2021 Rockwood 8336BH electrical issue

[Sampy]

Hello everyone!
Just finished camping this weekend and when I got home and plugged in power I noticed my control panel is dead. Therefore, I can't extend the slides and many of lights can't be turned on either since of course many are activated from the control panel. My power jack won't work either.

I do have power coming in the camper since the microwave, camper stabilizers, outdoor fridge, and some of the wall receptacles are working fine.

Anybody have any ideas? Please let me know.

Jim

[fipntdot]

All those things should work via battery power whether you are plugged in or not. Is your battery disconnect switched turned off?

[Sampy]

Thankyou for responding. I did check that out and not so lucky. Ongoing mystery

[fipntdot]

That's too bad. Are any of the interior lights working, or just the 110 things that you mentioned? I do not know your system, but there may likely be a 12 volt fuse blown somewhere.

[Larry-NC]

First order of business. Get a multimeter and check your battery voltage. The control panel runs from the battery, not the AC line voltage that powers the microwave, fridge, and some of the receptacles.

[Sampy]

No lights work in the camper but many of them are activated from the control panel which is dead. All the receptacles work fine it seems.
The smart jack is dead too which is strange

[Sampy]

Both batteries are fully charged and disconnect is turned to "on" position. I'm starting to wonder if the converter went bad or something. I think the power jack bypasses this anyway but is totally dead as well.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Sampy

Both batteries are fully charged and disconnect is turned to "on" position. I'm starting to wonder if the converter went bad or something. I think the power jack bypasses this anyway but is totally dead as well.

Think about this. If the batteries are charged, it doesn't matter if the converter is bad.

Could you tell us how you know that the batteries are charged?

I assume you have a power jack. If so, does that work?

Now, one more thing for you to do:
At the front of the trailer, either under the A-frame that holds the hitch, or right behind it under the trailer will be one or two little boxes that look like the picture below. It may have a plastic cover. It is a circuit breaker on your 12 (battery) system. There will be a small button on one end. Press it in until it clicks. See if that fixes things.

[Sampy]

Thanks Larry,

There is an indicator on the control panel that tells me the charge level for the batteries. Before the control panel died it showed they were fully charged. Just to make sure I charged them all day today and put a multimeter on a battery to verify.
I just tried looking for the reset box and did find a small flat black box with a button so I pushed it but it didn't fix anything. I will try to look more during the day.

I appreciate your ideas.

Jim

[Sampy]

Meant to include that the auto power jack is indeed dead regardless of the position of the battery disconnect. I think the jack should work regardless of position. Since it was dead I had to manually lift the camper off my truck ball when I returned from camping yesterday.

[5picker]

The small black box in your 2nd photo is the repeater for your TPMS. It has nothing to do with your 12v power supply issue. Keep looking for the resettable circuit breaker mentioned.

What is the voltage of the battery(ies) when measured with a multimeter and what did you charge them with?

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by 5picker

What is the voltage of the battery(ies) when measured with a multimeter and what did you charge them with?

Without being plugged into shore power.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Forest River Forums mobile app

[fipntdot]

Originally Posted by Sampy

Meant to include that the auto power jack is indeed dead regardless of the position of the battery disconnect. I think the jack should work regardless of position. Since it was dead I had to manually lift the camper off my truck ball when I returned from camping yesterday.

Our power jack doesn't work when the battery disconnect is set to off. On ours (I think) the only thing that bypasses that switch appears to be the emergency brakes and solar charger. Honestly, I am glad the jack is covered by that switch as I have a tendency to forget to turn the jack off.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Without being plugged into shore power.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Forest River Forums mobile app

Just to clarify what Dan said, you must measure the voltage of the batteries when the trailer is unplugged so you are looking at the real battery voltage, not the voltage of the converter (battery charger).

[tomkatb]

Step one.

Kind of sounds like a dead converter. You need a hand held voltmeter.

Read the battery voltage being sure to unplug shore power and all solar. Unplug the tv.

Let the rv sit a couple of hours.

Test the battery. Should be 0-12.6 volts. Record the voltage.

Then plug in shore power. Test the battery again. Voltage will be over 13 volts. Tenths matter.

[Sampy]

Thanks again everyone for the input. I checked my batteries and one was 12.9 volts and one was at 13.0. That was unplugged. Then I ran the slides in and out a couple times (I have 4 slides) and voltage dropped to about 12.7 for both of them.
I also found some small boxes under my camper but still did not find a reset button. So started looking for every fuse I could find and unplugged, inspected and reinserted them. Also checked every terminal for anything loose but didn't find any. The odd thing is when I put everything back together it started working again? No idea what I fixed but it is all good now (at least for now). Attached are a few pictures of my findings. Still looking for a reset in case I need it someday.
All your suggestions and ideas pushed me to dig into the right area to investigate. I really appreciate that since we have camping trips planned again for the next couple weekends.
All the best to you from Iowa!!
Jim

[TitanMike]

Sounds like you might have had a loose or corroded connection.

Not uncommon with 12v systems. I remember all the times I would try to start some of my old cars only to get " click-click-click".

Would remove battery terminals, scrape inside of terminal and outside of battery post, re-attach, and engine started right up.


Not knowing exactly what you did to correct can leave doubts but clean, tight, connections are essential and if just disconnecting/ reconnecting cured issue that's a likely cause.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Sampy

Thanks again everyone for the input. I checked my batteries and one was 12.9 volts and one was at 13.0. That was unplugged. Then I ran the slides in and out a couple times (I have 4 slides) and voltage dropped to about 12.7 for both of them.
I also found some small boxes under my camper but still did not find a reset button. So started looking for every fuse I could find and unplugged, inspected and reinserted them. Also checked every terminal for anything loose but didn't find any. The odd thing is when I put everything back together it started working again? No idea what I fixed but it is all good now (at least for now). Attached are a few pictures of my findings. Still looking for a reset in case I need it someday.
All your suggestions and ideas pushed me to dig into the right area to investigate. I really appreciate that since we have camping trips planned again for the next couple weekends.
All the best to you from Iowa!!
Jim

Jim, in the first picture, those three devices which each have two threaded terminal posts are the circuit breakers. The reset buttons are on the right end of each one, just above the mounting screw. If you had taken the picture from almost any other angle, they would be visible.

It is remotely possible, but unlikely, that they are auto-reset breakers.

[garywilson]

Buff off all connections on your circuit breakers and purchase a spare auto-reset (they are really cheap).
It is not unusual for the breakers to become intermittent just prior to failure (at least, some of mine have).