Loss of power.

[JeffA]

We went to go camping a few days ago and unhooked our trailer (2015 Grand Design Reflection 27RL) leveled it and put down the rear electric stabilizers. I checked the power at the post (shore power) with our surge protector and it was fine. I plugged the power into the trailer and my wife went into the trailer to put out the slides. No power. Not even the lights. I checked that everything was plugged in properly, still nothing, so I unplugged the power to try it on battery power. Still nothing. All I get is power to one light in the front storage compartment and our front electric jacks. I heard a clicking sound in the front compartment. Tracked it down to the 50amp breaker. I tried turning the battery disconnect switch from supplying 12 volt power and it stopped. I tried switching out the breaker with a new one I carry as a spare and tried turning the disconnect switch back it started clicking again and I lost power to the front jacks and one light in the front compartment.
We hooked back up and drove back home. The running lights work fine. Back home the next day I plugged back into shore power and removed the two wires from the converter that go to the fuse panel and checked the voltage. I got 13.7 volts. Reconnected the two wires and checked the voltage and I get .40 volts. Now I’m thinking I have a short somewhere. I pulled the wires from the rear stabilizer jacks and still nothing. The 50 amp breaker clicks on battery power and on shore power. I have disconnect from shore power and tried to just run on the batteries and still same problem. Even with the converter wires disconnected the breaker will still only click.
I have pulled fuses and replaced one by one. I even hooked up my truck battery with jumper cables to the trailer batteries and also tried hooking up the jumpers to just the cables. Nothing changed.

Thank you for any help.

Edit: Returned font size to default. See Rule 13

[Country Campers]

Remove the cables from the battery and get a voltage reading of the battery, let us know what that is.

Brian

[howson]

JeffA

I think the best clue in the write-up is that the 50A self-resetting breaker stopped clicking when the battery disconnect was turned to "Off". The "battery disconnect" is misnamed--what it actually does is disconnect the Power Distribution Panel (PDP) from the battery.

I doubt it's an output of the PDP to any of the trailer's circuits that's causing the issue or one of the individual fuses on the PDP would blow.

That leads me to suspect the wiring from the 50A breaker to where the wires connect to the 12v side of the PDP or from the converter to the PDP or possibly even the converter itself since this is also where the converter is wired to the PDP.

I'm guessing there's a WFCO 9800 series converter in your 27RL. Basic wiring from the manual below.



The 8930's PDP wiring below. (You'll have to double-check all my assumptions about the model converter and PDP. In theory if what you have is different they all work the same way.)

How I'd check.

1) Remove the negative from the battery.
2) Disconnect from shore power. (Assume there's no solar?)
- The trailer at this point should be "dead".

3) Now look for a short at the battery and converter connections on the PDP.



I definitely could be on the wrong track...just where I'd start.

Howard

[Jlawles2]

I feel you are correct that there is a short in the system.

Not easy to trace, but I would turn off the disconnect, remove the positive wire from the WFCO (all power disconnected from the unit), then check continuity between the positive and the negative at the WFCO panel. If you get continuity, then that an almost 100% confirmation there is a short between the WFCO and the disconnect. Most likely it's going to be in the hardest place to reach. Most likely where the wire goes from the disconnect down through the floor and around the members to get to the WFCO.

Sounds like you will be dropping the Coroplast to follow the wire. Pay particular attention to where it crosses any metallic object.

[JeffA]

Sorry I didn't get back here sooner. Work comes first. I had !3.4 volts at the batteries when disconnected. I appreciate all the help here. I have been trying to trace all the wires and remove all fuses that I could find then put them back one by one to see if I could track down the problem that way. I may have a chance tomorrow afternoon to dig deeper into the recommendations that you have given me so far.
Thanks.

[Yoda]

We went to go camping a few days ago and unhooked our trailer (2015 Grand Design Reflection 27RL) leveled it and put down the rear electric stabilizers. I checked the power at the post (shore power) with our surge protector and it was fine. I plugged the power into the trailer and my wife went into the trailer to put out the slides. No power. Not even the lights. I checked that everything was plugged in properly, still nothing, so I unplugged the power to try it on battery power. Still nothing. All I get is power to one light in the front storage compartment and our front electric jacks. I heard a clicking sound in the front compartment. Tracked it down to the 50amp breaker. I tried turning the battery disconnect switch from supplying 12 volt power and it stopped. I tried switching out the breaker with a new one I carry as a spare and tried turning the disconnect switch back it started clicking again and I lost power to the front jacks and one light in the front compartment.
We hooked back up and drove back home. The running lights work fine. Back home the next day I plugged back into shore power and removed the two wires from the converter that go to the fuse panel and checked the voltage. I got 13.7 volts. Reconnected the two wires and checked the voltage and I get .40 volts. Now I’m thinking I have a short somewhere. I pulled the wires from the rear stabilizer jacks and still nothing. The 50 amp breaker clicks on battery power and on shore power. I have disconnect from shore power and tried to just run on the batteries and still same problem. Even with the converter wires disconnected the breaker will still only click.
I have pulled fuses and replaced one by one. I even hooked up my truck battery with jumper cables to the trailer batteries and also tried hooking up the jumpers to just the cables. Nothing changed.

Thank you for any help.

Edit: Returned font size to default. See Rule 13

From looking at your picture the large red wire for the bottom of the 50A circuit breaker runs to the disconnect switch. From the disconnect switch it comes back as a black wire attached to the bottom of the second breaker. The second black wire from that beaker lower terminal runs to the distribution panel 12V positive sidle. The top wires form that second terminal probably run to the slide controller.and jacks. You can check this by looking at the color coding of the wires there and at the controller. They should match up.

I would start by looking at the back of the disconnect switch for any issues, To also check if the disconnect switch wiring is bad under the trailer you can move the black wire from the second breaker that goes to the distribution panel from the right breaker to the left beaker lower terminal and just disconnect the red wire temporary. If this solves the power issue inside you know the disconnect wiring is bad. However this leaves the circuits tied to the top of the right breaker dead, To power theses up and if you want the disconnect switch out of the system, just run a jumpier between the lower terminals of the two breakers (6 awg or better),

Now if the above does not solve the problem pull the coroplast in the front corner (probably street side) near where all the wires penetrates the floor and go under. But before doing that dig out the foam first as the first penetration hole can be rough. I found chafing of wires in this area. the loom that GD had used had slipped out of position. You do not need to drop everything.

The the experts here howson Country Campers Jlawles2 I hope I have this correct as what I see is a close match to how my unit was wired . I suspect the disconnect wiring to the second breaker is bad .

[Jlawles2]

Based on the fact that he swaps the self resetting breaker and the problem stayed, I am thinking a chaffed wire as you say you found. hence the check for continuity between the wire at the WFCO and the known dc negative (disconnect to avoid a false continuity from some other circuit.

[JeffA]

Thank you everyone. I found a chaffed wire. I am surprised it took this long for the wire to short out. Since this is a 2015. I ended up taking down the front half of
the coroplast and found a bunch of wires pinched between the frame and the floor. I had to put a bottle jack with a two by four under the floor to push it up enough to get the wires free. All rerouted now.
Again I would like to thank you all for the help. You are awesome.