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Why Is The Converter On Our RV Not Charging The House Batteries?

by Chastidy Whitley
(Norwood, NC USA)

We recently purchased a 99 Terry Ex 5th Wheel Camper with 2 slides this is our first camper and we are new at this. As long as we have the camper hooked up to the truck all the power is fine but when we unhook the truck and plug it into the 110v it will not keep our battery charged.

Our lights get dim and eventually go out and it will not allow our heat system to operate properly. We have searched high and low for the converter box and can not locate it in this camper it is not with the fuse box or in the cabinets or at the front near the empty compartments. So therefore we have no idea what kind of converter to purchase or where to even look.

ANSWER: Greetings Chastidy thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

Considering the year and type of RV you have it should be equipped with a Converter that has a House Battery Charging system.

The Converter is normally located in one of the outside storage compartments of your RV. The main circuit breakers and 12 volt fuse panels are normally located in the same compartment.

At any rate it sounds like the charger on the converter is not charging the batteries. The problem could be something as simple as a tripped circuit breaker or blown fuse. The worse case scenario is that the charger itself may have gone bad and needs to be replaced.

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It sounds like you have done as much as you can. It may be time to take your 5th Wheel in and have a Certified RV Technician take a look at it.

I hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Do you have any suggestions or comments on this topic? You can add them to this page by clicking on the "Click Here To Post Comments" link located near the bottom of this page.

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Happy RVing

RVing Al

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Comments for Why Is The Converter On Our RV Not Charging The House Batteries?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Charging batteries
by: Anonymous

First off do you know the condition of your batteries? Unless you are using sealed batteries you need to check the water level in them monthly. With a converter continually charging it "boils" off water from the batteries.

When the water gets low there is no medium for the electrolyte and the batteries will not charge or discharge. Your problem could be something as simple as this. Always used distilled or purified water in your batteries to prevent damage and internal shorting.

Note From RVing Al I am going to step in here and disagree with replenishing the electrolytes with purified water. Purified water is water that has been run through a filtering system. The filtering system does not remove all the minerals that can damage the plates on the inside of a battery.

The distilling process does remove all of the harmful minerals and other floating particles in the water that could react with the acid and cause corrosion on the battery plates. So Distilled Water Only.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Look for the kill switch
by: Anonymous

We discovered inside our camper is a cut off switch to disconnect the battery from the converter for winter storage I guess. We spent $100 for a service technician to reach in our storage compartment and flick a switch. Annoying but lesson learn. Kay

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