Hi Paul,
OK you gave us a little more to go on. I’ll comment to your questions. See how this fits to your situation.
Paul’s comments in
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Went camping this past weekend and on our second night notice our 12 volt lights dimming way down. At first the converter ( Centurion CS 3500) would start up and the lights would get brighter but immediately dim when the converter shut off. As time went on they got dimmer and dimmer. At this point the converter was struggling to keep up, with intermttent bursts about a 1/2 a second long, it would brighten and dim the lights like a very slow strope. Eventually I had to shut all 12 volt items off including the heater (fan) and bundle up for a very cold night for this time of year.
From this it appears the battery is not very charged or it is heavily sulfated and will not hold much of a charge. A 35 amp converter should handle the loads you are talking about. Could be the battery is sucking up all it can from the converter or the converter is not working right at all, or both.
Here an amp meter tells all. But if you do not have an amp meter then a volt meter is next best or even a hydrometer.
The amp meter will tell what current the battery is accepting. The volt meter can tell the state of charge of the battery if you unhook it and let it sit over night. An a hydrometer will tell each cell in the battery is OK or not and what the real state of charge is. If all you have is a volt meter that really helps.
With the battery unhooked and left to rest over night, measure the voltage at the battery. What is it? Ideally you have a digital meter but a high end analog is ok too.
Next is plug in the converter and then measure the volts at the battery. Is it in the 13.25 volts or the 13.65 volts area? Or something else? I had a 2003 American Enterprises converter, the one after the Centurion when they went out of business. In 2003 the American Enterprises would have the float 13.25 volt mode and the normal charge 13.65 volt mode. I do not know if the 2001 Centurion has the 2 modes. If it only has the 13.65 volt mode, (normal charge) then leaving it hooked up all the time will cook out the battery. But you said your is not cooked out. So if it has the 13.25 volt float mode the converter may be stuck and never going into normal charge mode.
If that is the case then the amps will not be there either and it can explain your dimming lights and the fact the battery will not charge right.
In the morning it seemed to be all better but it eventually happened again when we used a lot of 12 volt items. It's almost as though all 12 volt items are being powered by the battery and the battery is needing to be charged by the converter but it's not doing the job.
Odds are high it is pointing to the converter but I would not yet rule out the battery.
We purchased this Sunline T-2470 earlier this year. This is our first trailer with a working converter and I must admit I have left it plugged in when not using it because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. The converter has been noisy all along, having a pretty high pitch tone when it comes on.
The infamous cement mix fan syndrome. Yup I had that too. Drove me nuts. I ended up changing the entire converter to a Progressive Dynamics 3 stage charger with desulfate mode as part of my bookdocking genny setup.
Does this scenario indicate that the converter is bad? Does the condition of the battery have anything to do with the operation of the converter? It is not "dry". When I take the caps off the water level is at the top.
The converter may be having issues. A volt meter here goes a long way. I asked about the type of battery as if someone put a starter car battery in there that type does not like long drains like a deep cycle does. The fact that you are plugged in all the time and not boiling it out means a few things. You may be stuck in 13.25volt float mode and not charging enough to boil off at electrolyte. It may also not be even charging the battery as the float mode drops the current as well.
Its a 2001 John. I don't store it very close to where I live so I can't look to see what the battary ratings are. Nonetheless, it shouldn't matter since most of these converters will operate without the battery, right? If I'm understanding you and Gene and others I've spoken to, the converter (when plugged into shore power) should be able to handle the demand. I'm either going to have to replace it or reduce extraneous demands while the furnace is on.
Agreed?
I know that the 2003 vintage American converter can create 12 VDC and run the camper with no battery attached. I do not know if the 2001 vintages had that ability. Some of the older converters did need a battery attached to work right. I do not know how old has to be to get there. Maybe Gene can comment on his.
And I agree if the converter is creating 35 amps of power, you should not be in the situation you are in.
Need to narrow this down to the battery is OK or not.
Zoom down to page 7, listed as page 12 table 5 of this Trojan PFD file. It shows the standing voltage for percent of charge of a deep cell battery. Meaning the battery has been standing for over 8 hours and no load on it or charger.
http://www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/TRJ...UsersGuide.pdf
What does the standing voltage read?
Is the converter working? Short of an amp meter what is the voltage at the battery with the converter hooked up? With all the stuff running in the camper and suppose to be charging the battery, it needs to be in the 13.65 volt range. If you have the right voltage and the right amps are coming out of it, the lights should not go dim like they are.
Hope this helps
John
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