does inverter charge the battery?

[heartshot]

Spring....attached the charged battery....everything worked.....I did not plug into 120 Volts.
Several weeks later I plugged into 120 Volts....but anything 12 volts DC....was very weak and caused the LP Gas detector to sound alarm ...when I tried to it (power extending the awning). I assumed the battery was dead. ...Unhooked the battery and put it on a charger.
Still nothing that is 12 VDC worked ....while hooked up to 120AC..lights...water pump...awning...ect....caused alarm to sound.
I hooked the battery back up (partially charged) everything works fine.
The question is...
1.Does the battery have to be hooked up for the awning or anything 12VDC to work
2. Will being plugged into the 120VAC... continue to charge the battery...I assume it will ..but I do not fully understand what just happened.
I Thank you in advance ....... if someone can provide a explanation

 

[jnbhobe]

I would start with a meter to see if the converter is working. There are 3 fuses on the converter to check and make sure its plugged in.

 

[scottyb]

The converter should run the 12V system w/o the battery. This is a diagram from the manuals section of the 12V Systems Forum.

 

[danemayer]

Our 12V Block Diagram and Diagnostics guide has a couple of pages of diagnostic flow charts that may help you with this. It sounds like the power converter is not working, but if you'll follow the flow charts, you'll probably get to the cause.

 

[gebills]

Hi heartshot: Referencing your dilemma on your charging system, you indicated you “attached the charged battery”. Several weeks later, you plugged into 120V, “butanything 12VDC was weak and caused the LPG detector to sound alarm when tryingthe awning switch.
What is unclear, is;at the “several week later time frame” that you mentioned, was the lack of12VDC power continuous, or was this condition what you found when initially checkingyour system prior to allowing your 120VAC/12VDC power converter to charge yourbatteries? I would suspect that this isthe case; that given several hours after you started your power converter, thatyour 12V batteries would have come up to the voltage level they should be. You might also consider checking yourbatteries with a hydrometer. Additionally, you have suggested your using a battery charger rather than your onboard battery charger/converter. Unless you have a very large free-standing battery charger, I would expect you would have a quicker charge with your onboard charging system. Are you checking your electrolite level in your batterie? Ary you keeping them up to level with distilled water?
If your batterieswere fully charged at one point, and you allowed two weeks to go by withoutyour 120VAC converter being plugged in, that could easily be adequate time tohave all the parasitic 12VDC loads in yourRV to discharge your batteries; given the various monitors (LPG/smoke) waterheater, furnace and refer circuitry, stereo system, antenna booster, lights onsomeplace, along with anything else that could be possibly drawing current,i.e. brake circuit due to a faulty or loose breakaway switch, maybe a slow pressureleak in your water system allowing the pump to run on occasion, etc, etc, etc.
As to your specificquestions; 1) I would expect that your awning has a 12VDCpower source, meaning you need to power your 12VDC systems with either yourbatteries or your converter; and 2) Yes,being plugged into 120VAC, your onboard battery charger/converter should becharging your batteries. If it is notcharging your batteries, you may find as danemayer has suggested, that yourconverter is not working, or not correctly connected or possibly blownfuses/breakers. Good luck with your dilemma.

 

[heartshot]

After reading the "12 volt block diagram and dianostic guide" you provided me...I am happy to announce everything is working fine...not exactlly sure what i did...but at least it is working.
It may have been that the power converter needed a little more time to bring up the battery charge level. But I am still not sure why nothing would work...with the battery unhooked.
While the battery was unhooked, I did trickle charged it for a while ...when I reinstalled everything worked. I never did find the "re-set" button for the breaker on the 12V block.... but I did check all breakers and fuses and something in this process worked.
I will find out tonight for sure if the battery is being "drawed down" or the converter is indeed doing it's job.
Thank you all.

 

[jmgratz]

I have found on our unit the battery needs to be connected for the 12 volt system to work. If you have disconnected the battery and are counting on the converter to work the 12 volt system it will not. Connect the battery and that will complete the circuit.

 

[danemayer]

I have found on our unit the battery needs to be connected for the 12 volt system to work. If you have disconnected the battery and are counting on the converter to work the 12 volt system it will not. Connect the battery and that will complete the circuit.

Jim,

There may be something specific to your rig that keeps it from working without the battery. The general case is that the converter will supply power to the internal 12V components (lights, frig, water heater propane operation) without a battery being in the loop. An example of this is when the manual-reset circuit breaker trips. The battery power no longer gets to the fuse box. In this scenario, the common symptom is that everything works fine when on shore power, but stop working when disconnected. In other words, when the breaker is tripped, the internal 12V stuff works off the power converter output and the battery could just as well have been removed.

Hydraulics, Stabilizers, Power Cord Reel, and other high-amperage things may require the battery to be in place and working.

 

[jmgratz]

Jim,

There may be something specific to your rig that keeps it from working without the battery. The general case is that the converter will supply power to the internal 12V components (lights, frig, water heater propane operation) without a battery being in the loop. An example of this is when the manual-reset circuit breaker trips. The battery power no longer gets to the fuse box. In this scenario, the common symptom is that everything works fine when on shore power, but stop working when disconnected. In other words, when the breaker is tripped, the internal 12V stuff works off the power converter output and the battery could just as well have been removed.

Hydraulics, Stabilizers, Power Cord Reel, and other high-amperage things may require the battery to be in place and working.

It could be since our Landmark is the 'Classic' one which is when they were experimenting with different configurations.
One time our converter went out and we hooked up a battery charger for the 12 volts but it would not work unless the battery and bad converter was in the loop. Go figure.