Newbie Question: RBXL171 Battery Charging

[Weberpa]

Hi All,
After a 7 hour drive we pulled into my brother-in-law's driveway and unplugged from the car and plugged the trailer into his house for the electrical. Though the house is 20 amp in the trailer is 30 we seem to be doing okay as long as we don't run the air conditioner. However I was checking the battery status lights and it showed that the batteries of the RBXL 171 are only half charged. When I'm connected to household electricity doesn't it charge the batteries? We've been parked here two days and they're still just showing half charged. Thanks as always for any advice you can provide.



Paul
New owner of a 2022 RBXL171
Currently in Burlington Ontario

[bikendan]

Does your Salem have a battery disconnect switch?
Did you check the house outlet to verify it's got power?

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Weberpa

Hi All,
After a 7 hour drive we pulled into my brother-in-law's driveway and unplugged from the car and plugged the trailer into his house for the electrical. Though the house is 20 amp in the trailer is 30 we seem to be doing okay as long as we don't run the air conditioner. However I was checking the battery status lights and it showed that the batteries of the RBXL 171 are only half charged. When I'm connected to household electricity doesn't it charge the batteries? We've been parked here two days and they're still just showing half charged. Thanks as always for any advice you can provide.



Paul
New owner of a 2022 RBXL171
Currently in Burlington Ontario

It is possible that the converter, which charges the batteries when 'plugged in' has blown reverse polarity fuses. Do lights work when not plugged in? If so, fuses are probably OK but converter itself is either switched off at circuit breakers or is defective. Also possible the battery disconnect switch is OFF and batteries are disconnected can't charge from converter.

Checking the converter requires disconnecting the batteries, plugging in, and measuring voltage at the wires from the actual converter where they connect to the fuse board. Should read 13 volts or more when converter is operating with batteries disconnected.

[Weberpa]

You're correct. I had been playing with the fuse panel and misread what I was shutting off. Apparently I had switched offf the converter on the panel. As soon as I switched it on the battery meter showed that the batteries were fully charged. Thanks very much!

[Weberpa]

Thanks. My fault. . I had been playing with the breaker switches and had turned off the converter. Once I turned it on everything went back to normal and the battery showed they were fully charged.

[TacomaJoe]

My breaker panel sits down by the floor so I understand flipping the wrong one. Lately I've been considering some paint to ID some (easily ID the water heater breaker for example).

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Weberpa

You're correct. I had been playing with the fuse panel and misread what I was shutting off. Apparently I had switched offf the converter on the panel. As soon as I switched it on the battery meter showed that the batteries were fully charged. Thanks very much!

Don't be fooled by the battery meter. If you're plugged into shore power, it's showing what charge amount is coming from the converter. Unplug from shore power and then see what the battery meter says.