Unable to figure out how to turn on or run power from Battery

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neptune1

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May 20, 2018
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Hi all,

My wife and I just bought a used 2000 18 ft Skyline Nomad Travel Trailer. We are unable to figure out how to get it to run the power off the battery. We have it parked now at our RV lot. It has a power jack on the front that is working fine but we are unable to get the lights, power to work
inside. I have been looking for a switch and found the panel inside with the fuses but no switch.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Starting at the battery start looking for fuses.  Very likely the main 30A fuse has blown
 
I found the fuse box, will look at those. Is there suppose to be a on/off switch for using the battery? or is it suppose to work
after you unplug automatically?
 
Follow the positive cable from the battery for a few feet. There may be a resettable circiut breaker. Also ensure the connections on the breaker are clean and electrically solid.
 
Also check the voltage on your battery. It may not be charged. If there is a circuit breaker, and it is tripped, the battery will not charge from the converter when you are plugged in.
 
Hi all,
-  I plugged in the trailer using its plug cord and all power works fine.
-  The battery is fully charged. I tried using it to operate the electric jack on the tounge.
-  I checked the breakers and they were not tripped, so I reset them anyway.
- I checked the fuses, and visually from what I can see, they don't look burned out on any of them
- I looked at the battery area and did not find any fuses in that area. The 30 amp ones, I couldn't see through the plastic
to see if they looked burned out though,but I would imagine I would see a dark spot?

Any other ideas? I'm running out of things to check.
 
Is this the first time you have used it? if so there is a main disconnect switch to kill the batteries to the trailer. Maybe this is the issue. Not sure. If you can follow the Positive cable it may run to a big switch that disconnects it. These are good in case of fires to disconnect. Some times they are a electrical switch that runs a solenoid to disconnect most the time it is a big round knob usually red. about 3" in diameter.
 
hi, yes we just got it yesterday. I have been looking for a disconnect switch but not seeing anything. I looked around the battery area on the front and didnt spot anything. You would think if there was a disconnect button that it would be pretty much in sight?
 
I would look at where the 7 pin connector and the battery lead come into the coach. there may be a circuit breaker where they meet/connect to the coach. The outher thing is you should have a converter that provides 12V power when plugged into shore power and charges the battery. I would try to find it and make shure it is on.
Good luck
Bill
 
Our disconnect "Key" is a big red key located in the storage compartment against the front wall. That switch must be turned on to run anything from the batteries. I would look for that key inside your storage compartment or even under your bed, if the bed is in the front of the TT. It will be in a protected area to keep "friends" from turning it off or even taking the key. I hope this helps.
 
I understand new to you.

You have checked power at the battery and found some.  ;D  From here, the wire should go to your power center / fuse box.  Check for power here, where the heavy gauge wire from the battery connects to the panel.  Because almost nothing works, I suspect no power.  You now know the issue is between here and the battery.  Literally take the camper apart or pull drawers or open doors to physically trace the wire.

A recent DUH post similar to this, the OP had no power.  He was laying under the front of the camper, looked up and saw an electrical box, coming directly from the battery, with a missing 30Amp fuse.  He sees it and said, "DUH"

I believe what you are looking for is that obvious - once you find it.

You know why you always find lost things in the last place you look?


Once you find it, you quit looking!
 
Hi, I just checked the front of the hitch/battery area underneath, could not find anything. I went inside again, checked all storage areas, closets, went to the front of the trailer where the bed/table are is, there is a door to get to the storage there, but found nothing except the  fresh water tank. Looked all over again still coming up with nothing.

I agree, it must be there somewhere. It would be nice if there had been an owners manual but must of been lost

Is there anywhere online that I might find a manual? its a Skyline-Nomad Roadrunner-hybred.  Its 18 ft, and one of those that the front and back can pop out like a tent trailer if you want to sleep 6.

We had a 1995 COleman tent trailer and the battery switch was simply located where the fuses are.

But I agree its must be really obvious somewhere and Im not finding it
 
Seller had it for only 3 years, him and his wife always plugged in, and never used if off the battery. And I checked, plugging it in works fine, just not working off the battery.
 
My Forest River travel trailer has an inline circuit breaker mounted to the frame rail just past where the trailer tongue is attached. It looks like the photo I attached. Most travel trailers have them. My older Coleman trailer had one too.

SOME have a button on it to reset it, SOME don't. The one's that don't have a reset are typically auto-reset once the overload is removed. The red wire (positive) runs from the battery to one terminal on the inline breaker and the other terminal on the breaker is a wire running to your power converter panel with the fuses and circuit breakers.
As others have advised, try tracing your battery connections and don't forget that a bad battery ground to the trailer frame could be the problem.
 

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Found this manual on line for a skyline camper.
http://www.skylinecorp.com/faqfiles/1YearTTFWOwnerMan-old.pdf
Open it up and scroll down to page 36.
It shows a 40 amp circuit breaker for the 12 volt system
 
Trailers often do NOT have a battery disconnect switch, so I'm not surprised he cannot find one.

Since everything works OK on shore power, it is clearly a problem between the battery and the converter/charger & 12v power panel. In other words, the battery is off-line. Trace the wires from the battery to the distribution panel to see what is in-between.  The 40A breaker that falconhunter referenced would be somewhere along the 12v + cable or at the end where is joins the 12v load center (fuse panel).

It might help if you identified the make & model of power panel or converter/charger used in your trailer.  That would give us a better idea about how it is wired and supposed to work.  The name is probably on the panel that has the breakers & fuses.
 
regval said:
My Forest River travel trailer has an inline circuit breaker mounted to the frame rail just past where the trailer tongue is attached. It looks like the photo I attached. Most travel trailers have them. My older Coleman trailer had one too.

There is a button on it to reset it. The red wire (positive) runs from the battery to one terminal on the inline breaker and the other terminal on the breaker is a wire running to your power converter panel with the fuses and circuit breakers.
As others have advised, try tracing your battery connections and don't forget that a bad battery ground to the trailer frame could be the problem.
Click to expand...

Not all circuit breakers of this type have a reset button.  The ones that don't are supposed to be self resetting but they're known to fail open, especially if they're mounted in an exposed location.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Not all circuit breakers of this type have a reset button.  The ones that don't are supposed to be self resetting but they're known to fail open, especially if they're mounted in an exposed location.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, just check with a meter for power on one side and check to see if there's power on the other post.
 
Hi all and thanks for all the help and suggestions. Getting a li hittle behind and overloaded though. Here are my questions.

- what does the distribution panel look like and am I needing to look for one?

- where is the 40a breaker, and what does that look like?
- what,where is the converter,charger and what do I look for?

Sorry, I'm on overload with the info
 
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