No power for lights, slide outs when plugged in

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Mgelmi

New member
Joined
Dec 5, 2021
Posts
3
Location
Holland, Mi
I am looking for thoughts on an issue with my class C RV. Picked it up out of storage and the motor battery was dead (new this past may). Used jumper cables to start it and the interior lights were very dim, and not enough battery for the site to come out. I plugged it in at home and the next morning the light was still dim with little juice for the step. Next day lights were a little better. So I pulled the house battery and checked the charge and it had 11volts.. cleaned all the connections as they looked pretty corroded. After cleaning hooked back up and things looked good inside and normal with lights etc. and then check the generator and that started up, where before it wouldn’t (assumed not enough battery power to try starting). Everything seem to be working I checked the furnace and started that up. All working well. After a bit things went back to before with dim lights etc. and I checked the house battery and it only was showing 5 volts. Is this a converter issue? This all has been while being plugged into 110… it seems the house battery isn’t getting charged while being plugged in. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks so much.
 
It could be that the converter has died. It could be that there is no 120 vac getting to the converter. It could be that the water in the batteries is so low that they died.

Do you have a multi-meter? If not, this meter will do most of what you will ever need.

Joel
 
Thanks Joel. I do have a meter. Thanks for the thoughts. I think what perplexes me is the house battery when tested before was at 11 volts and then went down to 5. So I have it on my battery charger now. I am assuming the converter isn’t charging the battery would that be safe to say?
 
I would have the battery load tested first. Most parts stores will test for you. If the battery test good, then with it connected back up and unit plugged into shore power test to see what kind of voltage you have coming out of the converter to the battery. You should see a greater voltage at the battery when on shore power than you do when no shore power. If voltage does not change you need to look for reasons the converter is not charging.
 
Check the AC voltage going into the converter, and the DC voltage on the output side.
You can check the converter output voltage at the battery by lifting the negative cable from the battery, then measure from that lifted cable to the positive post of the battery. The resulting reading will be the output from the converter. While you have the negative cable lifted, measure across the battery too as that will tell you for sure what the battery voltage is.
I would have the battery load tested first.
This is what I would do next.
 

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