Camper electrical question

CrawlnYota33

CrawlnYota33

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Location
Winston Salem
Went to put the slideout in on our 2011 cruizer rv yesterday and it wouldn't budge, motor wasn't getting power. So I checked the plug, adapter for the drop cord, power at the house, fuses, breakers and the drop cord itself. Found out that the motor was only getting power from the battery which doesn't have enough juice to move it much. All of the outlets on the camper have full power from the house but nothing else will work off the drop cord, all light are dim which means they are trying to run off the battery. sideout has always ran in and out on both battery and power from the house/hookup. What is causing this I was thinking maybe something with the inverter. Thanx for any help.
 
Yeah, whatever converter/battery charger you've got isn't keeping the battery charged. Or its trying to keep the battery charged, but only puts out a few amps, the battery is old/dead, and the converter can't keep everything running by itself.

What you've got to keep in mind is that you basically have two electrical systems -- the 120V shore power stuff, and the 12V RV stuff. The 12V RV stuff always runs off the battery, but the battery is kept charged by the shore power when it's available.

I'd unhook the house batteries from the camper (probably kill all the 12V stuff while you've got it unhooked), and put the house batteries on a separate battery charger for a few days. See if they recover. Actually.... before you even get that far, unhook the house batteries, then see how many volts they're putting out. If its 10V or less, the house batteries are probably shot.
 
No house batterys, I have the camper plugged in to my house via a drop cord. But I think I know what ur saying,i will check the battery tomorrow. Thanx.
 
Right. By "house battery", I meant whatever 12V battery is on the camper.
 
House battery runs everything from the chassis up, chassis battery runs the chassis. You MUST have house batteries for slideout motors to operate, shore power does not run the slides. Fast way to charge house battery is to crank the engine and wait a few minutes. All surplus alternator power after charging the chassis will charge the house batterys and this should run slides. Biggest problem with camper bats are lack of maintenance, water HAS to be checked a lot! This is totally different from car bat use and a expensive learn. I use AGM battery's for this very reason. Flooded (bats with caps) are a maintenance nightmare if used a lot. Once they get low they never hold a charge as they once did. I live in WS if I can help, let me know.
 
Put another battery on it yesterday and everything seems to work fine, slideout went in fine and lights are normal. Thanx again.
 
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