My lights do not work when I lose shore power is this normal?

[wudwork]

Under (or behind) your fuse/breakers, is the AC/DC converter. It sends DC power into fuse panel and also send DC power back to battery thru the red switch. Its the single (red ??) 8awg wire from fuse panel directly to red switch. The other side of red battery switch goes to the auto-reset-breaker under trailer. To find it, trace the wire from tongue jack; it connects to same post on that breaker as the battery wire. The other side of that breaker goes to battery. Put another way here is how my 2600rb was setup: Battery----AutoResetBreaker----Red key-----Fuse panel. Summary: There are only a few components in play here. 1) Wire from fuse panel to red key. 2) the red key 3) auto-reset-breaker 4) battery. If you are not comfortable with voltage measurements, tracing wires etc.. best to get dealer involved.

If you are comfortable, measure the voltage on the battery when its all hooked up. You might have a short. Next, I would disconnect the wire at battery from solar controller. What is the voltage, in sunlight, on that wire ? If those look good, perhaps your battery has failed. You might consider replacing the battery with an AGM type or possibly lithium or at least one with higher amp-hours. If dealer replaces battery, it will not be a "better" one, it will be one that just gets the job done.

[Mugsysiegel]

What position should the red key be in if you are always hooked to shore power but you’d like the lights to keep working if a power outage occurs? Or does it not auto come on?

[Redapple63]

Yes under my basement is a red plastic key I believe some kind of disconnect.

Yes, that if your battery disconnect switch. During long term storage, the switch should be on, meaning the battery is disconnected. In my opinion it should always be on unless it is getting serviced, upgraded or in storage.

To directly answer it should be off with the key installed. Only one position it can be in that let’s you remove the key, that is the disconnected position.

Hope that helps.

Bill

[NB Canada]

What position should the red key be in if you are always hooked to shore power but you’d like the lights to keep working if a power outage occurs? Or does it not auto come on?

I would never touch it. Always leave it engaged

[wudwork]

The red key is very simple in function, but the confusion is how to use it. If you want to disconnect the battery for everything EXCEPT the propane/smoke detectors you 1/4 turn it until its loose then remove it. That is the reason it comes on a tether. Its meant to remove. When its removed, you cannot charge battery with shore power. If you are storing trailer during cold season, its best to remove the key then move battery to your garage and put on trickle charger. When you are not in storage, and want to use trailer, put the key back in. The trick is to turn it till it hits a sweet spot. I do this by turning on a basement lite. I turn the key till that lite comes on; this confirms its in correct position. Oh, the entire function of that key is to connect 2 wires, nothing fancy.

[Jomani]

Jiggle the red switch. Mine will only work in 1 exact position. The symptoms you describe are consistent with red switch position.

@wudwork
If you are having to “jiggle” the key, you may have a defective switch.

This is not actually a rotary switch but rather a normally open push switch. The key does nothing more than act as the plunger that, when pushed in, overcomes the spring pressure and makes the contact between the two terminals. Rotating the key simply locks it in the “closed” position. Take a look at the picture below - when the key is inserted, the plunger pushes down and connects the two terminals. When the key is removed, a spring pushes the plunger back up. To test the switch, you can simply push the key in without rotating it.

If the contacts are dirty or burned, jiggling or rotating the plunger (key) may help to make a positive contact.

[JerryAndSandi]

Wiggling the red battery disconnect switch doesn't do anything different. It might be something behind that or something else. Either way, I plan to take it to the dealer, since the trailer is only a month old. The only question now is, "how long it will be sitting there?"

In my situation, I did a little bit more research, took wudworks' comments, and talked to the dealer. My sales person was very helpful (shout out to David Martin at Lazy Days RV in Portland, Oregon). It turned out to be the autoresetbreaker. It was cheaper and faster to order it from Amazon and get it the next morning. Yes, it probably would have been covered under warranty, but it cost less than driving the trailer to the dealer and I had it installed that next day. In my situation, the failure mode of the old one was to trip far too easily, or not allow much current through the connections.