5th wheel battery operation and maintenance

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dbFL

dbFL

Active member
Joined
Apr 14, 2017
Posts
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New to the trailer life. Storing our 5th wheel in my driveway while our house sells and it may be a few months before we hit the road. When we pulled in I pulled the slides out so we could prep the unit and get things ready in the meantime. I have left the main battery disconnect 'off' for the most part to keep anything from draining the battery. I went in today to close the slides because I needed to move it about 40 ft down the driveway and got 3 slides in but by the 4th one there was barely any juice left. I hooked up the tow vehicle and turned off the inverter and the slide came right in. According to my battery monitor it was at 12V

My questions..
how the heck does all this work?
How should I be leaving this while stationary and unhooked from city power?
Does hooking up my TV help charge the battery in the meantime?
What is the purpose of the inverter and should I leave it off/on and when?

thanks!
 
The inverter takes 12v DC (nominal) and changes it to 120v AC to run 120v stuff in trailer. With the battery disconnected, the 12v is coming from a converter powered by shore power?

When ever you have a 12v power source hooked up, TV or shore power, the battery is gonna read 12v.
With shore power disconnected and no connected TV, then it should read battery voltage.

Before closing the slides, did you reconnect the battery? How long had the battery sat disconnected?
They will lose charge over time just sitting.
 
Sort of as a side to this, I had a battery issue that affected the slides and leveling system. The rep from lippert said that the battery in the truck is only a bandaid for the trailer battery. He said that the slides and leveling system wouldn't work correctly without a functioning trailer battery. Why is that?  Why isn't a 12 volt battery a 12 volt battery?  In the truck or the trailer.
 
Do you have a CONverter or a INverter?  A CONverter receives 110 Volt AC from shore power and converts it over to 12 Volt DC. A INverter receives 12 Votl DC from a battery bank and changes it to 110 Volt AC.
Most CONverters also keeps the battery charged.  Probably what happened is over time the battery discharged a little and trying to operate 4 slides, probably discharged it enough so the 4th slide would not operate. Check the water level in the battery and plug it into household current for a couple of days.
 
Since its at home anyhow, simply run an extension cord out and plug it in.  That is how 90% of us who store our RVs at home do it.  Batyeries are always hot and ready to go.
 
Jimdamedic said:
Sort of as a side to this, I had a battery issue that affected the slides and leveling system. The rep from lippert said that the battery in the truck is only a bandaid for the trailer battery. He said that the slides and leveling system wouldn't work correctly without a functioning trailer battery. Why is that?  Why isn't a 12 volt battery a 12 volt battery?  In the truck or the trailer.
Click to expand...

The issue is that the size (small) and length (long) of wire from the TV battery won't pass enough current to run the motors on the slide.

The battery in the trailer is close to the fuse panel and is connected by a large wire.
 
All above is correct.  To summarize:

Leaving the disconnect off is a very good move, but the battery will still slowly discharge, just because...  With the battery partially discharged, it had enough juice to close 3 slides, but not 4.  Plugging into the truck connects the truck batteries to the FW 12V system, and it now has enough power to close the last slide.

If a camper is not used for an extended time, two battery preservation systems are used.  Remove the battery(s) and bring inside.  Keep charged with a trickle charger -OR- leave in the camper on a trickle charger or just leave the camper power connected.  A simple 120V 15A cord will keep the batteries charged and power for lights.

Your TV WILL help keep the battery charged.  While you are connected and towing, the truck will help with this.  If you are parked and connected, the TV batteries still supply power to the FW, but YOU CAN DRAIN YOUR BATTERIES SO THE TRUCK WILL NOT START.
 
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