Not good timing

[Peteandsharon]

Well, we're scheduled to leave for our Oklahoma/Texas trip the Friday after Memorial Day. I've had the BH at the house for the last couple weeks dewinterizing it and getting things ready. Tonight I pulled the battery out and was going to close it up and take it back to storage until it was time to get it back for the trip. With the battery out and the rig hooked up to our 50 amp shore power I hit the button to pull the slide outs in. The slideouts start to come in about a half foot and then the lights go completely dim and the slide outs stop. I release the button, lights come back. Try again and there goes the lights again. Bottom line, I can't slide the slideouts in on shore power. I go get the battery and put it back in with the rig now unplugged. Slideouts come in just fine. The other thing that seemed a little odd is that while hooking the battery back up, it was doing a lot of sparking, as if something was pulling a lot of current from the battery. This was before I started trying to pull the slideouts in.

Anyway, not sure what to make of this. Never had trouble moving the slideouts before with just shore power. Not sure what to make of the excessive sparking when I hooked the battery back up either. Maybe the convertor is going bad?? Maybe something is shorted in the motor?? Anyone have any ideas what this might be? I store it at my dealer so I'll take it back there tomorrow and hope he has time to deal with it before we have to take it back to begin packing.

 

[jnbhobe]

I was always told there should be a battery on line at all times Too much draw on the converter

 

[Bob&Patty]

Pete, the battery needs to be connected to run the slides. The sparking is probably that the lites where turned on. You probably know this, but never connect the negitive side of a battery 1st....always the positive 1st. No sparking, arcing and no fried 12V componets. The convertor will not take the amperage draw to run the slides or the landing gear. I learned that the hard way....dont ask.

 

[lhetsler]

Agreed you must have a battery installed. If your battery is run down, you can supplement power with the vehicle hooked up and running. The manual warns not to run slides on converter only as damage may occur.

 

[Peteandsharon]

OK, I stand humbly corrected. I guess my only defense is that I have run the slides on convertor only before. I brought it home from storage this time with no battery in it and opened up the slides when I got it home. As a matter of fact, I asked my dealer about that once and she said that they do that when they take a rig to an RV show. They don't have batteries in it and slide them out. At any rate, I will make a point not to do that in the future.

Having said that, I'm a little concerned that tonight's episode might have fried the convertor. Lights seemed to come on afterwards alright so I'll cross my fingers that I didn't toast the beast.

As to the sparking on the battery, I made a point to turn all lights off in the rig before I hooked up the battery so that wasn't causing the sparks. However, you're right, Bob. I do know to hook the positive side first. But knowing isn't always doing. I did it backwards tonight and I'm guessing that was my problem.

I'll cross my fingers and hope that there is no problem here. Thanks to all for the quick responses. As always, you're the greatest.

Pete

 

[Bob&Patty]

Pete, the convertor has 3 fuses. I would think that it might blow them 1st rather that smoke the convertor. I bet that when your dealer takes the coaches to a show, they have the cord hooked to the TV while they run the slides out. The TV battery takes the place of the coach battery. My 2cts

 

[jmgratz]

I towed some RV to an RV show for a dealer once and the RV did not have batteries. They told me to stay connected while they put down the landing gear and opened the slides. They used the TV for Power.

 

[lhetsler]

Mine will work that way also, but according to the manual you should always have a battery in the RV when using the slides.

 

[Peteandsharon]

Well I hooked up this morning and let the landing gear down with shore power AND my truck hooked up. All was fine. I got it back to the dealer where I store it and with the truck still hooked up and running I try to extend the landing gear. Deader than a doornail. Of course I'm thinking Oh Oh!! What did I do??? Since I'm not a big believer in coincidence I'm thinking that last night's episode did blow a fuse somewhere. Turns out it was a fuse in the truck. No power going back to the plug. It really was just coincidence. Feeling like I dodged a bullet I replaced the fuse and I'm good to go. Hoping this episode is now over.