12 volt failure

[Michael Urmie]

We are camping with our 261BH XPLOR with 30-amp plug supplying power. On our second day, the lights went out. We noticed items typically powered by the battery (interior lights, refrigerator, slide) were dead. Items powered only by shore power (television, microwave) were working fine.

We checked all fuses and circuit breakers. All were normal.

I noticed an intermittent clicking sound (like a relay engaging) inside the battery enclosure.

On a hunch, I plugged the 12-volt cord into out truck. All the lights, refrigerator, etc. came back on. When I unplugged from the truck, the lights and refrigerator continued to work. Everything has been normal since for all lights and appliances.

So for now all is well, but I am concerned about this failure, that it may happen again when we are further from home. What would cause this? By the way, the battery is showing at 100% now, but the control panel was dead during the failure. Any suggestions?

[Guest]

You may not be getting power from the pedestal or your converter is having issues. Make sure the breakers are on at the pedestal and check for voltage if you have a meter.

Jim

[Country Campers]

Make sure that the battery disconnect switch is on, red handle pushed in and turned to the right and handle can not be removed. The clicking in the battery box is interesting , I am not aware of any self resetting breakers mounted inside the battery box. If you would remove the lid and take a pic of the battery and cables, also make sure the cable connections are tight, the clicking may be a loose connection on the battery terminal and producing a arc. If you have a meter you can check the battery status while the cover is off.

Brian

[familytruckster4]

If your trailer was plugged into the 30a and the 110v items worked and not the 12v items that indicates a failure of the converter to supply 12v power.
My guess on the clicking would be a 12v thermal reset breaker cycling which would indicate a fault in the system.
If the battery is now charged and the 12v items work then it would appear that you reset the system in some way.
You could look for loose battery cable, frayed wires, corroded terminals etc

When operating properly the converter should meet the demands of the 12v items AND maintain a state of charge on the battery (which the system also uses as a buffer for high demand times such as moving slides etc)

[Jadamsgreeson]

We recently bought a 2022 Transcend Explor 265BH that is permanently parked at a campsite, we just got back from our second stay. This morning I awoke to the gosh awfulest smell and at first thought it was the black tank. But soon, the bathroom exhaust fan started pulsing and we could hear what sounded like a pilot light trying to light. Long story short, we jumped up and tracked down the sound to our battery box, where we discovered the smell and the clicking was coming from. The battery box was radiating heat. So we found our owners manual and found that we should shut off the battery at the battery disconnect. Since the battery was super hot and acid appeared to have bubbled out, we have not yet disconnected the actual battery yet. We also still didn’t have our camp tool box established with the tools to do it ourselves.

Is disconnecting at the battery disconnect switch enough until we can get a new battery bought and taken back to camp? At the time it seemed like it was all we needed to do to stay safe, but now I think we might should have gotten someone to disconnect the actual battery. Is it still technically attached to the converter? (Which is somewhere near the breaker box right?)
will it be fine until we can go back in a few days?
thanks!

[Jlawles2]

If you puled the disconnect key, and turned off the power there are a few residual things that will still draw power. But it should be safe until you return with the power to the converter removed.

I suggest you check the converter output to ensure that it is not staying in bulk charge mode (converter failures do happen not often).

In a pinch to pull the battery cables without tools, grab the wire and twist in the loosening direction, 9 times out of 10 it will be just enough to break the nut loose and allow you to pull the cable. only remove the negative cable as it is the safest since a loose dangling positive is a direct short to the converter.

[Country Campers]

That is a pretty scary situation. If the RV you purchased was already on the permanent site I would guess that the battery did not have any maintenance done to it. While on shore power the converter/charger is always keeping the battery at full charge which will eventually "cook" all of the acid , distilled water, from the battery and the battery will go dry and then those "bad things" happen, I think this is what happened to your battery.

Brian

[familytruckster4]

If you havent already you should remove the battery from the trailer and place it in an area with nothing combustible around it. Whatever caused the problem has likely destroyed the battery.