Converter help

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Jpruitt

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2017
Posts
6
Ok so I’m new to this and am looking for help. We bought an older 96 coachman Catalina bumper pull. It had the Magnetek 6300 6345 converter in it. It’s not working. The shoreline powers one light, the fridge and ac and outlets but nothing else. When we bought it, the guy had a battery hooked up and all worked. Battery didn’t come with it so we need one. But obviously we need the converter to work to keep it charged but my understanding is we don’t technically have to have the battery bc the converter will do what we need. So I went to an RV repair place in town. He recommended the cheapest way to go was to get a WFCO 9845. We did. We split the power cord and hooked it all up how it seems to be needed to hook up but the converter breaker keeps tripping. WTH. I don’t want to go buy another new converter is this one should work. Can anyone help? Could it be as simple as the little skinny breaker box for the converter needs to be replaced? If everything works on battery then all the wiring should be good right? So what’s with the converter breaker???
 
The WFCO 9845 should work fine, so something is hooked up wrong on the 120v (input) side. 

No, "everything works on battery" does not mean everything is wired right on the 120v side.  In fact, it proves nothing at all about that.  You need to focus problem isolation on the 120v wires to the 9845 and anything else that shares that circuit & breaker.

Are you sure the old converter is disconnected? I'm talking about the components inside the old Magnetek that performed the 12v converion and charging functions.
 
The Magnetek 6300 line needs a battery to function properly or a "Battery Simulator" (Now sold as a "hardening Condenser" or "Hardening capacitor" by high end car audio stores) does not need a lot of battery, a jump start pack (Which you should have) will make it work but I'd not recommend that..  You also need a battery to be legal towing.. A group 24 will do.

The 6300 howerver is a piece of ..refuse.. Converter I suggest contacting best convrters (add www and com) and getting a Progressive Dynamics 4600 upgrade.. This replaces ONLY the converter portion (The rear part) f the assembly, you still use the same fuses and fuse panel and breakers and breaker panel. Just a much, mujch, much better converter. As I told PD when I stopped in last October.. When I got myh RV (IT came with a PD Converter) in 2005 I started looking for a better conberter.. I'm still looking,,, without success.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
The WFCO 9845 should work fine, so something is hooked up wrong on the 120v (input) side. 

No, "everything works on battery" does not mean everything is wired right on the 120v side.  In fact, it proves nothing at all about that.  You need to focus problem isolation on the 120v wires to the 9845 and anything else that shares that circuit & breaker.

Are you sure the old converter is disconnected? I'm talking about the components inside the old Magnetek that performed the 12v converion and charging functions.

Yes the old converter has been completely removed. I don?t mean to sound dumb but this just isn?t my thing lol. I am however wanting to figure this out and just need a little help. So when you say focus on 120v wires to the 9845, are you talking about the green white and black that were in the power cord we split open or the main power lines that go to the right side of fuse panel for pos and neg terminals? The breaker is for the rec/con. Nothing has been plugged in except one lowly lamp so we can?t figure out why it?s tripping. It was doing the same thing before we switched to the 9845. We figured it was a bad converter but obviously it?s somethimg else and we had done nothing to the old. Could it be the breaker box?
 
Yes - the 120v power that feeds power into the converter are the white (neutral), black (hot) and green (ground) wires that were in that bundled cord. The black wire brings the 120v power from that breaker that trips. A tripping breaker means too many amps are being sucked down that black wire, so something is wrong there.

The fuse panel is for 12v power, which is either the output of the converter or battery power. There should be no way for a short or excessive 12v load to cause the 120v input breaker to trip, so I say look at the input side.However, as a first step, disconnect the 9845's output to the plus & minus termials and turn its power on to see if the breaker still trips when there is zero output from the 9845.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
Yes - the 120v power that feeds power into the converter are the white (neutral), black (hot) and green (ground) wires that were in that bundled cord. The black wire brings the 120v power from that breaker that trips. A tripping breaker means too many amps are being sucked down that black wire, so something is wrong there.

The fuse panel is for 12v power, which is either the output of the converter or battery power. There should be no way for a short or excessive 12v load to cause the 120v input breaker to trip, so I say look at the input side.However, as a first step, disconnect the 9845's output to the plus & minus termials and turn its power on to see if the breaker still trips when there is zero output from the 9845.

