Question On Power Distribution

[JanAndBill]

Parked our BH 3260 temporarily in our driveway this week. Don't have a power hookup close so I ran a 15 amp power cord from the garage for temporary power. Because of the cold, I had to leave the furnace on low. This morning when I tried to let a slide out it grunted. Hooked the battery charger up to the battery and everything was fine. My question is with a 50 amp hookup reduced to a 15 amp service, does the battery charger function still work? It wasn't that cold that the furnace ran that much, but I did verify that it was running a couple of times.

 

[boatto5er]

I've never had an issue with ours keeping the battery charged on a 20amp garage circuit. Perhaps you had either too long an extension cord (if you were using one), or the wire size of the extension wasn't large enough?

 

[Garypowell]

Or maybe since only one leg was powered the battery charger was on the other leg and not powered.

 

[boatto5er]

I believe most dog bone adapters distribute incoming 15/20/30 amp power across both the 50 amp legs. However, there was a discussion similar to this on another thread yesterday and today (dealing with no power to microwave), and apparently there are some adapters that don't do that.

 

[JanAndBill]

I've never had an issue with ours keeping the battery charged on a 20amp garage circuit. Perhaps you had either too long an extension cord (if you were using one), or the wire size of the extension wasn't large enough?

We've never had an issue with ours keeping the battery charged before either using the adapter down to a 20 amp. However, I've never run the furnace before on 20 amp. Now I'm wondering if the furnace might have been pulling from the battery through the inverter what? In any case something drained the battery, and I've verified that was the only thing on.

 

[JanAndBill]

I've never had an issue with ours keeping the battery charged on a 20amp garage circuit. Perhaps you had either too long an extension cord (if you were using one), or the wire size of the extension wasn't large enough?

I found the thread you referred to. This is a new unit, new cord, new dog bone, ect. which I guess could still be bad, but I"m not convinced yet. In the past with the furnace off, and the power hookup 15/20. I have power to the appliances, power to the outlets, etc. and the battery stayed charged. The only difference at this point is the furnace?

 

[jnbhobe]

Get out your meter and verify your electric service and where its going.

 

[danemayer]

12V circuit breaker between the power converter and battery could have tripped. Here's some troubleshooting help.

 

[Rickhansen]

This morning when I tried to let a slide out it grunted. Hooked the battery charger up to the battery and everything was fine. My question is with a 50 amp hookup reduced to a 15 amp service, does the battery charger function still work?

JanAndBill,
Assuming everything is powered and working properly, yes the 15A 120-Volt (1800 watts) should have powered your converter more than enough to charge your battery and power your furnace (and the other 12VDC parasitic loads).

Your only symptom was that when you tried to move the slides, they "grunted." The hydraulic pump pulls a lot of juice, and if your rig wasn't completely level and perhaps with the coach not level, that would certainly explain an unusually high load on the system. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that you tripped the 50A DC Breaker if both of those conditions were true.

Perhaps that explains it??

 

[JanAndBill]

Thanks Dan, that gives me a start. One thing I noticed is that 1) The 12 volt fuse panel could draw power from either the converter or the battery, but the hydraulic pump and other high amp loads comes primarily as direct feed from the the battery. Dead battery or weak battery and I doubt that the converter would put out enough amps. My unit only has one 12 volt battery (there are boxes for two), I'm wondering if one battery is really enough storage capacity 2) I am assuming that the furnace blower motor is 12 volt feeding off the 12 volt fuse panel inside?

 

[danemayer]

Yes, I think you'll find a fuse for the furnace blower motor.

One battery should be enough, but as the battery charge drops, the voltage drops, and I think the current draw for things like the hydraulic pump goes up, sometimes causing the circuit breaker to trip. That's one possible cause of the pump stopping for a few seconds. Another is that the 12V circuit breaker for the hydraulics can weaken, causing it to trip more easily. Another cause is the cold weather putting a greater load on the pump because the fluid doesn't pump as easily in cold weather.

If your unit is less than a year old and you've kept the battery charged and maintained the water level, the battery should be ok. If it ran down while plugged into shore power, that would be the real issue. You'll definitely want to verify that the converter output is getting to the battery.

 

[JanAndBill]

My furnace is working, my question on what the voltage is had to do more with determing draw off the battery. I'm going to get out in the morning in the light and check it out. It's a 2013, only had it a couple of months, but I had a problem once before with the battery going down rapidly. While I'm checking going to do a load test on the battery, even though it's new it could still have a bad cell.

 

[danemayer]

When plugged into shore power, if the converter is working correctly, it should provide more than enough power to the fuse panel to run the furnace. In that scenario, running the furnace should not drain the battery. So if the battery was drained, it suggests that the furnace was getting power from the battery, instead of from the converter.

Or maybe you have a bad battery and it showed up when running the hydraulics.

 

[Gaffer]

Hey Jan & Bill, can you answer the following?
The 3260 has a pop up TV above and behind the fireplace on the door side slide. The DVD player is likely in the cabinet above. What I want to know is since the Sat reciever will likely need to go in the upper cabinet, how do I get an HDMI cable to the TV. Does the factory provide one? Do they provied some other means? The cabinet doorson both sides of the fireplace are narrow with solid door fronts unlike the upper cabinets with glass in the doors.

 

[JanAndBill]

Hey Jan & Bill, can you answer the following?
The 3260 has a pop up TV above and behind the fireplace on the door side slide. The DVD player is likely in the cabinet above. What I want to know is since the Sat reciever will likely need to go in the upper cabinet, how do I get an HDMI cable to the TV. Does the factory provide one? Do they provied some other means? The cabinet doorson both sides of the fireplace are narrow with solid door fronts unlike the upper cabinets with glass in the doors.

Sorry for the late response, I had to pull off working with the trailer to spread fill on the pad for it's future parking home. Trying to beat the rain. I've got it leveled again, but I'll need to put the slides out to get in there, and it looks like the first of the week, before the rain stops again. I know the upper right cabinet holds the DVD player, but I can't remember what connections are there. Also, in the bedroom closet, left side is the antenna booster, a 110 outlet, and a wire just hanging out of the wall with a connector of some sort. I have not determined yet what this is supposed to go to???