Not getting electric current to unit

[tondij]

We are in a Grand Design 320 MKS, first trip. No power to unit. Checked breakers inside. Don’t know where anything else is. Hooked to pickup, with it running, now power still. Battery is dead. Trying to charge.

[tondij]

It is a 2021

[tondij]

2021 Reflection 320 MKS

[Jkwilson]

What are you plugged in to? Campground pedestal? Check the breakers there, then check the connection where the shore power cord plugs into the trailer.

[tondij]

We are not plugged into anything but the pickup. Not in a campground.

[howson]

We are not plugged into anything but the pickup. Not in a campground.

How do you know the battery is "dead"? If no lights inside the camper, check to see if the battery disconnect switch inadvertently got set to "off".

If the battery is truly dead, the charge rate from your tow vehicle may be too low to effectively charge the battery. If you're in a safe situation, the best (quickest) way to charge the battery to remove it and connect to an automotive-style battery charger.

[howson]

tondij

The battery disconnect is in the passthru. From YouTube:

[howson]

tondij -- also, when this crisis is over please check out the Welcome Letter to New Members https://gdrvowners.com/forum/main-fo...to-new-members

There's a lot of information on this forum and the letter will hopefully help you find it!

Howard

[vogey75]

Battery disconnect switch turned on? Red key switch in pass thru by light and jack wrench maybe.

[openrangeowners]

Check the emergency brake cable switch attached to your pinbox to make sure the cable has not been inadvertently pulled out. If so, it will kill your battery very fast and any attempt to recharge it will be in vain. Had another person who noticed their camper would not take a charge - they found out their brake switch had been pulled out.

This is the cable that you attach to your truck when hitching up - not the power cable but the thin wire that is meant to activate the brakes if the camper becomes unhitched while in motion.

[tondij]

Checking emergency brake cable now. Husband says it is ok. Have battery on automotive charger. Key switch was on. Key switch off now, will put battery back on when charged, start pickup, turn key switch back on and see if we have power. We checked the battery that’s how we know it was completely dead.
Mid you stop at night and are now plugged in, what is the best way to stay charged up if it is cold?

[tondij]

Charging battery worked. How does one avoid this situation if you have no place to plug in?

[openrangeowners]

If you have a modern Ford Truck, you will not be sending charge from the truck until the vehicle is put in gear (or maybe some other thing happens like taillights turned on, door closed ....) -

Do you have a residential Fridge? If so the inverter uses battery. If you are running your fridge (RV not residential), it still draws some power to run the controls. There is always some DC draw. Were you camping in it or just towing it?

My 2021 5th wheel draws about 0.9 amp of power per hour. With NOTHING running except a Raspberry Pi monitoring a solar system. If you camped in the camper, you probably turned on lights (there are a lot of LED lights in your camper and they consume power). Maybe used your furnace (that draws a lot of power). Possibly turned on the hot water heater (on gas) - takes DC power, ran water pump for a shower (draws power).

If you have a non-residential fridge and have the dealer-installed group 24 battery, you have maybe 40-50 amp hours available for use. That translates into a couple of days with nothing running before going dead. Truck can maybe charge up to 10 amps, but as the battery gets closer to charged, the 10 amps are not efficiently replacing the ones you used (ie: not a 1-1 ratio of amps out to amps in) on a lead acid battery. The means it may take a full day of driving to add back the 40-50 amps used.

If you have a residential fridge, then you have 2 batteries and an inverter. That setup is only good for 6-8 hours without charging it, so if sleeping in your trailer, you would wake up to a dead battery due to the refrigerator/inverter running. Lets say your fridge uses 10 amps an hour (DC) - 120watts running is pretty efficient. with 2 batteries you have 80-100 amps available. With the fridge/inverter and other items, you would need much larger battery capacity to make it through a night.

[Jkwilson]

Charging battery worked. How does one avoid this situation if you have no place to plug in?

You are going to need a generator or solar panel system to recharge the battery if you can’t plug in.

[ncitro]

You are going to need a generator or solar panel system to recharge the battery if you can’t plug in.

Or enough batteries to get you to your next campground. If your rig only has one battery it won't make it through one night if you're running the furnace.