Ok so we disconnected the pos and neg from the 9845 and had  only the white black and green from power cord connected. It still trips.
 
Did you make sure you hooked up the 120 volt side properly, also check to insure the BLACK wire has not been pinched or chafed up against a hunk of metal anywhere.

Fact: When I had a house. I had central air installed. The installer connected the black and Green (Ground) together, for some reason teh fuse kept blowing... Till we fixed it and his boss had to buy new shoes (the old one being kind of stinky all of a sudden).
 
Ok so we disconnected the pos and neg from the 9845 and had  only the white black and green from power cord connected. It still trips.

Figured it would, but it was the first step. It's conceivable you have a defective new converter, but that's not where the smart money bets. More likley, either you have connected the black, white or green wires to the wrong terminals on the 9845, or the black and/or white wires are damaged and touching some nearby metal (a short circuit).

The WFCO 98xx converters are supposed to have internal protection against overloads and shorts, so chances are the problem is damage to the black & white wires that bring power to it.  The green wire can't cause a short or trip a breaker by itself.
 
Though it is possible the converter is shorted, I say again, DOUBLE CHECK THE 120 volt side wires, I had a professional connect black and green together.. Did not work well till fixed.
 
Ok we replaced the breaker and a power cord that had a burnmark  Still trips. So. The new 9845 did not come with a new fuse panel. I see a lot of upgrade threads and new converters that come with a new fuse panel. Could we need a new fuse panel? What is the blue wire for? I?ve read some people talking about pumping the red and blue together?
 
You mentioned this is all new to you, as such and I mean no disrespect, but it sounds like you may have little electrical knowledge and would be better served going back to the RV repair place you bought the converter, or another qualified RV repair person to engage their services.  While you have been given some excellent information to help solve this, often times in situations like this it requires eyes and hands on and a multi-meter to solve.  Enlisting the services of a qualified tech will likely be less frustrating and stressful for yourself.  There have been many horror stories of folks without electrical knowledge damaging their rig or worse injuring themselves.  One way or another, I hope you get it sorted out.
 
Sorry, I have to agree with Gizmo. Your questions indicate you are in over your head and need some professional help.  A burned power cord is a clear sign of a major short at that point.  It shows that there is a short circuit and the cause should be recognizable to someone with sufficient electrical experience.

No, the fuse panel is not related to this problem. The 9845 is only the converter/charger component of the system, so does not  have fuse panels, AC circuit breakers or whatever. And does not depend on them.
 
Jpruitt said:
Ok we replaced the breaker and a power cord that had a burnmark  Still trips. So. The new 9845 did not come with a new fuse panel. I see a lot of upgrade threads and new converters that come with a new fuse panel. Could we need a new fuse panel? What is the blue wire for? I?ve read some people talking about pumping the red and blue together?

Yes the blue and red join together, On the Magnetek the unit was a dual device, One part was a very crappy power supply (Unflitered DC) and the other was the battery charger and "Filtered" (By the battery) SUpply for things like radios that need clean power

The blue wire was one, and red the other, they join together on modern supplies.

You do not need a new fuse panel

But it sounds like the converter is shorted. I have seen this happen on brand new hardware, in fact it has happened to me there are a few ways it can happen.  I would have a pro check the converter (Bench test) and if it trips HIS circuit breaker after he verifies wiring,, Get a Progressive Dynanmics 4600 to replace it, This replaces only the elctroncics in your Magnetek you still use the same fuse panel but you will have to strip the back out,
 
I appreciate the suggestions and advice. No I plug things in and that’s about the extent of my knowledge previous to this....but I’m also trying to rule out simple fixes before spending a crap ton of money on an overpriced mobile repair guy. I believe we have reached that point where it’s time to have someone come look at it at least. I’m afraid at this point it’s wiring behind walls and god only knows how to find it and fix without tearing sh*t up  I wish I’d have had basic understanding of converters when I bought it because then I’d have known something was wrong as soon he disconnected the battery with main power still plugged in yet the DC stuff stopped working... won’t make that mistake again. Anyways, no...I’m a hospice RN and a very tenacious woman so I’m stubborn and smart but not stupid so I give up. I’ve tried all of the things that seem would be where to first check but I’m starting to feel super worried over how bad this issue just may be.  Ty for all of your help
 
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