Total Newbie! Sundance XLT 189MB

[cabusaidi]

First post here, first trailer ever!

Picked up my 2019 Sundance XLT 189MB about a month ago. With two camping trips under my belt, I have to say I am still thrilled with it. The murphy bed combined with the slide out dinette makes if feel extremely spacious.

Had a few issues though. First time out the battery went completely dead, A neighboring camper hooked us up to his generator & battery charger so we could slide in the slide out and operate the hitch. We now have our own generator and a new battery. The Interstate battery we bought from the dealership appears to already have been half dead, or defective. It took them more than a day to charge it back to full. Keeping my eye on that issue for now.

Second outing I realized I had no idea about using the propane tanks to fire up the the gas grill I found on Amazon, or what fittings/connections I needed. Still doing research, but I'm confused about if I need a connector at the propane tank and a regulator on the hose going to the grill? (grill does not have a regulator) Or can I add a connector to the hose coming from the regulator on the 2 tank system. Ill post more about that, once I can include pictures.

Still trying to figure out how to work the hot water heater, and I'm really not sure what the sealing on the roof is supposed to look like, but my latest concern is I might have an issue. Again, I'll post a new thread about it when I can share pictures. In the meantime, What does your roof look like?

thanks,
Happy to be here!
Chris

 

[danemayer]

Hi cabusaidi,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

On your battery issues, it could be that the 12V DC mini-circuit breaker near the battery has tripped. It's on a row of little breakers located near the battery, covered by a red rubber boot. One breaker has thick wires attached and a teeny-tiny reset button. I've attached a picture.

Inside the trailer, you've got a test panel with lights that indicate the water level in your holding tanks. On the far right of that panel are 4 lights indicating battery level. When plugged into shore power, you'll get 4 lights when pressing the test button. That's the output of the Power Converter (changes 120V AC to 12V DC to keep the battery charged and supply power to the fuse box). If you turn off shore power or disconnect, the test button will show the power level from the battery alone. If it's less than 3 lights your battery is not getting charged. Most often because the breaker mentioned above has tripped.

If your battery shows only 1 or 2 lights, find the reset button mentioned and press it. Turn shore power back on for an hour. Then re-test with shore power off. If the level has increased, that means the breaker was actually tripped and the Power Converter was not charging the battery. But now it is.

 

[NP_Chief]

Welcome to the forum!

Without knowing what type of grill you have, it's hard to make suggestions. Some small grills use the small screw on propane tanks and some hook up to the regular 20lb bottles. You can retro-fit either to work with your rig. Just let us know what you have and we'll try to help.

 

[danemayer]

RV quick connect fittings for gas grills typically are placed AFTER the regulator, so they provide low pressure gas feeds to the grill. But most gas grills have their own regulators and expect a high pressure feed, such as provided with a direct connection to a propane tank.

So you can either get a grill designed for low pressure feed, or you can modify the grill to bypass its regulator, or you can purchase a 3-way adapter that connects directly to your propane tank to provide a feed line BEFORE the trailer's regulator.

 

[Gary521]

As far as taking a long time to charge a battery, this is fairly normal with a "deep cycle" type of battery that is found on a RV.

 

[cabusaidi]

Thanks so much for the responses!

Nice to know my battery is going to be ok

I've got a Flame King grill meant for RV propane system. So I'm going to guess there is no regulator and relies on the regulator on the onboard propane tanks. However I don't have the pre installed propane connection/hose that comes out of the side of the trailer, just the two tanks mounted up front with the battery.

Thanks again, and nice to meet you!

Chris