Hi All!
First off, thank you for this forum. I am very new to the trailer world and I have learnt a lot by reading many of these posts. Here is my situation. Last fall I purchased a 2008 Pilgrim 310RBDS. My intention is to not travel with it and just park it on my lot. When I purchased and was viewing it, I'm 99% sure the guy didn't have any batteries hooked up (they are supposed to be on the tongue of the trailer, right?), and had it only hooked it up to shore power. He told me that "for some reason" when the trailer is first plugged in, it would take 10-15 minutes before the 12v lights etc would work. Over the time of getting the trailer ready to move, I witnessed this myself, but after 10-15 minutes 12v lights etc worked fine. Once I moved the trailer to my lot, and plugged into shore power, 110v worked fine but 12v lights were VERY dim, it had enough power to push out the slide outs (very slowly) but didn't have enough power to pull the slides back in. This was late fall and I needed to get the slide outs in, so I jumped a truck battery (with booster cables) to the battery cables on the tongue of the trailer and that lit up the lights fully and I was able to pull in the slide outs.
So now my questions (sorry for the long post):
1) I don't plan on using batteries since the trailer will be stationary on my lot. Is this OK?
2) From the research I've done, I feel it is my power converter that is failing and it's not converting enough power to 12v. Does this seem reasonable?
3) If #2 seems correct, does anyone know what make/model of power converter would be in my trailer so I can order a replacement? Or do I need to look at the power converter in my trailer to get the make/model? If I need to look at mine, does anyone know where I would find it in my make/model of trailer?
Thanks in advance!!
-Kevin
First off, thank you for this forum. I am very new to the trailer world and I have learnt a lot by reading many of these posts. Here is my situation. Last fall I purchased a 2008 Pilgrim 310RBDS. My intention is to not travel with it and just park it on my lot. When I purchased and was viewing it, I'm 99% sure the guy didn't have any batteries hooked up (they are supposed to be on the tongue of the trailer, right?), and had it only hooked it up to shore power. He told me that "for some reason" when the trailer is first plugged in, it would take 10-15 minutes before the 12v lights etc would work. Over the time of getting the trailer ready to move, I witnessed this myself, but after 10-15 minutes 12v lights etc worked fine. Once I moved the trailer to my lot, and plugged into shore power, 110v worked fine but 12v lights were VERY dim, it had enough power to push out the slide outs (very slowly) but didn't have enough power to pull the slides back in. This was late fall and I needed to get the slide outs in, so I jumped a truck battery (with booster cables) to the battery cables on the tongue of the trailer and that lit up the lights fully and I was able to pull in the slide outs.
So now my questions (sorry for the long post):
1) I don't plan on using batteries since the trailer will be stationary on my lot. Is this OK?
2) From the research I've done, I feel it is my power converter that is failing and it's not converting enough power to 12v. Does this seem reasonable?
3) If #2 seems correct, does anyone know what make/model of power converter would be in my trailer so I can order a replacement? Or do I need to look at the power converter in my trailer to get the make/model? If I need to look at mine, does anyone know where I would find it in my make/model of trailer?
Thanks in advance!!
-Kevin