inverter or battery ? problem

We own a 2016 3750fl ,purchased on April 1 2016. Traveling south on 395 from Carson City NV upon arrival in Lone Pine our slides were slow operating and readout showed low voltage. Now in Santa Clarita landing legs barely work needed a spare battery to get truck off trailer. With battery assist front legs lower and kitchen slide opens, no other slides or lighting works. Any ideas??

Thank you for any assistance

Hi Gordon548,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

The slides and landing gear pull a lot of amps and need a well-charged battery to operate properly. Sounds like your battery is not getting charged by the Power Converter, or maybe was run down when you started the trip.

There's a 12V DC mini-circuit breaker between the Power Converter and battery. If that tripped for some reason, the battery will run down and not get a charge, except for a slow charge when the trailer is connected to the truck.

There's a buss bar with several breakers located near the battery. One has a teeny tiny reset button as pictured below. The breakers are usually covered with a red rubber boot.

It's also possible the Power Converter isn't working. The circuit breaker in the main panel could be tripped, or it could have come unplugged, or an on-board fuse on the converter might have blown. The converter is usually located behind the rear wall of the pass-through basement storage.

If you have auto-leveling, turn on the control panel and cycle it once to show voltage. If 13.2 V or higher while plugged into shore power, your Power Converter is working. If less, and you've pressed the reset button I mentioned, there's a problem with the Converter.

You can also refer to our owner-wittern 12V Block Diagram and Diagnostic Guide for more specific troubleshooting help.

As I understand the problem, believe you mean the RV wasn't charging while connected to your TV and rolling down the road. Check fuse/relay on the truck

As another suggestion, check your ground connections. I fought the same issues with our rig over several trips and was frustrated that my batteries seemed to drain in no time. Finally, i took all the connections looks and reconnected them and have had no more problems. My issues was a couple of loose connections on my grounds.

Jim

I always plug in to shore power BEFORE lifting the trailer off of the truck hitch and extending the slides. This gives the battery system the additional help of 60 amps from the converter (assuming the converter/battery charger system is working correctly). I also disconnect from shore power as one of the LAST steps in leaving a space, giving my battery system the additional help of the converter/charger when pulling in the slides, hitching up, and raising the rear stabilizers. The only problem I have ever had with this in my 7 years of RVing in this rig is recently when I set down the rear stabilizers a little too hard, and tripped the main DC charging circuit breaker between the converter and the battery system. My converter is rated to put out 60 amps, and the main DC charging circuit breaker is rated at 50 amps, so that is probably why it tripped.

Gordon548 said:

We own a 2016 3750fl ,purchased on April 1 2016. Traveling south on 395 from Carson City NV upon arrival in Lone Pine our slides were slow operating and readout showed low voltage. Now in Santa Clarita landing legs barely work needed a spare battery to get truck off trailer. With battery assist front legs lower and kitchen slide opens, no other slides or lighting works. Any ideas??

Thank you for any assistance

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I had the same problem with our 2015 Big Country. After traveling several days the batteries would be low.
I solved the problem by adding a third battery. I bought a plastic tote at Walley World , cut holes in the side for the cables to fit, put the lid on and works great.

Bad grounds are the cause of most electrical problems, even if this is not your problem now, just remember that chassis ground are really poor grounding points, effective; but poor. All electrical components would rather ground back to your bus bar near the batt with copper. That having been said, it is very difficult for your 7 pin to fully charge your batts, even when towing all day the 7 pin has difficulty bringing your battery to full charge if they were depleted before departing.

Gordon: Since you seem to be a newbie, just a quick note on terms.

An INVERTER is an electrical device that takes a 12 volt DC input and outputs a 120 volt AC output. Some advanced inverters combine the functions of a converter within 1 package (usually pretty expensive). There are step wave and pure sine wave (identical to grid power waveform) inverters. The step waveform types are less expensive, but many digital equipments do not work well with this type of AC power. Inverters are normally not standard on Heartlands, with the exception of a small separate inverter just to run a residential-type refrigerator. Since you have to put approximately 10 amps of 12 volt DC current into the inverter for every 1 amp of 120 volt AC current delivered, inverters generally require good sized battery banks.

A CONVERTER takes 120 volts AC power and converts it into a 12 volt DC power output, usually at a high amperage (30 amps or higher). The modern converters used in RV's should be more properly termed CONVERTER/CHARGERS, since they have various stages of output voltage to properly recharge lead acid batteries. Some even include a daily, short-term, higher voltage, desulphation charge cycle to help reduce normal battery plate sulphation, which can cause shorted battery cells.

Best Regards,