I just wanted to share my experience with diagnosing and replacing a bad converter, hoping it will help someone in the future. This is on my 2021 Grand Design Imagine 2800BH, with a WFCO 9855 converter.
Short story - we had a bad converter, and I replaced it at my cost. Grand Design is sending me a new converter to replace the bad converter that I pulled, so now I'll have an extra on hand in case it happens again.
We had no issues with electrical for our first three camping trips, but on the fourth, the converter went out on the second night. We woke up to beeping from our thermostat with the code (I think) "lb" for low battery. None of the lights would come on, and the fridge was dark. The control panel showed 1 red light for battery (almost dead). I started up the truck and plugged in the 7-pin, which started charging the battery and providing 12 volt power for the trailer. We had a lot of food in the fridge so I wanted to get that running again for a while. Then I started investigating. First I double checked to make sure the battery disconnect wasn't unplugged. It was not. I also checked the breaker for the converter, to make sure it had not tripped. Then I shut down the refrigerator, disconnected shore power, and pulled the battery disconnect so I could safely move the breaker box. Once the breaker box was out of the way, I could see the converter mounted to the deck behind it and behind a rat's nest of wiring. In case you don't know how it works, the converter gets 120 volt power into it by being plugged into the back of the breaker panel. It converts the voltage to 12 volts, and sends that back via black and red wires to the 12 volt fuse panel which is to the right of all the breakers. From there it can run all the 12 volt in the trailer, as well as charge the battery. So I plugged in shore power, and then used my multimeter to check that the outlet that powers the converter was hot. It was, with a reading of 120V. Then I disconnected the red and black wires from the output terminals on the converter. I attached my multimeter to the output terminals, and I got a reading of 0.01 volts. So it was still plugged in and getting 120 volts in, but putting out only 0.01 volts of DC. I turned shore power back off, and then pulled the 2 fuses that are on the converter. They both had continuity. Following the troubleshooting flow chart in the owner's manual for the WF-9855 converter, I have a defective converter. So I pulled it out (that took forever) and went to a nearby dealer. I was able to buy the identical converter from the dealer for $300. Amazon had it for $156 but I couldn't wait 2-3 days for my trailer to have 12 volts again since we're 2 days into a 5 day vacation. Installing the new unit was difficult, but everything has worked okay since.
Now that I'm back home, I have a good converter installed in the trailer, and a defective converter sitting on my workbench. I called WFCO, and they said I can send in the bad converter (I have to pay the shipping), and once they receive it, they'll send a replacement within a week or two. But he suggested that I try calling Grand Design tech support first. I did, and they are shipping me a new converter immediately, including a return label, and I am to use the same box to return the bad converter. So hopefully I will soon have an extra converter with me in case this happens again.
One more thing - I did call my dealer about this while I was on vacation. Two things of note:
1. They said they've been seeing this a lot, and have had to replace a lot of bad converters recently
2. They offered to have me bring in the trailer to have it swapped out at no charge. They're pretty far away, and I don't need the new one installed, so I'm having GD send one instead.
I hope all of this was clear, but feel free to ask questions. And if you have suggestions for what could have been done differently, especially anything that may help others in the future, please post them.
Cheers!
Short story - we had a bad converter, and I replaced it at my cost. Grand Design is sending me a new converter to replace the bad converter that I pulled, so now I'll have an extra on hand in case it happens again.
We had no issues with electrical for our first three camping trips, but on the fourth, the converter went out on the second night. We woke up to beeping from our thermostat with the code (I think) "lb" for low battery. None of the lights would come on, and the fridge was dark. The control panel showed 1 red light for battery (almost dead). I started up the truck and plugged in the 7-pin, which started charging the battery and providing 12 volt power for the trailer. We had a lot of food in the fridge so I wanted to get that running again for a while. Then I started investigating. First I double checked to make sure the battery disconnect wasn't unplugged. It was not. I also checked the breaker for the converter, to make sure it had not tripped. Then I shut down the refrigerator, disconnected shore power, and pulled the battery disconnect so I could safely move the breaker box. Once the breaker box was out of the way, I could see the converter mounted to the deck behind it and behind a rat's nest of wiring. In case you don't know how it works, the converter gets 120 volt power into it by being plugged into the back of the breaker panel. It converts the voltage to 12 volts, and sends that back via black and red wires to the 12 volt fuse panel which is to the right of all the breakers. From there it can run all the 12 volt in the trailer, as well as charge the battery. So I plugged in shore power, and then used my multimeter to check that the outlet that powers the converter was hot. It was, with a reading of 120V. Then I disconnected the red and black wires from the output terminals on the converter. I attached my multimeter to the output terminals, and I got a reading of 0.01 volts. So it was still plugged in and getting 120 volts in, but putting out only 0.01 volts of DC. I turned shore power back off, and then pulled the 2 fuses that are on the converter. They both had continuity. Following the troubleshooting flow chart in the owner's manual for the WF-9855 converter, I have a defective converter. So I pulled it out (that took forever) and went to a nearby dealer. I was able to buy the identical converter from the dealer for $300. Amazon had it for $156 but I couldn't wait 2-3 days for my trailer to have 12 volts again since we're 2 days into a 5 day vacation. Installing the new unit was difficult, but everything has worked okay since.
Now that I'm back home, I have a good converter installed in the trailer, and a defective converter sitting on my workbench. I called WFCO, and they said I can send in the bad converter (I have to pay the shipping), and once they receive it, they'll send a replacement within a week or two. But he suggested that I try calling Grand Design tech support first. I did, and they are shipping me a new converter immediately, including a return label, and I am to use the same box to return the bad converter. So hopefully I will soon have an extra converter with me in case this happens again.
One more thing - I did call my dealer about this while I was on vacation. Two things of note:
1. They said they've been seeing this a lot, and have had to replace a lot of bad converters recently
2. They offered to have me bring in the trailer to have it swapped out at no charge. They're pretty far away, and I don't need the new one installed, so I'm having GD send one instead.
I hope all of this was clear, but feel free to ask questions. And if you have suggestions for what could have been done differently, especially anything that may help others in the future, please post them.
Cheers!
