Converter - doing its job??

[colorocky]

We recently returned from a 2-week trip in our 26RKS. All went well until our next-to-last day on the road. Drove 7 hours, parked for the night with power hookup. The next morning we were unable to retract the slide and went through the heartburn of cranking in the slide by hand - who designed the motor over the inside of the slide?? What a mess.
Does the converter directly supply to 12v uses in the trailer, or are we working off the battery and hoping the (inadequate) charger in the converter will replace juice we are using? This is a first occurrence in our rig, second season of use. We had it checked out at dealer who said our trailer batteries (2) were run down to the point there weren't enough amps to pull in the slide, and advised hooking up to tow vehicle and running engine for 5 minutes to bring batteries up to level needed to pull in slide. This works but doesn't sound quite right. We also have fuses that do not appear to be hooked up to a circuit - no light when the fuse is removed, and the slide does not operate through the converter, but directly from the batteries via red fuses(?) mounted behind the batteries, on the trailer frame. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[dreamer]

I do know with my 2900mk you do not need a battery installed to operate anything in the trailer as long as you are connected to shore power. I would think that would be the same in any trailer. Assuming you were connected to shore power and your slide would not go in i would think it would be an electrical issue. One question , was your trailer fairly level when you tried to pull in the slide. Off level can increase the force required to pull in the slide and overload your slide motor. I would expect a blown fuse or tripped breaker in that situation.Do you here the motor running but no slide movement?Could then be a mechanical issue. If you tried moving the slide on run down batteries that most likely your problem. I just delivered my trailer to the dealer without the batteries and put the jacks down and moved out the slides by leaving the trailer attached and the truck shut off.. no problems.
Hope this helps, the solution is by eliminating things

 

[colorocky]

My problem was there was no response to the switch at all - completely dead. We inspected the switch but all wires were tight. When we got home, after travelling over 300 miles, the slide was still dead (so much for the theory of the tow vehicle charging the batteries). When we took the rig to the dealer, they were able to bring the slide in and out multiple times. When we got it home, same problem, but were able to move the slide by hooking up to the truck and reviving the batteries through the truck charging system. We did try bringing in the slide orginally while hooked up to 30 amp power, and hooked up to the truck while it was off, but no luck. Hope it's not an "intermittent" problem, because it just cost us lots of $$ for a low battery condition diagnosis, while the monitor in the rig said condition was "good". We have dry camped for up to a week at a time with no slide problems - it is a mystery, but we have a trip coming up in a few weeks to try to replicate the problem. The batteries are now in the garage on a charger, so they will leave here fully charged. I'll try running the lights etc. while hooked up to power and batteries removed. That should at least prove that the converter is working, if that's how we're set up. Thanks for your help.

 

[wdk450]

Convertor/Batteries

Colorocky:

First of all I would think that running the 12 volt motors for the slides might require more amps than the converter can put out. You can check if the converter is charging the batteries by taking voltage readings at the battery with and without the converter turned on. Especially with the load of a few 12 volt lights turned on. With the converter on, the reading should be higher (the same as when the truck is charging the trailer battery).
You could measure voltage out of the slides switch and at the slides motor. The intermittent operation makes me immediately suspect the switch on a high amperage device. The contacts burn out. If the current is high enough, there may be a relay between the switch and the motor that might be going bad. As usual, remember the grounds and the return (black) wire wiring and connections being faulty will stop electrical stuff just as well as the positive red feed wires.

Good luck.

Bill Knight
Sacramento, Ca.

 

[Mcreech]

You do not need batteries to run the slide if you are hooked up to shore power.....Everything in the unit lights, fans, half time oven should work without batteries if you are hooked up to shore power...

 

[flamingknitter]

Is the North Trail different than the Landmark in that regard? When my batteries went dead - I could not use my slides, my front jacks - nada!! When the repairman came out, he explained that you needed 12 volt power to run all of the above. My fifth wheel was hooked to the truck with no way remove it until the batteries were replaced.

 

[jnbhobe]

Marybeth; Your converter should put out 12 volt if hooked to shore power and your truck should have 12 volt power at the 7 wire plug on the back of the truck when running. I think thats the way chevy is but some of the chevy owners will have to verify that.Both should give power to run the jacks and slides. Jon

 

[jmgratz]

You could have bad batteries. You could have a breaker out. You could have a fuse(s) burnt out on the converter. You could have a bad converter. Buy a cheap battery charger to carry with you. If your converter goes out or you need to charge a battery you can always hook it to the charger as long a shore power is available. You can hook up the charger to the battery (the converter needs to be attached to the battery) and run all of the 12 volt off the charger as a last resort.

 

[colorocky]

I think we found our 25RKS slide operation problem, as posted on "Ask the Factory". Our slide runs off the batteries only, no connection to the converter, hence no fuse (even though one fuse was labeled S/O). The fuse on the exterior chassis, behind the batteries, with red covers, had loose nuts holding the copper strip in place. Power was getting across the fuse, but the nuts were very loose. Once we tightened these up the converter was charging the battery properly, and the slide operated as it should. Hopefully problem solved.

 

[TXBobcat]

I had a problem with the converter burning out the 12volt charger twice in a SOB trailer. Could not find out what the problem was. After having a problem the third time I pulled the battery out to charge it. I could not get a full charge on it. I took it to Auto Zone and had it checked. It had a bad cell. It was an Interstate Battery. The bad cell had caused both converters to go out. The converter kept trying to charge the battery and finally burned up.

I have had a lot of problems with Interstate batteries. Now I use the blue top gel from Sams Club. No problems.
BC

 

[jmaguire]

We just had our rig in the shop because the battery would not charge. Imagine this- it was an interstate. Sort of funny experience with the tech at the dealer. I told him that there was a battery issue. He tells me no way the battery has 13.6 volts. I tell him it is a 12 volt battery and if he were to unplug the rig from shore power he would discover the problem. He would not listen to me, but when I picked up the rig he told his boss he replaced the battery just to make me happy. O.K., it worked. I am happier now.

 

[TXBobcat]

I will bet that after you left he checked the battery out and found it was bad and replaced it.. He told his boss that to make him look good.. LOL..

I like the Gel battery. Don't have to check the cell for fluid level...

BC

 

[Hart]

I think we found our 25RKS slide operation problem, as posted on "Ask the Factory". Our slide runs off the batteries only, no connection to the converter, hence no fuse (even though one fuse was labeled S/O). The fuse on the exterior chassis, behind the batteries, with red covers, had loose nuts holding the copper strip in place. Power was getting across the fuse, but the nuts were very loose. Once we tightened these up the converter was charging the battery properly, and the slide operated as it should. Hopefully problem solved.

Thanks for posting this. Seems like I read you had dry camped for a week at a time & did not have problems with the slide. Did you use a generator? Just wondering about a few days of dry camping with no generator & minimal use of lights. Is the solution to use a 2nd battery in order to pull in slide when you depart? We want to try dry camping a couple nights but we are used to elec hookups!

 

[irvin56]

I alway carry booster cables.

Years ago when we dry camped after a few days and no generator,
I just hooked up my booster cables to trailer battery and ran my truck for 10 -15 mins. every 2 or 3 days, this charged my battery enough to go another while.

although we never took the tv's and vcr's we never ran out of power.

now we have all the toys and movies, need power.
Must be getting old, or lazyer????