FT Single Mother S.O.S. Electric Just went out in 97 bounder.

We have had this a few weeks, everything was working well when we got it except the hydraulics wire was cut and back a/c didn't work. Since the first few weeks we are still moving in and pretty flat, I chose to let that go until we got moved.

So summer finally arrived in our very remote  part of the country and I turned the front A/c on. This is not the first time I used it, it's been kinda loud and last time I noticed it went to shed. I have no clue. I confess I'm an idiot. but the A/c ran for about 20 minutes then went out and so did everything else. Nothing works on gen either. I guess that's a given.

Since we got it, I have noticed a few other electrical problems. The lighters in the dash don't work so I can't charge my phone driving. A/c on the dash doesn't work. A few lights over the table went out and won't come back on, but rest works fine. I thought it was the bulbs. There is no hot water, but cold works fine, I assumed it was the pump or pilot light, as stove also works fine. Gen kicks right on every time. Then in giving it an oil change noticed that the horn wire is also cut and one of the aux batteries sounds like frying bacon is left on when plugged into shore power.

This is our home. I don't have any RV places around me. The closest is a 1.5 hour drive and I don't want to get taken for a ride with all these problems. I was thinking maybe it's all the related to the same failure. IDK. Anyone had this experience or help me with some info so I don't get totally screwed trying to take it in for help?

Thanks in advance. Tara

Dead batteries can start the problems.  No AC and no 120VAC you probably tripped a breaker somewhere.  You need to start looking and checking.  If you do not have one, go buy a cheap (less than 25 dollar) volt meter and learn how to use it.  Then start checking voltage, first st the pedistal where your plugged in.  From there follow the wires checking voltage everywhere until there is no power.  There is your first problem.  Let us know your approx locstion, maybe a member would be willing to give you some training on systems and how to work on them.

Most of what you are describing as dead is operated by 12 volts. Is the 12 volt battery charged up?

"arrived in the remote country"- do you have shore power or running strictly off of your batteries?
You mentioned nothing runs off of the generator- Does the generator start and run?

I reread, and see that the generator runs. Have you checked the breaker(s) on the generator itself?
Battery sounding like frying bacon-not a good thing. Could be a bad battery, or your converter is not charging correctly, or both.

Thank you, everyone. Here is what I've done and found. I am a 30 amp, connected to a 240 shore with a reducer. I noticed the sizzling aux battery a couple days ago. I have the main batter and 1st aux seem to be good and all batteries measure good/green on the dash monitor.
The generator was working, then went out. The monitor shows just under half full. It has crunk up fine every time, except today. After it went out, I could not get it back on.

What I did was turn off all breakers and unplugged from shore. I plugged back in then turned breakers back on. I have some lights that came back on. My receptacles are not on, the fridge is not on (fridge is both gas and elect.) My gas detector is also out now. So the electric problem shut that down too.

I don't know where the breakers are on the generator. I will try to find them.

Thank you, everyone, so much!

Note the sizzling battery was noticed after I had left batteries on a full day on shore. Not sure who told me to do this to make sure they got sufficient charge before we headed out. Maybe guy at the dealer.

Whatever the electric problem it was existing before I got it because they had the 2 wires cut to horn and levelers.

I have contacted a electrical handyman in this cow town who is going to come over tonight to see if it's something simple. But please note, I am a carpenter all day long. I know next to nothing about electrical. I can rebuild a bathroom or kitchen if someone else wires it, etc.

So for now, only thing working is half the lights. Luckily the engine still cranks and turns on.

And also, I have not had the batteries on in the last 3 or so days since I noticed the battery sizzling. They have been turned off at the main and it's solely been running on shore electrical alone. This happened with battery main off.

If your coach has a 30 amp service, and you are plugged into 240 volts, you probably have burnt up some stuff. RV's with a 30 amp service run on 120 volts, not 240 volts.

taram7 said:

And also, I have not had the batteries on in the last 3 or so days since I noticed the battery sizzling. They have been turned off at the main and it's solely been running on shore electrical alone. This happened with battery main off.

Click to expand...

You cannot turn off your batteries and have everything run. Several items require 110 and 12 volts to operate.

So I'm confused. the dealer told me to use the reducer on a 240, which I am, I will have to check my hook up, the guy that helped me said the set up was fine for 30 amps.
I turned the batteries off after the 3rd started sizzling cause I knew it would be a few days until I could get it replaced.
Needless, these were all working fine without battery until today... the a/c knocked them all off.
So is it better to have the batteries with the bad one on or have them off, and why would everything have worked fine on shore only the last few days?
Thanks again.

Maybe you're plugged into a typical 50 amp service with what we call a dogbone. That allows a 30 amp RV to use a 50 amp receptacle. If so, nothing to worry about then. I thought maybe you were plugged into a 30 amp 240 volt clothes dryer type outlet. It has been done before, and the results are not good.
An RV fridge needs either 12 volts and 110 volts or 12 volts and propane to run.
An RV furnace needs 12 volts and propane to run.
An RV water heater needs 12 volts and 110 volts or 12 volts and propane to run.
An RV cooktop and oven just needs propane to run.

It would be better to concentrate on the "house" electrical or the "chassis" electrical one at a time. It will drive you nuts trying to do both at the same time.

Thank you so much for all your help.

I too was concerned about what type of power source you were plugged into, and I think (hope) kdbgoat is right - you're plugged into a 50 amp source, using a 30 amp adapter (dog bone.) The first thing I'd recommend is to test your house-batteries (not the engine starting-battery - that's the chassis-battery.) Don't rely on those indicator lights on the panel in your RV, they're notoriously inaccurate.

