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- Why Won't My Travel Trailer Receive Electric From My Brand New Battery?
Why Won't My Travel Trailer Receive Electric From My Brand New Battery?
by Terry Gardner
(Peyton, CO)
I have a 2004 Four Winds travel trailer. Everything was working fine for the first two years I had it but all of the sudden nothing will run off the battery. Everything works fine when it's plugged into household current or when it's plugged into the tow vehicle. The battery is just two months old and I returned it to the place I bought it and they tested it and said it was fine.
The connections are clean. When I hooked up my 12V battery charger directly to the wires the battery connects to everything worked fine. This first happened last week and I replaced the two 30 amp fuses even though they tested fine. Nothing worked after I initially replaced them but low and behold I came out an hour later to look into things further and everything was working again!
Then a couple of days later it's not working again. I've retested all the fuses (they were all good) and replaced the two 30 amp fuses for good measure. No luck. I'm baffled. Please help.
TG in Colorado.
ANSWER: Greetings Terry thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.
Here are a couple of things that I would like you check first.
1. Look in your Travel Trailer and see if you have a switch marked "Battery Disconnect". If you do it may have been inadvertently turned off by someone. For
On a couple of occasions my son has shut that switch off thinking it was the entry light of the RV. That switch can also be going bad. Turn it on and off a couple of times to see if it operates properly.
2. The fact that the electric works when you hook up your battery charger could mean that you have a loose ground going to the house batteries of your trailer. The cable on the battery may be tight, but the part of the cable that actually connects to the ground point on your RV may be loose. Follow the ground cable from your house battery and make sure that all of the connections are tight.
3. You may have an intermittent problem with your converter/charger on the trailer. Read the answer I gave to the question below for more RV electrical system troubleshooting tips.
Our RV Interior Lights Only Work When We Are Plugged In Or Generator Is Running
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Happy RVing
RVing Al