RV House Battery Problems On Newly Installed Deep Cycle Battery

Question: Just installed new deep cycle house battery and had converter checked. sometimes after unplugging land line to move, the battery indicator panel that just read full charge before plugging in (and plugged in) reads no lights or dead and I have no power for slide outs, water pump or anything until I use the dash jumper button. Then the panel reads full charge and everything powers up. Try it all over again and works fine as it should. I usually run slide outs in before unplugging but want to test occasionally if I dry camp. Thanks, Fred

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Robbie: Hi Fred,

It looks like you could have a few different issues here. For you to be losing 12V inside with no warning, you're having a connection issue from the house batteries.

Your monitor will always read full when you're plugged into shore power. This reading is the charge from the converter. In order to get a reading from the batteries your unit would have to be disconnected from 110V shore power.

If you get power to the inside by pushing the boost switch on your dash, it's because you are connecting to the starting battery. This has not correcting your problem.

Check and see if the terminals are clean and tight at the house batteries. Corrosion under the cables can cause the problems you're having so be sure to remove the connections at the battery and look.

Check for an inline fuse at or near the house batteries. It will be a larger 30 to 50 amp fuse. Be sure the connections are clean and tight.

Locate the battery disconnect, if you have one. Any loose or bad connection will cause the disconnect to drop off battery supply voltage disconnecting the batteries which would not allow the converter to charge or voltage to get through when you disconnect shore power.

If there is no power inside you can use a test light starting at the batteries and following the positive lead to the converter. Somewhere along this wire you will find where your 12 Volt stops.

Last thing is your converter. Older units have a transfer relay inside and it switches to battery power when you disconnect 110V. If you have this relay it will make a loud click when you plug in to and unplug from 110V. I strongly suggest you have a tech check this because it requires you know what your doing. You can really hurt yourself or do damage to the converter touching the wrong wires.

Good Luck,
Robbie