Converter wiring question

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Dandee

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Apr 9, 2015
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I fried my converter/inverter in a 2003 Coleman pop up last summer.  I purchased the same Chinese brand.  There are only four wires but I still can't keep the silly thing running.  It runs 4 seconds.  You can hear a slight surge and it stops.  It sits for 8-10 seconds, beeps loudly and starts running again...... only to do the same cycle.  During the 4 seconds that it does run the lights in the camper do NOT come on.

Can anyone give me an idea as to how to wire this thing or what I've done incorrectly?  The four white wires are ground and have been hooked onto the grounding slot.  The main line coming in goes to the 20 amp breaker.  I've got two other black that appear to be the 120 hook up that the main line coming out of the 20 amp also hooks to for camping when elec. is avail.
HAAAAAAAAALP!!!    It just isn't worth the money to take this to a RV center but I don't want a "tent" either.  Can anyone tell me what I've done wrong or how to wire this?  Thanks all!
Dan
 
One pair of wires, probably one black and one white, has to go to the battery and you didn't mention that.

What brand and model of converter/charger do you have? You stated it is a converter/inverter, but that would be unusual in a pop-up. An inverter produces 120v power from a 12 battery and can used when no shore power is available. Are you sure it is an inverter as well as a converter & charger?

You may have some misconception about what the converter/charger does. It has no 120v output wires at all.  It receives power from the 120v shore system when the camper is plugged in and makes 12v DC power for use in the RV as well as recharging the battery(s) as needed.

 
Gary,

Thank you for your reply.  Its a 2003 Coleman Fleetwood camper.  You are correct. Its a converter. I have the main incoming heavy wire, two existing trailer side blacks and one black from the circuit breaker in the camper.  I'm not at all sure what the two separate black wires are.  One to the batteries and one to the 120 for when I'm plugged in?  I have the four white wires hooked into the ground panel.  There are two - a smaller and a heavy - green wire that hook into a separate grounding panel.

Could I just unhook the converter, take it out of the camper, wire a plug to it and plug it in, just to see if it runs or is faulty?

I have unhooked the pigtail out the back of the converter so there is no load on it at all.  It still won't stay running.

You can reach me via e-mail at [email protected] or call me at 970-590-3530 if you would rather communicate that way.  Thanks again!!
Dan
 
This is 25% guess

your Converter is overloading due to a very very dead (likely shorted in fact) battery.

Logic:
The converter comes on for about 4 seconds...The amount of time it takes many Thermal Breakers to trip

NO lights work,,Indicating no power from the battery  and alarms sound. (BEEP)

Then after a cool down (The time it takes a self resetting breaker to self-reset) the cycle starts over.

Check and if possible from anothr source (DUMB auto chargr) Re-charge house battery.
 
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You still didn't give the converter/charger brand and model and I have no idea what a 2003 Coleman came with, so I can't help much. Looking around a bit ion the internet, it appears that some Colemans had Magnetek brand chargers.

You should have a black & white pair of wires bringing 120v to the converter/charger, usually via a acircuit breaker but coming from shore power. Then another pair of wires going to the battery and providing +13v or so to charge it. Sometimes another pair of wires to a 12v power distribution panel too.  It is very unlikely that there are 4 white wires that all need to go to chassis ground, but without more speciic info on the converter/charger I'm stumped.


 
Gary,

So sorry.  I'm slow................... but I work cheep!!!!
Its from China  called a  WFCOP Model WF 8712.  I have taken the advice of the other comment and put both the batteries on chargers through tomorrow (Sunday) just to rule that out.  they were down so maybe that's some of the issue.
]
I think I mentioned above that even with no load, it still shuts down in 4 seconds.

Thanks Gary for any help.

Dan
 
The WFCO 8712 installation manual is available on their web site, if you did not get one with the unit you purchased. It's not very specific, though, just an image of the panel with wires labeled, and I can see why you are in doubt.

http://www.wfcoelectronics.com/Images/Products/OtherDocs/5-3.pdf

The basics, though, are fairly simple. You should have three wires coming into the 8712 from the shore power circuit, a black (120v hot), white (120v neutral) and green (source power ground). There should be two 12v output wires that go to the battery, a 12v plus and 12v negative. Colors can those are not standardized, so could be white, black or red.  There may also be a separate chassis ground wire that goes from a lug on the converter casing direct to the RV chassis, as an additional safety measure.

Could you perhaps post a picture of what wires you have to connect up to?
 
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