Re: [tabtrailers] Electrical Help

2:42 PM |

Hi Carol,

Thanks much for the prompt reply! I'm afraid that is what I will be leaning toward. Unfortunately batteries don't last forever. It's just weird that it is working at all, and that some of the info I have found relate to the converter working the 12 volt accessories even without the battery. As you stated, I have also noted a lot of traffic on the converter being cheap and not always lasting a long time. Maybe the two in conjunction are just not the best fit! Thanks again.

Shonktoo

--- On Fri, 2/11/11, Carol Kelley <clkelley564@knology.net> wrote:

From: Carol Kelley <clkelley564@knology.net>
Subject: Re: [tabtrailers] Electrical Help
To: tabtrailers@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, February 11, 2011, 5:18 PM

Ok, I had a similar issue and it is probably a bad battery. My dad explained that while the converter can run stuff it needs the "control" of the battery for best efficiency. He said quite honestly RV converters are on the cheap side and are not designed to run the 12V items independently.

Carol

On Feb 11, 2011 5:06 PM, "Shonktoo" <shonktoo@yahoo.com> wrote:

I need some help with my trailer. It is five years old, has the original battery and has been out of service for about two and a half years. I am now trying to ready it for a trip next month. It was plugged into shore power for about half of that time (on an infrequent basis when I was home), but has not been on shore power for the last 9 or 10 months.

Upon plugging it in to start cleaning and prepping it I noticed that the 12 volt lights were very weak, and were flickering. I attributed that to a low/weak/old battery even though I was on shore power, and had hoped that a good charge would remedy this situation on it's own. In fact all of the 12 volt accessories were flickering/operating intermittenly (the TV/stereo, water pump etc.). I have researched all of the electrical files that I can find on this site, and note nothing about this issue.

The trailer has now been plugged into shore power for four days and although the lights are burning brighter they are still flickering (all of the 12 volt accessories are still operating strangely). I have checked all of the fuses, the breakers, the plug wires and the ground, and all are tight and in good condition. It also appears that the battery is charging well as the lights are now burning brighter. Additionally, the 120 volt outlets work just fine and anything plugged into them appears to work properly.

From the files I have read on this site I understood that the 12 volt accessories should work even without a battery in place, as the converter would/should power them directly from the shore power. This is partially why I don't understand the flickering, or this possibly being an issue that is directly related to the battery being sub-par. Any advice or assistance on how to remedy this would be greatly appreciated and I thank you all in advance!