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Old 06-19-2014, 01:37 PM   #1
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2005 t2553 battery or electric problem?

Everything but electric jack works on electric. Problem started when electric jack would not work on battery? Then interior lights, fridge and hot water heater would not turn on while on battery for traveling. Charged both new batteries now jack works but nothing on battery for traveling... manuel not helpful. Put fridge on battery only, made sure lp gas was on confused rather not go to a dealer for what seems like a simple problem that I can not figure out.
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Old 06-19-2014, 02:42 PM   #2
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Quote:
Charged both new batteries now jack works but nothing on battery for traveling...
Jack is usually wired directly to battery through a fuse/circuit breaker, the feed between Battery and Convertor panel is usually seperate and either has a fuse or a circuit breaker also.

That's where I would start.
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Old 06-19-2014, 03:14 PM   #3
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under kitchen is a wooden box slide the lid off. There you will find main 12v fuse.
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Old 06-19-2014, 05:09 PM   #4
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Electric or battery

THANKS Mack and Jim will trouble
shoot this weekend Cindy
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Old 06-19-2014, 08:26 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jim44646 View Post
under kitchen is a wooden box slide the lid off. There you will find main 12v fuse.
should have on floor under kitchen sink.
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Old 06-20-2014, 07:13 AM   #6
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A couple of things were new in 2005. It sounds like your battery kill switch might be off. Look for a surface mount large red twist knob. Ours was in the front storage bin on the curb side. Also in '05, your fuse box should be outside on the front header behind the battery box. I believe there are 6 very small Phillips screws in those dirt encrusted holes. If it's not the kill switch, dig around in those holes with a tiny slotted screwdriver or stiff wire to get as much dirt out as possible. If you have an air compressor a couple of shots of air will help too. Then gently feel for the slots with a Phillips and really lean on it to break those old screws out. If the screwdriver skips, clean some more and/or try a smaller size. Do not strip the head. Then replace those silly screws with ss with more or less the same machine thread--they're just going into plastic--with a large enough head to stay on top of the box for much easier access the next time.
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Old 07-01-2014, 05:41 AM   #7
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Ok, checked battery, recharged 2 of them. Everything worked, left fridge on overnight to test for travel and battery dead. Will get a new battery, marine?, however my next question is how long should a battery last with just the fridge on? Should the battery recharge if hooked up to TV? Remember I am a beginner Cindy
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Old 07-01-2014, 01:48 PM   #8
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No good battery, let alone a pair, should die overnight. The fridge should draw next to nothing, especially compared to lights. It should run for days on 2 batteries, but the propane detector is always on, hard wired to 12V. Make sure the TV antenna amp--little pushbutton on the wall plate--is off. Still, you'd need to have everything on in the trailer to run down 2 batteries overnight.

How are you charging the batteries? Do you have a voltmeter? What is the individual reading on the "dead" batteries and the "charged" batteries. Do the batteries match? One good battery will always degrade to the poor one. If you don't have, or can't borrow, a voltmeter, they're often on sale at far less than a new battery. Every time a battery is run down, it shortens its lifespan, so you need to figure out what's going on.

There's also other stuff... are the batteries filled with distilled water up to the ring...the plates need to be covered. The store where you purchased the batteries can also do a load test. Bad batteries will fail a load test even when new.

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Old 07-01-2014, 03:55 PM   #9
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If you are running the fridge on 12 volts and not gas then yes it will kill the battery over night. They are resistance heating devices drawing about 22 amps per hour running on gas the batteries should last days. Yes your TV should charge the batteries if it has a factory 7 pin connection. A deep cycle battery is what you want no need to go to a marine store it is some thing that could be bought at WalMart but I would not give up on them yet.
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Old 07-01-2014, 04:51 PM   #10
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OK, off I go to see what I can figure out. Thanks I will let you know what I find. Cindy
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Old 07-02-2014, 05:36 AM   #11
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Hi Cindy,
First, to harmonize what both Mainah and I are saying... a 12V fridge is a small unit typically found in a pop up or van conversion. It will chew through a battery in no time. You have a relatively large 6 cu. ft. Dometic commonly known as a 2-way fridge; 120V or propane. It uses 12V only to power a small circuit board that runs the controls. Blaming an inoperative fridge on a dead battery is not a good way to diagnose the real problem. Something else is running down the battery. How long a battery will run a propane fridge depends on what else you're using, like lights and furnace fan, at the same time. We've dry camped through a weekend and had plenty of battery. I’m assuming you’re running these tests at home and that the trailer is not plugged into shore power… otherwise, on 120V, the converter would keep the battery charged. Also I’m assuming you’re using a stand alone auto-type battery charger—the converter is very low tech and not a good way to charge a dead battery. The battery should also be a deep cycle battery meant for RV use as these can go through numerous discharge/charge cycles that will kill an automotive battery.

