bad converter ?

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itour504

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2022
Posts
7
Location
alabama
2004 Holiday Rambler Admiral 30ft.
I have a less than year old converter , 2 new house batteries and new chassis battery . Yesterday we used the generator twice for a total of about 20 minutes max. 20 mins later I tried to turn on generator from inside and nothing happened . Husband tried to turn it on at the generator and got clicks. Batteries went down to 9 and 11 so we hit the disconnect. Today when the land power came back up we reconnected power to batteries to let them charge but generator will still not come on. Batteries ( still on land power ) now reading 12.8 and 13.2 . Any thoughts ? phantom power ? We have 3/4 tank of gas.
 
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Do you have a voltmeter that you can connect to the house battery? See if the voltage increases with shore power on the house battery. The odds are if it does, your converter is working okay.

Also check the battery voltage with no load and then check it when you try to start the genny under the load of trying to start.

The clicks are most likely the solenoid dropping out from low voltage. Be sure your connections are clean on the battery.

-Don- DeRidder, LA
 
20 mins later I tried to turn on generator from inside and nothing happened . Husband tried to turn it on at the generator and got clicks. Batteries went down to 9 and 11 so we hit the disconnect. Today when the land power came back up we reconnected power to batteries to let them charge but generator will still not come on. Batteries ( still on land power ) now reading 12.8 and 13.2 . Any thoughts ? phantom power ? We have 3/4 tank of gas.
It really sounds like a bad Secondary wire or bad ground at the generator.
 
13.2 indicates batteries (At least that battery) ARE charging.
12.8 .. not sure is that the Chassis battery?

20 minutes is not long enough to put much charge in ye old battery. if you are going to use the generator run minimum one hour. if you don't have shore power 4-6 hours at a run to bring the batteries back up.
 
One prime question is whether the generator starts from house battery or chassis. Nowadays it is usually the chassis battery, but previously the house battery was common.

If I remember correctly, a 2004 HR Admiral does NOT charge the chassis battery from shore or generator power. Both of those 120v sources power the converter/charger, but the converter is wired only to the house batteries. You gave voltages of 12.8 & 13.2 - were those for chassis and house batteries respectively?

As others have said, running the generator for 20 minutes achieves almost nothing as far as battery charging is concerned. It takes hours, not minutes.

A poor quality wire connection to the generator starting circuit could be the culprit here. Combined with a battery that is a little weak, the result is a no-start.
 
One prime question is whether the generator starts from house battery or chassis.
It is started from the coach batteries, as do all motorhome generators that I have ever seen. In another post they state that it is on an F53 chassis.
Yesterday we used the generator twice for a total of about 20 minutes max. 20 mins later I tried to turn on generator from inside and nothing happened .
That would mean that your generator was on for approximately 10 minutes each time. It takes 30 minutes to an hour of run time for the generator to replace the power needed to start it each time, longer if there are other 12V loads in addition to charging the batteries, and depending upon the maximum current output from your converter. If the coach batteries are low on electrolyte that would limit the amount of current that they can store so check the levels if you have not done so. To get an accurate voltage reading on the batteries you also need to lift the negative cable since you had shore power connected and the converter would have been applying voltage to the batteries. What you measured was the converter output voltage if it had shore power. Before you get too deep into this, let me suggest that you first read "The 12 Volt Side of Life" written by Mark Nemeth.
 

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