# Fridge & Air Won't Work On Shore Power..bad Converter?



## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

I turned the fridge on early yesterday morning and started loading yesterday afternoon. Fridge was cold all day. DH took out the battery last night to take it with him today to get new batteries. TT is plugged into shore power. Went to add some items to the fridge this morning and check light is on. Turned fridge off and back on again and check light is still on. Light inside fridge is on though. All the fuses are fine. DH got home and checked everything again and now the light inside fridge is off and black panel under the fridge is cycling on and then shuts down and cycles on and shuts down. Now the air won't come on.

Help!


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Sounds like many different things but all require 12 vdc to operate. If the converter is going bad or is bad then you will get the symptoms you see. That said, if the fridge is in auto then it will run off of 120 vac and the check light should not come on as the check light relates to propane failure of the fridge.

Put the battery in and see if everything works. Also you need a voltmeter to check the converter function so if you do not have one then get one.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

DH put the new batteries in (fully charged) and unplugged the shore power. Turned fridge on and check light comes on...propane is not on, he just filled the tanks and hasn't reconnected them. No fridge light and still hear the cycling on and off of the converter. Lights are getting dimmer by the moment. DH checked batteries and they have almost no charge left. DH just went to get a voltmeter


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## MO7Bs (Apr 11, 2009)

BeachHut said:


> DH put the new batteries in (fully charged) and unplugged the shore power. Turned fridge on and check light comes on...propane is not on, he just filled the tanks and hasn't reconnected them. No fridge light and still hear the cycling on and off of the converter. Lights are getting dimmer by the moment. DH checked batteries and they have almost no charge left. DH just went to get a voltmeter


The fridge needs to have either 120v AC from the shore power or propane.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

LOL!! My bad! I'm just the messenger that gets to type the info







and even I know that one!

He has me so confused right now we are going back to square one and starting over on the troubleshooting. I'll report back in a bit


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

If the batteries drained that fast you have a dead short somewhere.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

Ok here goes...plugged into shore power, the fridge does not come on. The air conditioner will run briefly and then shuts off. The microwave will run. The battery does not appear to be charging. Connected to shore power and with the propane turned on and the fridge on auto, the check light comes on and there is no clicking sound (like its trying to ignite). The water heater tries but will not ignite and the furnace will not ignite.

DH went and got a voltmeter and checked the converter. The manual says it should read 13.6...it read 14.4. He also checked the batteries and both read 6.8+/-.

You have no idea how much I appreciate all your help







! Knowing I had somewhere to turn to help troubleshoot is a great feeling!!


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## zachsmom (Aug 17, 2008)

This may sound really stupid but did the shore power circuit breaker maybe flip?

Does it make any difference if you hook up to the TV?

I doubt either of these things are part of your problem but I didn't see that you had tried either, so thought it was better to sound stupid than to say nothing, just in case...

Lynne


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## MO7Bs (Apr 11, 2009)

X2 grab an AC outlet tester and make sure your shore power is wired correctly...it's another thing to rule out.


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## W4DRR (May 17, 2005)

Well, for starters, if there is only 6.8V at the battery, and the converter reads 14.4V, the battery 40A fuse(s) must be blown.
Sounds like the battery was connected backward.

Bob


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

Yep we checked the shore power and we also plugged it into our generator and nothing changed.

At this point DH is thinking its the converter but is concerned that it may have fried the fridge completely....just not sure where we are going to find somewhere with a converter in stock that we can get today so that we can still leave for our trip at 1:00 today.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

We checked and rechecked and rechecked the battery and its in correctly and no fuses are blown.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

The converter putting out 14.4 is correct when it senses a very dead battery and you have a very dead battery at 6.8 vdc. The converter is not the issue but you do have an issue at the battery.

Remember the battery is White to ground and Black to positive.

You have a 40 amp auto reset breaker next to the battery they do fail. If the 40 amp fuses are good on the converter and you are only seeing 6.8 vdc at the battery then the auto reset breaker is failed.

I have another question did your DH get a new pair of 6 vdc batteries???


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

The batteries that came with the TT were 2 6volts and he replaced them with 2 golf cart 6 volt batteries.


