Is it my converter?

[vetmom]

You all have been so helpful in the past, now I'm hoping you can give me an idea for our daughter's travel trailer.  She has an older 2004 prowler that she lives in when she's doing seasonal work.  She's only had it a couple of years.  The first summer she lived in it at Yellowstone she had electric service but even while plugged in her battery would drain- lights would dim etc.  As she wasn't able to do any diagnostics she just put a regular battery charger on the battery and was able to live with that for the summer.  Last summer she alternated between living at home and in the trailer at a campground while raft guiding near by.  Same issues except also if she wasn't there for a week, and everything turned off the battery would be totally drained even though left plugged in.  So now this Spring trying to fix these issues, first found out her converter needed to have a charge wizard attachment in order to charge the battery so got that.  Also when installing the charge wizard realized the converter had never been plugged in so plugged that in.  Seemed like it was trying to charge the battery, charge on the battery slowly went up from like 12 to 12.4 but never looked like what you would expect to see when charging ie-boost-14.5 or maintainance 13.5.  Also one night left one small light on and the next day, even when trailer was plugged in, It was down to 11.9.  Then when I tried unplugging the trailer (when battery was charged) the lights wouldn't work.  Husband was convinced it must be the battery so got a new one.  Same issue never would charge well, lights wouldn't work.  I tried unplugging the converter and plugging it back in and lights worked.  Next day they didn't work if trailer unplugged and plugging or unplugging converter didn't do anything.  I put a regular battery charger on the battery so it's up to 13.5 on the battery so thought I'd see what it does now, unplugged the trailer- lights didn't work, unplugged the converter-lights worked, plugged the converter back in- lights stayed on, turned lights off and back on and they worked- all while trailer unplugged.  Sorry so long but what's going on!!!

 

[Isaac-1]

Sounds to me like the converter has probably gone bad.

 

[vetmom]

Thanks, wanted some conformation before I kept throwing more money at it.  Guess it's worth a try.

 

[grashley]

Here is the easy test.  Check the voltage at the battery with an inexpensive meter.  A fully charged batter without a charger attached should read around 12.6V.  If a functioning converter or charger is attached, it should read 13.3V or higher (if in bulk charge mode).

If the battery reads less than 13V then the converter is not getting power to the battery.  Check that the converter breakers not tripped, but otherwise, replace the converter.

I replaced mine a couple years ago with a GREAT unit from Progressive Dynamics in Marshall, MI.  I suggest using one of their preferred vendors as not all Amazon or E bay sellers are recognized by PD and as such carry no warranty from PD.  The prices are very similar.

While mine was out of service, I also used the car battery charger.

 

[vetmom]

Thanks Grashley!  That is pretty much what I was seeing.  Even when the converter was saying it was in boost mode, it didn't show at the battery.  Though the battery did very slowly charge over a few days.  Still hoping it wasn't the charge wizard I had just gotten for it.  I do have a new converter ordered from etrailer and it is Progressive Dynamics so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[John From Detroit]

The voltage at the battery will rise slowly not instantly as one might expect. Oh there will be about a 1 volt instant rise (or may be) but it can take several hours before it comes up to the same voltage as the inverter claims it's puttin out.

Take a 50 amp converter. I have nearly 600 amp hours of batteries so if they are half full that's 5 hours to come up to the absorption level and 2-4 more to top e'm off.    During that time the batteries (Under the steps front of RV) are going to be lower voltage than the converter driver's side rear about 50 electrical feet away on my rig...  The inverter which is like 4 very very heavy cable feet from the batteries has a much more even match to battery voltage when charging.