You said you're a beginner, so I don't mean to be condescending, just trying to understand what you're doing to help out. First, read this thread—I had forgotten about the rocker switch on the door edge which you definitely don’t want on when dry camping. In addition to that rocker switch, you need to step by step eliminate the possible problems:
a) faulty battery
b) faulty fridge
c) faulty charger
d) perish the thought, faulty technique!

RV fridges are notoriously difficult to cool on startup, especially on a hot day. Start it first thing in the morning the day before you leave--the cooler night temp will give it a break. Putting a jug of cold water into the fridge and a couple of tubs of ice in the freezer will help it get started too. RV fridges don't have a compressor like a home unit--you can't hear them running. Use a cheap alcohol thermometer to check how the fridge is doing.

We have a Norcold in our new trailer, so I'm going from memory, but here’s a bit of checklist for running the fridge:
1. Turn on propane and light all burners on the stove top to ensure gas is flowing. The fridge’s little pilot-like burner does not flow enough gas to easily light otherwise. Turn off the stove and head to the fridge.

2. There should be 3 push buttons with indicator lights on the control panel. Make sure the on/off and auto switches are pushed in and the gas switch is out. On auto, the fridge will use 120V shore power if available or automatically switch to gas and this is where you need a good 12V battery. Using the gas push button will run the fridge on gas while on shore power, but there’s no good reason for burning up propane when 120V is available.

3. Let the fridge run at least 3-4 hr. before opening the door to check the temp. If the temp is dropping, even if it’s not down to the critical 40ーF or less, you can start adding stuff that won’t spoil, like drinks, jam etc., but only cold out of your home fridge. Don’t expect an RV fridge to cool anything that’s at room temp. unless it’s been loaded and fully operational for a day or two. Same with the freezer--only good for already frozen stuff unless it's already basically full and frozen, then it will freeze small items like a piece of meat.

Let us know how you’re doing.

Henry
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Old 07-02-2014, 01:31 PM   #12
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Battery or electric

Henry,
Your posts are extremely informative. I am starting over, replaced 30 am fuses, recharging battery, have a voltmeter (previous both batteries fully charged) can't find the TV button our antenna has a manual crank. Will check out fridge buttons. Have to work next 5 days so may be a while before I respond. I will get to the bottom of the problem! Cindy
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Old 07-05-2014, 06:25 PM   #13
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Henry and mainah,
Ok went to basics, found the TV button (needed glasses it's off. Batteries fully charged, switches on correctly, gas on and everything works - for only 3 hrs then lights go dead and fridge turns off, the wall panel that shows battery, black water etc indicates battery dead. Took battery to volt meter, battery shows 12V full!! So nothing is draining the battery, the so is there a problem with the wall panel or converter, I haven't taken apart the converter - a little intimidating - but the wires are all snug that I can see. Everything works fine on 120V Cindy
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Old 07-05-2014, 09:54 PM   #14
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Hi Cindy,

Please tell us this:

1. Is the camper plugged into shore power? Meaning the long cord is plugged into a 120 VAC outlet. You said the wall plugs works OK.

2. Assuming you are plugged into shore power, and the wall outlets or the micro wave is working, but are all the lights dead? or anything else that runs on 12 VDC, like the fridge light inside is dead ,(assuming the fridge is turned on), the whizzer fan in the bath room is dead, even the tank panel is dead, do any lights on tank panel work light up when pressed?

3. When the inside lights etc goes dead, go out and test the power tongue jack, does it work? This helps tell us the battery is working, just the power is not getting inside the camper.

4. When you charged the batteries, did you use a stand alone charger or did you use the on board converter?

5. When you tested with the meter, was it at the battery itself? Ideally it is and what was the exact voltage? We need the actual number. we are assuming you have a digital meter, if so what is the total number. 12.7 or 11.5 or something in-between?

I'm making some assumptions here as we do not know for sure if you are plugged into shore power or just running off the battery when all this happened.

You may have 2 things going on at once or 1 pending the answers you give us.

If you are plugged into shore power, the on board power converter should create all the 12 VDC you will ever need even with the battery turned off, if it is working right. Again need to know about being plugged in as this tells us a lot.

If you are only running off of the battery, there is a 30 amp self resetting circuit breaker in the black box on the A frame behind the batteries. These some times go bad and will not allow the converter to charge the battery or the battery to power the camper.

