Battery vs shore power

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      :))  As Lou said, many or most problem around a MH are usually something simple to fix, but a real PITA to diagnose.  The good thing is that a lot of us can walk you through what to look for as we have spent hours looking for similar problems.
      I hope you are using these things as teachable moments with the kids. male and female.  As I have to keep telling the kids and kids-in-law when they ask how do you know how to fix that, I tall them it is because I grew up poor and if I couldn't fix things, I couldn't replace them.
      Even my son who has an Engineering degree amongst his 3 degrees continues to come to me to ask how something is fixed or why something isn't working.  All that to say, let the kids follow you through the set up process, and help with any diagnosis to fix things.  You will be surprised at how intuitive they can be in finding a solution.

Ed
 
There could be an inline fuse between your batteries and the inverter. I have one in my TT. The 40amp fuse was blown AND the inline fuse. The inline fuse will be on the chassis somewhere, underneath your unit.
 
Oldgator73 said:
There could be an inline fuse between your batteries and the inverter. I have one in my TT. The 40amp fuse was blown AND the inline fuse. The inline fuse will be on the chassis somewhere, underneath your unit.
Click to expand...

When did we decide she had a INverter?  We don't want to confuse her. I believe she has a CONverter. Right?
 
The kids will know as much, if not more, than me by the end lol, being a homeschool family, I turn everything into a teachable moment. Sometimes the youngest will say, can't we do anything without learning something?!

There is a 50amp fuse out there near the battery but I couldn't get it out to check it. It must be good because (shhhhhhh) everything works great now.

You can call it an inverter, a converter, a proverter, a nonverter, a semiverter, an unverter, etc, it's all Greek to me!
 
You can call it an inverter, a converter, a proverter, a nonverter, a semiverter, an unverter, etc, it's all Greek to me!
Click to expand...
A simple explanation: A CONverter converts AC power into DC to charge the batteries and provide 12V DC when plugged in or on the generator.
                                  An INverter inverts that function to turn battery power into AC to power a fridge, microwave, etc. when not plugged in.

While I'm not certain, I think the CONverter came first, then some time later they discovered they could INVERT that function with different circuitry. Of course now that I've said that, there'll be 14 more stories of the naming of the devices.  :eek: ;D
 
RVMommaTo6 said:
There is a 50amp fuse out there near the battery but I couldn't get it out to check it. It must be good because (shhhhhhh) everything works great now.
Click to expand...

You can check a fuse without removing it if you have to - it just becomes a two step process.

Take your new multimeter, switch it to DC volts and measure across the fuse, from one terminal to another.  If you don't see 0 volts, the fuse is blown.

You may see 0 volts with a blown fuse if there's no power connected to it.  If you saw 0 volts across the fuse, switch the multimeter to Resistance (ohms) and check the fuse again.  If you read close to 0 Ohms the fuse is good.  If the meter stays at infinite resistance (OL) the fuse is blown.
 
Lou, this assumes the fuse has test points that you can check while it is insterted, not all have them.
 
RVMommaTo6 said:
The kids will know as much, if not more, than me by the end lol, being a homeschool family, I turn everything into a teachable moment. Sometimes the youngest will say, can't we do anything without learning something?!

There is a 50amp fuse out there near the battery but I couldn't get it out to check it. It must be good because (shhhhhhh) everything works great now.

You can call it an inverter, a converter, a proverter, a nonverter, a semiverter, an unverter, etc, it's all Greek to me!
Click to expand...

When I hooked my battery up backwards it blew all three fuses. Took me a long time to find the inline fuse on the chassis. Anyway, I?m happy it was just the fuse. But it certainly was a good teachable experience.
 
Not to plant a seed of doubt but fuses don't arbitrarily blow.  To pop a 40A fuse takes a lot more than 40A for a few seconds so some kind of fault happened.  If everything works now then great, but whatever caused the fuse to blow might happen again.  Keep spares on hand and if it does happen, hopefully you'll be able to associate it with a particular device like a pump or appliance, or when operating the RV a particular way.  This kind of stuff can be vexing and frustrating but this stuff isn't built to automotive standards, and we pay the price in debugging assemblies that work just well enough to make it off the dealer lot.  Over time these marginal design standards come to bear in the form of intermittent, corroded, fatigued and failed operation.  Nothing like getting thrown into the pool to learn how circuits work!

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Larry N. said:
Sorry, Amanda -- try this:
COnverter charges the batteries.
INverter takes from batteries to run microwave, fridge, etc.
Click to expand...
Now THAT I get! Lol, dumbing it down to Amanda-level
 
Mark, I believe it was the previous owners who blew it the first time so hopefully their habits were different than mine and I'll never have to find out. I do have extras just in case.
 
I think it was the previous owners who blew the fuses. When you brought the RV home from Florida you were complaining about a battery problem. I told you to get it checked out at that time.
 
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