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## folsom_five (Jan 10, 2008)

BeachHut said:


> The batteries that came with the TT were 2 6volts and he replaced them with 2 golf cart 6 volt batteries.


Make sure the 6V batteries are hooked up properly...

I stole this pic from Oregon_Camper's gallery









You can ignore the "black from lift system" line


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## Sayonara (Jul 23, 2007)

Good luck. I wish I could help. Sounds battery/breaker related.


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

6.8 x 2 batteries = 13.6 volts which is about fully charged. I'm interested to see how this one is concluded.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

I hope its concluded in Pismo with cocktails at about sunset!









The batteries are connected properly. We can't find the auto reset breaker next to the batteries though. Any input? Also, is there a reset button for the fridge?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

To find the auto reset breaker follow the postive wire. They are normally within 2 feet of the battery.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

folsom_five said:


> The batteries that came with the TT were 2 6volts and he replaced them with 2 golf cart 6 volt batteries.


Make sure the 6V batteries are hooked up properly...

I stole this pic from Oregon_Camper's gallery









You can ignore the "black from lift system" line
[/quote]

That drawing has an error. The lift system I assume is the tongue jack and should be connected to the same location as the black wire to the trailer.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

DH got 2 golf cart batteries from Costco...no brand name. Says they are distributed by Johnson Controls.


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## Justman (Jul 22, 2006)

Does your Air Conditioner work now that you've connected to shore power and have the batteries hooked up?

Don't believe the fridge has a "reset" button. I believe the standard course of action for an error light is to turn it off, unplug from shore power, wait about 2-3 minutes, and then plug back into shore power and then turn the fridge back to auto. Works for me all the time after getting hit with a power bump.


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

No the fridge doesn't work at all even plugged in to shore power and with the batteries connected.

NEW DEVELOPMENT: The battery indicator in the TT is now ready 2 clicks where as before it has read nothing.

Followed the positive wire off the battery and still can't find the reset breaker. The wire goes under the trailer which is sealed. DH cut into it but still no reset breaker. Anyone have a picture of what we are looking for?


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

BeachHut said:


> DH got 2 golf cart batteries from Costco...no brand name. Says they are distributed by Johnson Controls.


Ok, so those are 6V batteries, so make sure they are wired in series.

Do any of the other appliances work now?

Also, can you measure voltage in one of the outlets (be careful)?


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

Outbackers is doing weird stuff. i never finished my original post, I never submitted it, but it posted it any way?!

Beachnut you only got half the info!! But Nathan really finished off what Ii was getting to.

1. Lift Negative battery lead. Check resistance from lifted lug to trailer frame. if you have more than 1-2.0 ohms clean the battery lug, remove the lug bolt in the trailer, clean the lug and bolt and reinstall. Check again for good, low resistance.

2. Lift positive lead from battery terminal.

3. Measure voltage to ground point from termianl block mounted to trailer frame. Should be around 13.6 VDC (+/- 1.5 volts DC).

4. If you have voltage at the trailer mounted terminal block (Both terminals) Measure voltage at positive battery lug. You should have the same voltage there. If you have low voltage, disconnect lead at terminal block clean and reassemble. If you have no voltage the reset nathan is refering to is tripped.

5. Verify proper charging voltage (13.6 VDC (+/- 1.5 VDC) at the Battery Terminal Lug.

6. Reconnect the lug to the battery.

That will have verified your charging circuit.

Ensure propane is connected and on. Light your stove top to ensure that you have the lines purged of air.

With AC power disconnected and all appliances except the reefer shut off, turn the reefer on GAS. Monitor for the solid operate light. Your batteries should start the reefer.

After 10-15 minutes if the light is solid and the reefer appears to be running, connect AC power to the camper. You should not use an extension cord to test if your camper is working properly, electrically. If you MUST use an extension cord, Do Not use a cheap, run of the mill, or long extension cord. Use a heavy duty thick cord.

If you have to use one it should be short, as short as possible and you should be plugged into a 120VAC 30 amp outlet. If you are plugged into 120VAC @20 or 15 amp breaker. Use one appliance at a time and DO NOT attempt to run the Air Conditioner.