To test your batteries, you'll need some kind of volt meter, like Donn said. You can get them fairly cheaply, but the kind with numeric readouts are best. You don't have to be an electrician to use one, but every RV owner should have one. Based on what you've described, I suspect that the water in one or more of your house-batteries has boiled down.

Disconnect from shore-power, then use your phone to take a picture of how your batteries are wired. Disconnect the battery cables, then check each battery's voltage with the volt meter. Then carefully pop the covers off the top of the batteries (you don't want water in the cells splashing into your eyes.) Check the water levels in each cell, and fill any low cells with distilled water only - never use tap water. Put the caps back on.

Before you reconnect the battery cables, and if the batteries are still good (let us know what their voltages are) use a wire brush to clean the cable ends and battery terminals. Reconnect the cables and verify that all the wires are connected properly by referring to the pictures you took.

That will help us diagnose any 12 volt problems. Start with that and we'll go from there, and then we'll troubleshoot your A/C issues.

Kev

You said "My receptacles are not on, the fridge is not on (fridge is both gas and elect.) My gas detector is also out now. So the electric problem shut that do"wn too.  This could be something real simple like a GFCI has tripped. Go around looking for a GFCI and reset it. Some GFCI's have a small red light which indicates it was tripped. Several receptacles could be wire to that one GFCI.

When you say you are plugged into shore power...are you at an RV park with outlets designed for RV's or are you plugged into somebodies house where they wired the "Shore Power Outlet?"

In other words...who wired the outlet?

It almost sounds like you ran 220 volts into the RV and that's not good. Sometimes people wire into a dryer outlet which is 220 volts and that will destroy a lot of stuff.

Thank you, guys. So I had someone come look at it for me. Not an RV guy cause those are all 2+ hours away. But what he found was the guy that helped me hook up was misread the hookup and my cord. It is a 30 amp hookup, but he thought it was on a 50 and used the reducer. So it was on the smaller cord, on a 30 with reducer. I guess the catalyst was a bad light. Not sure yet. It's the only one that didn't come back on, but it was very hot. Maybe not, maybe the cord caused the light. But the breaker was tripped, plus the one on the shore hook up itself.

This is a 'rv park' of sorts... it has the actual hookups. I pulled in in the dark and he helped me in the dark so maybe the old writing was too hard to see or make sense of. The other issues remain, and the problem with the batteries seems to be compound. The main switch seemed to him to be wonky and the 2 coach batteries are linked directly together with alligators. He thought that could have something to do with the one sizzling.

Anyway, he is going to bring out his voltmeter and trace the wires back and see what he can find with it. I don't think he is the kind to pretend he knows something and mess it up. He was saying he will see what he can do. So if he can sort out the battery and switch, the water heater/pump and the lighters, I can live with the rest for now.

I'm a total newbie idiot so thank you all for bearing with me. I learned that I need to not listen to just anyone that acts they know like they know what they're talking about and I need to know my rig much better. Thank you a million times! Your advice helped me have the stuff to tell him to help him.
thank you thank you!

Well, I'm back to being concerned again, but maybe it's just me. If you are plugged into a campsite power pedestal (it sounds like you are) it's not possible to accidentally plug a 30 amp cord into a 50 amp receptical, or a 50 amp cord into a 30 amp receptical. If you have a 30 amp system, and your power cord is plugged into a 50 amp receptical, via an adapter, that's fine. It's just a bit unusual to find a power pedestal with a 50 amp receptical, but no 30 amp receptical.

You said something, "didn't come back on" was, "very hot" and a breaker was tripped. What got hot? It sounds like a breaker on the power pedestal tripped, but did a breaker in the RV also trip? If so, which one? You also said, "maybe the cord caused the light." What light are you referring to?

You mentioned that the batteries were connected with alligator clips. Do you mean the house-batteries, or the house and chassis-batteries? It sounds like a previous owner may have made some personal modifications, which is neither unusual, nor necessarily bad. However, it concerns me when I hear that someone has used alligator clips to make semi-permanent electrical connections.

THIS IS IMPORTANT. You indicated that you're new to this RV stuff, and I'm thinking you're feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. That's understandable, but there are a few things about RVs that are important to have (at least) a basic understanding of their operation. Things like, plugging into shore-power, running your generator and some basics about your 12 volt system. You seem to be having trouble with all three right now, and I'd hate to see you do unnecessary damage to your RV.

We here at the RVForum will be happy to continue to help you with your RVs problems, but I would strongly recommend that you seek out an experienced RVer, who'd be willing to spend some time with you, and go over the basic operation of some of your systems. You may be able to find another RVer who's camping nearby to help, but even if you had to pay a professional, it would be money well spent.

Kev

I sense a language issue here. By "Reducer" she may mean a dogbone adapter 30-50

Original poster.. Is that reducer a short cord. 4 Pin connector on on end (3 flat, parallel but one "offset" and a round) and the othe rend a 3-ping socket (two flat and one round) note Round may be "D" shape or "U" shape)

if so it sounds like what we call a Dogbone Adapter and it does "Reduce" the service to 120 volts. Sort of (It only uses one leg of the 50 amp outlet one pin is not connected)

As they say, " a picture is worth a thousand words". Help us to help you by posting some pictures of the shore power connection, and the battery wiring. Good luck.