DC Voltage 17V

[DougH57]

We just bought our first travel trailer (used), a 2002 Conquest 19?. We plugged into 120v power (at my house) without a battery and burned out some light bulbs. So we bought a deep cycle battery and replaced the bulbs with 12v/12.4 w light bulbs and so far work great. However using a multimeter the light plugs seem to be getting 16 ish volts. That seems too high. Any pointers?

 

[John From Detroit]

There are two types of voltmeters but on DC there is one... Peak reading.

12 volts AC.RMS has a peak voltage of just about 17 volts.  Now if the converter is properly designed there is a device called a FILTER in there that smooths it out so you see around 14.6 volts or 13.6 volts depending on battery state of charge (13.6 is full up 14.6 is boosting).

but if the converter (Make and model please) has no filters voltage can do strange things.

 

[ChasA]

Make sure your meter is set to DC Volts.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Double check that you are using the DC voltage function on your meter and have selected an appropriate voltage range if it has more than one. If it's really 16-17v, my guess is the converter/charger has failed.  You should not be seeing more than 14.5v, and I would expect more like 13.3-13.6 with a new battery in place.

 

[jubileee]

When our converter/charger failed, I smelled the house batteries boiling over as first indication. Meter showed 16-18 volts. DW had commented that lights seemed brighter.