does the converter recharge the battery? If 12 volt stuff is not working when plugged in and the battery is not being charged by the converter, you have a converter issue. If it is a WFCO do yourself a favor and replace it with a Progressive Dynamics unit. I buy mine from Best Converter. Great people to deal with and very responsive if you need a question answered.

Aaron

[GravyS]

Could be a simple breaker or fuse problem between battery and unit. I use to pull the fuse between battery and converter to keep the CO2 unit from draining the battery.

[rracer5]

Need more info., such as;

1. Under what scenario(s) does the battery get "completely drained"?
2. How are you fully charging it?
3. When camping, are you always plugged into shore power & if so, does the 12v "stuff" start working eventually?

[johnbryanpeters]

Plain and simple, completely draining the batteries will damage them very rapidly. You have no DC because it takes time for the converter to get enough charge into the batteries to do anything.

[rockfordroo]

The converter supplies 12VDC to all the 12VDC stuff (lights, CO detector, etc) AND supplies 12VDC to your battery. Essentially, your battery is just another load, UNLESS/UNTIL the converter stops working. Then the battery picks up the 12VDC stuff. So the only time your battery REALLY powers anything is when you're not plugged into 120VAC power and thus the converter is not powering the 12VDC stuff.

Per your description, since your 12VDC stuff does work with a good battery, but not with a bad one (or no battery), that would point to your converter not putting out 12VDC.

Please see the attached for fuller explanations.

(BTW: With respect to the 120VAC stuff, your converter is just another item that gets powered by the 120VAC, just like your microwave, fridge heating element, water heater heating element, and 120VAC outlets.)

[CedarCreekWoody]

Discharging is not good for the battery but don't write it off until fully recharge and tested. Start checking fuses and breakers. You do have an issue.

[rockfordroo]

I thought the simplified electrical schematic in The 12 Volt Side of Life could be done a little more accurately (although potentially it may confuse you - I hope not), so I revised it a bit. See the attached PDF where I show the original, and then my modified version.

I modified it to:
a) show voltage in the wiring by color
b) added arrows to the wiring show the direction of flow of power (current)
c) show the flow of current through the junction where the converter, battery, tow vehicle and fuse panel all tie together, for the following conditions:
1) converter supplying 12VDC
2) battery supplying 12VDC
3) tow vehicle supplying 12VDC

Hope it helps.

[Flybob]

You should never drain your battery past 50% (see below). Doing so will eventually cause the battery to be unable to store a charge. It will appear charged when plugged in but will not have any capacity when disconnected. There are two high current fuses in your converter/power distribution panel. If you plug in ( aka charge) a fully discharged battery, the inrush current will many times blow those fuses. After that the battery is essentially disconnected from the system so it will not charge or power 12V systems if converter off.