And then there is the possibility the convertor is going bad. If it creates an internal short after a few hours run time, then it has a feature to shut down the DC and the short can trip the 30 amp self resetting breaker on the A frame so the battery cannot supply power either. When things cool back down, then they reset, including the converter and things work right again until they heat up.

The 2005's had the American Enterprise converter.

Need the info above to help sort out where to start next

Hope this helps

John
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Old 07-06-2014, 06:25 AM   #15
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This ^^
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Old 07-07-2014, 08:37 AM   #16
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Hi John,
Here I go:

1. When TT plugged into shore power everything works ok.
When on total battery refrid, lights & stove work, only for a while, and outlets do not work ever on battery. Tank panel shows one light for a battery with full charge when on battery power, full panel for battery on shore power

(FYI been doing everything with 2 different batteries separtately to see how things compare - one battery loses power very fast-the other hold the charge but the TT stops accepting power?? if that is the correct observation)

2. On shore power everything works great, outlets included. Explained tank panel above.

3. Full battery - electric jack works

4. Charged battery with 4 amp (6-12 volt) stand alone charger

5. Digital metal shows good battery at 12.6

Soooo I think I should get a new circuit breaker 30 amp first, my circuit breaker is in the kitchen with easy access. If no changes off to dealer for converter. Thanks so much, I am learning so much more than I ever thought I would.
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Old 07-07-2014, 10:51 AM   #17
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This is good info and now helps narrow down the hunt.

The tank panel lights on battery health (state of charge) are not the greatest, (not sensitive enough) but in this case they help paint part of the picture. If there is only 1 light inside on the battery tank panel and the voltage is up high at the battery (12.1 to 12.7 volts), this say a lot about the issue. Confirm we have that right

The good news is your power converter seems to working OK. Great! This eliminates a number of issues it might of been.

This now "points" to there is high resistance between the battery and the inside of the camper somehow in the system. Battery is good, but power cannot get inside the camper.

This 30 amp auto resetting 12 VDC circuit breaker I am referring too is outside on the frame header behind the battery. It is not the 30 amp 120 VAC breaker inside the camper in the converter panel if this is the one you池e where talking about. Your 2005 should be just like my 2004.

That auto resetting 30amp circuit breaker is suspect. These have gone bad before. Moisture gets in that box on the header, corrodes the terminals and then it does not work right. If this is it, they look like this at NAPA (auto parts store) http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Circuit-Breaker-30-Amp-Threaded-Stud/_/R-BK_7823105_0361103355

I知 on my lunch break but I have pics of the inside of that box to help the cause. And then there is the issue of getting into that box which can be a challenge. I have posted these pics before on the forum just I知 out of time right now to hunt for them.

I知 not saying for sure this breaker is the problem, but it is suspect as it can cause the problem. Once you open the box it can help confirm. It may also be a loose connection in that box if it was that easy. Be back later unless someone else finds the pics.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 07-07-2014, 11:36 AM   #18
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The 12 volt breaker is cheap most any auto supply store will have them I would just replace it, it sure can kill all the 12 volt stuff in the camper if it's bad. The outlets will not work if you are not plugged in. I doubt that you have a converter issue.
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Old 07-07-2014, 09:08 PM   #19
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Hi Cindy,

This is what is in the plastic covered box on the frame header behind the battery.







While you are in that box, there is also a 30 amp charging fuse from the truck. Check that it is OK, before you close it up again. If that fuse is blown, the battery will not charge from the truck when towing.

The auto resetting circuit breaker or connections in that box are suspect until proven OK. Make sure the battery disconnect is off and that the shore line cord is unplugged before servicing anything in that box.

Now getting into that box...this is what Henry was talking about. There are 6 very tiny Philips heads screws deep inside the cover. Dirt gets in the plastic cover holes and makes it difficult to even get to the screws. A small straight blade screw driver or drill bit by hand has been known to dig it out. You then have to find a long shank very small Phillips to reach down in there. The head of the screw is only about 3/32 in dia. and less than a 1/16" dia screw.

I got fed up with those screws once I got them out, taping the screw driver head to help set the screw driver and then pushing in hard while unscrewing to not strip the head has been effective most times.

I replaced them with I think a no 8 x 1" long sheet metal screw. Stainless Steel.


Then they do not go deep inside but bottom out on the cover


I also cleaned the box and wrapped a strip of 3M 33 electrical tape around the split line to help keep moisture out.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 07-08-2014, 04:52 PM   #20
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John,
Now I got the names correct. I am pretty sure you are right that the problem is in the junction box (which I thought was the converter) now that I got it, will attach it by next Monday.
You are an amazing source of information. To be continued. Thanks Cindy
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