Battery not charging.

[Redlife69]

Just safely completed a 2700 mile trip from Texas to New Brunswick, Canada in our 311BHS. About a day in noticed my battery wasn’t charging on 50A - we’d wake up with low juice in the battery - but it’s getting good charge from my truck alternator. Fortunately I had my battery charger so I could deal with it for the trip. Doing some diagnosis with a multimeter the voltage across the cables in the front compartment that should be charging the battery only showed ~9v when on a 50A post, and less when on 30A, so I figured I had a converter problem. But, I checked the converter and it’s giving me just over 12v going to the power center. So, I think I can see why my battery isn’t charging - its seeing less than 12v - but do I really have a converter problem or is it something at the power center?? I’m not particularly electrically competent and will be calling GD soon, but any ideas on my problem or further diagnosis?? What should be the right converter output voltage, >12v?


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[RobM]

Is the battery shut off switch in the 'ON' position?
RobM

[Redlife69]

Is the battery shut off switch in the 'ON' position?
RobM

Yep, I have power to the trailer when disconnected from shore power. The disconnect switch is open.


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[Country Campers]

How did you determine you woke up with low battery power?

Brian

[Redlife69]

How did you determine you woke up with low battery power?

Brian

The inside power indicator was down to 2 lights and when I went to auto retract rear jacks the program quit after less than 30secs, no power. We also had flickering inside lights.


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[Country Campers]

The inside power indicator was down to 2 lights and when I went to auto retract rear jacks the program quit after less than 30secs, no power. We also had flickering inside lights.


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With this info I would trouble shoot the converter. Check all connections , power into the converter and out. There are 2 fuses on the converter itself. When on shore power the converter should power everything in the camper, if the load is to high then it will draw from the battery. Also if the load is high for an extended time the converter will not have enough to charge the battery.

So it may be a converter issue or a deeply discharged battery. Again check all connections including grounds.

Brian

[Redlife69]

With this info I would trouble shoot the converter. Check all connections , power into the converter and out. There are 2 fuses on the converter itself. When on shore power the converter should power everything in the camper, if the load is to high then it will draw from the battery. Also if the load is high for an extended time the converter will not have enough to charge the battery.

So it may be a converter issue or a deeply discharged battery. Again check all connections including grounds.

Brian

Thanks Brian. The fuses are good, I checked already. The ~12v output from the converter... is that working correctly? I’ve heard it should be 13-14v.


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[Country Campers]

Yes it should output 13.2 v float, 13.6 absorption mode. and 14.4 bulk charging. So when in use you should see 3 modes, might be hard to tell in between. If your battery is low you should see the 14.4 v or close to that.
https://wfcoelectronics.com/product/wf-9855-55-amp/

This is the link to WFCO.

Brian

[Redlife69]

Yes it should output 13.2 v float, 13.6 absorption mode. and 14.4 bulk charging. So when in use you should see 3 modes, might be hard to tell in between. If your battery is low you should see the 14.4 v or close to that.
https://wfcoelectronics.com/product/wf-9855-55-amp/

This is the link to WFCO.

Brian

Perfect. Looks like mine is out of range. In reading the operating manual it says the 9855 should be protected by two 35A fuses. Mine has two 30A fuses... So, before I buy a replacement converter, would replacing with the correct spec fuses help??


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[Country Campers]

No to replacing the fuses. The fuses protect against drawing to many amps. If the 30a fuses did not blow then it has not drawn over 30 amps. Some of the "electric gurus" here will chime in with some more help on trouble shooting this before you replace it, you might want to wait for there input.
If you do replace I would recommend a Progressive Dynamics , they have a 9260 model I think is what was recommended here that I have got for replacing mine this winter or if it goes bad before then.

Brian