Connect multimeter to any AC Outlet that will allow you to monitor the Voltage. Measure AC voltage, looking for 110-120VAC. If at least 110VAC but not more than 120VAC your voltage is good.

(If you have voltage over 120 or under 110, disconnect the power source and call an electrician)

With good power and Multimeter still connected to the outlet switch reefer to AUTO. The reefer should run.

With water in your water heater, and someone standing close to the heater to monitor the ingintor, switch on the LPGAS switch on your control board to on and verify the heater starts.

I wish you guys luck and i am sorry about the confusion with these posts! I am not sure why or how that happened.

Eric


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

DH is at his limit so I'm going to be the logical one







. We are going back to where we were when everything was working. The fridge worked fine until DH pulled the battery to go get the new ones. Before he pulled them, I took a picture of how they were connected so as to make sure we reconnected them right. That is how DH connected the new batteries. We have both checked this 50 times as have the neighbors that are all involved in this project now! That's when everything went haywire. So it has to be the battery/battery connection, right?!?!?

DH is going to pull the batteries out and check all the things egregg57 suggested and then connect the batteries according to the diagram provided by Oregon_Camper via Folsom_Five.

Keep your fingers crossed!!


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

We've got them all crossed for you.

Here's a picture of the self resetting breaker.







It should be covered with a rubber cover.

Another thing to check would be to turn of the converter breaker (Probably marked (con/rec) and then check and see how many volts you have at the fuses. It should be at least 12.5V if the batteries are connected correctly and feeding into the trailer.


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## Sayonara (Jul 23, 2007)

Were pulling for ya! keep peeling away at the onion, youll find the problem...


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

Please re-read Post #26, wierd stuff happened to my post!!!

eric


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## BeachHut (Aug 1, 2007)

Well I am happy to say we finally figured out the problem, completely by fluke no less. We followed egreggs57's advice and we still had no luck. All the connections were off the batteries and DH decided that we would take it to our local RV dealer to see if they could troubleshoot it for us. As I'm handing him the connector that runs between the two batteries, I accidentally gave him the wrong one (he had extras laying there and I didn't know which was which). He had it put on before he realized that it was a black one and not the red one that he wanted. He said it didn't make a difference anyway and I laughed and said maybe that fixed it all and he should check and see. He wasn't it the best of moods at this point and he grumbled at me under his breath, but went and turned the propane back on and hit the button on the fridge and IT CAME ON! Turns out the connector that runs between the batteries was bad and so we were only getting power from one battery. So simple!

We were a couple of hours late, but we still made our camping trip for the holiday weekend and had a great time. DH told everyone in the camp about all the advice we got from fellow outbackers and if you'll notice, we now have a Charter Membership, paid for by DH







.

I now know way more about my trailer and how it works and I owe it all to you! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!


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## Sayonara (Jul 23, 2007)

AWESOME NEWS !!! Glad you figured it out !


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## Rip (Jul 13, 2006)

Nathan said:


> We've got them all crossed for you.
> 
> Here's a picture of the self resetting breaker.
> 
> ...


The self resetting breaker went bad on my trailer this weekend!!!!







We were all ready to leave told the DW to run the side in and it went 1 foot and stopped was not plugged into 110 volts ' told her to wait till ,I plugged it back in!!! then it worked great no problem ,Got home and found the 50 amp breaker all corroded!!! Changed it, works fine now!!! Good thing the inverter feeds the 30 amp slide breaker too!!


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Rip said:


> We've got them all crossed for you.
> 
> Here's a picture of the self resetting breaker.
> 
> ...


The self resetting breaker went bad on my trailer this weekend!!!!







We were all ready to leave told the DW to run the side in and it went 1 foot and stopped was not plugged into 110 volts ' told her to wait till ,I plugged it back in!!! then it worked great no problem ,Got home and found the 50 amp breaker all corroded!!! Changed it, works fine now!!! Good thing the inverter feeds the 30 amp slide breaker too!!
[/quote]
I'd strongly recommend moving the breakers inside a watertight electrical box. While you are at it, move all of the wire connections in one too.









Here's a box for sale that is designed just for replacing that open galvanized steel box that is screwed to the frame of everyone's trailer: e-trailer


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