12 volt power diminishing when lots of lights are on

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Poppy & Nana

.. Leo has the battery off and we are plugged into house current......we do have 12 volt lights, the heater worked ....

I think you answered your own question. The battery is off and you have 12 volt lights so the converter must be supplying the 12 volts.

With my CS4500 the converter doesn't put out 12 volts if the battery is off.

[Poppy & Nana]

thanks.....still learning this full hook up stuff.....

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Poppy & Nana

OK so I'm going to jkump in on this conversation and hopefully NOT hi-jack the link! If you all want me to post elsewhere...let me know!

Leo and I don't do much full hook up camping and we are spending 10 days with hookups and learning alot! Leo has the battery off and we are plugged into house current....everyone talks about the converter and a fan noise....I have not heard a thing coming from it BUT we do have 12 volt lights, the heater worked and we are NOT having any issues. How would I know if the converter is working???? iT IS A WORLD FRIENDSHIP COMPANY CLASS CTL PANELBOARD TYPE 1 - MODEL WF8955AN W/PLASTIC.....should it make some type of noise?????

We have a 2007 2499

Kathy,

Gee step'in up in the world to full hookups! When we had the T2499 we had to put it up on 4" of wood to get the sewer pipe to go down hill.... Ohio health code the CG sewer pipe has to be 6" above grade....

Your new modern converter is not plagued with the issues of the older ones. Yours may even have variable speed fans depending on heat load. The cement mixers fans I had on the T310 was a 2003 generation. They where on or off and on most all the time. In time the fan bearings go out and then the cement mixer starts....

My new Progressive Dynamics with T stat controlled fans I never hear a thing.

An like Gene said, if you have no battery in and the camper is all working, well so is the converter.

Enjoy your full hookup.

John

[Poppy & Nana]

Thanks guys....I read all about the cement mixer noise and was concerned that ours was not working.....see what happens when you put a dumb broad in front of a computer to read!!!! LOL!!!!

And Gene, I thought if we had no battery power and all the 12volt lights were working we should be good....but then again I go directly to the experts on SOC for my advise!!!

[264SRinPA]

Kathy,
Even when you have full hookups, leave the battery turned on. Let the on board charger do its thing. Your WFCO is modern technology and will adjust itself as needed. It won't over charge or boil the water out of your battery. Our batteries are 6 years old, and I've never had to add water to them.

[lnchboxvox]

Well I'm thinking the converter is bad. I unhooked the battery overnight then tested it and although one cell is a bit lower (more then 25 points) than the others, I'm not sure its the culprit. While it was unhooked I plugged into shore power and the converter does indeed work without the battery inline. However, as I turned on a number of lights it quickly became overpowered and shut down and after a few seconds would attempt to come back on. If I shut down a few lights it would again stay on but only if I kept the demand to a minimum. On the other hand, if we view the converter like and alternator on a vehicle, where the battery is actually powering everything and the alternator (or converter) is constanly keeping the battery properly charged to do so, the system is still shutting down. The question is, can a battery with one cell significantly lower than the other have an inordinate draw on the system and cause this. If so, how can I truly measure this with the volt/amp meter that I have? When it is hooked up to the converter the measurement will be a combination of the battery voltage and the voltage coming from the charging circuit, right? It may necessitate getting the battery load tested on a machine.

[mainah]

35 amps is 35 amps battery or not it seems unlikely that you are drawing that much power now if the battery is bad it can draw more power trying to charge but if it's not connected you are going to get full 35 amps. Most standard DVM's will only be able to deal with 10 amps or less but voltage will tell you all you need to know the charger does not care about amps it deals with voltage and the amps follow. So if you are plugged in with no battery the voltage should be some thing close to 13 volts or more no matter what the load (at least to rated 35 amp output). It sure sounds like you have a converter issue.

[JohnB]

If your converter is going dead with no battery in place and only a few lights, like 3 to 5, then this really seems to point to the converter.

If you have the standard 921 light bulbs, looks like this 921 - 18 Watt, 12.8 Volt, 1.4 Amp Miniature T-5 Bulb | Bulbs.com they are 1.4 amps each. 5 lights on at once is 7 amps. That converter should have no issues with 5 lights on.

If you want to try this to confirm, put the volt meter on 12 volt terminals about anywhere in the camper. Even the battery leads that are unhooked. Tell us what it reads? Is it 13.25 or 13.65?

And then 1 at a time, start turning on light bulbs and watch the voltage, 1 at a time. Tell us when the voltage starts to drop and how many bulbs are on.

One thing for sure, on an incandescent light bulb if it is start going dim, the voltage is going down. This should only happen when you start going over 35 amps. With nothing on in the camper except the LP detector that would take close to 25 light bulbs of the 921 vintage. I doubt you have that many in the entire camper.

Hope this helps

John
.

[lnchboxvox]

Thanks John. At this point I have ordered a WFCO WF-8955 (55 amps). I'm quite convinced that it is the converter but even if it is not I'll have a more powerful and quieter unit that has the three stage charger so I can just leave it plugged in without worrying about the battery. I found it on an Ebay store, Home Page, for $107.99 brand new. That is way less than I saw it anywhere else. I'll post the verdict after I install it.

[lnchboxvox]

I installed the new WFCO WF-8955. Fits right in the old hole. Flipped on all the lights I could find, with and without the battery hooked up. No dimming, no shutting down and best of all, no noise. Just a little hum of the fan when you put your ear very close. The old Centurion squealed like a stuck pig when under a load. The real test, of course, will be camping overnight but I don't foresee any problems. At a price of $107.99 at Home Page, it was over $60 cheaper than anyone else on the internet.

[JohnB]

Paul

Good deal!! and great to see the light again....LOL

Glad it worked out well for you. Thanks for reporting back.

John