Dead 4200 Cyclone, won't even pull juice from our truck.

[gibbtimesroll]

After parking our fifth wheel all winter, we discovered that somehow the batteries are totally drained. When we tried to hook it up to our truck to use the truck power to turn on the generator, there is no connection. The lights don't work, the turn signals don't work, it doesn't pull any juice from the truck. Our neighbor said it may have some kind of a battery saver switch that is designed to keep your trailer from draining your truck battery that tripped when the battery drained too low, but I can't find any sort of a switch. We have traveled quite a bit with it and it never died until we parked it for the winter. Any advice on how to get it to pull juice again?

 

[OEFVET]

There is a battery cutoff switch on the door side front pass through compartment. I recommend checking if the switch is off to cut off any drains while stored.

 

[Jim-Lynn]

First of all - 2 batteries??? I only have one. Great deal. I agree with Chris, might be the manual shut off. I have had my battery out of the unit, plugged into my truck - SWITCH on, and I got power. So I would think this would be the problem. I can not get over 2 batteries - I can not get two to fit.
I hope this is the problem as it is an easy fix.

Jim

 

[danemayer]

The trailer turn signals get their power from the connector in the truck, not from the trailer batteries. So it sounds like not only are your trailer batteries dead, but your connection to the truck is dead as well.

I'd suggest you start at the truck connector with a voltmeter or test light to determine if there's power there. If that's ok, open the j-box at the pin and check the wiring there.

When you get the power connection from the truck restored, it may take 30-60 minutes to build up enough charge on the trailer batteries to start the generator.

 

[Bob&Patty]

A post here on what truck you have might help us lead to helping you. Newer trucks have fuses that are only for trailers.

 

[gibbtimesroll]

Sorry it's taken awhile to resolve this thread. My husband checked the seven pin hookup that connects the fifth wheel to our 2006 Ford 350 dually and found that the ground cable on it was disconnected at the j-box. (Thanks, danemayer!) He reconnected it and the electrical connection from the truck to the fifth wheel was restored. He took the batteries from the fifth wheel home and charged them up. We finally returned last Saturday and plugged them back in. The generator turned on with no problem and everything worked well. We looked and looked for a battery cut off switch, but we couldn't find one. My husband used the shut off switches on the batteries to keep them from draining this time. Thanks for your input! I hope this helps if anyone else has a similar problem.