Battery power question

[Snake Plissken]

We recently bought a 2007 Jayco Feather 19H. When I plug power in everything works inside the camper. When I unplug the cord nothing works.

The battery reads good. Is there something I need to do to switch to battery power? There's a switch to turn on the power with a cord when I first enter the camper (along with a switch that powers the outside light and the meters for the tanks). I assume when it's off and the electric cord doesn't work that it's running off battery power but no lights work.

Any ideas? The manual is worthless.

[jbwjbw]

Have you checked all your breakers/fuses? Including the one that's likely located near or in the battery compartment? I have a main 30A fuse between the battery and the line running into the camper.

[Snake Plissken]

Originally Posted by jbwjbw

Have you checked all your breakers/fuses? Including the one that's likely located near or in the battery compartment? I have a main 30A fuse between the battery and the line running into the camper.

I pulled it out and it looked OK

[Terry]

Also check for corrosion on all the battery connections and the exterior fuse. I recently had a problem where everything looked good, fuse was good - but the fuse blades were actually bad enough it was killing the power. Upon further inspection after removing the fuse, it had actually melted a little from the heat caused by the extra resistance. I have since replaced all the wires and fuse holder with marine grade waterproof stuff....

[Terry]

Originally Posted by Snake Plissken

I pulled it out and it looked OK

There are usually three fuses to check - the one by the battery - and the two reverse polarity fuses in the load center. If it were me, I would remove them completely and check them.

Also - do you have a multimeter? You can just start to work your way backwards - checking the battery, then the battery + and the frame to see if your ground is making it. Then check on the other side of the fuse hold, etc, etc. It is possible you have a cut or chewed through main battery wire going back to the load center.

[Snake Plissken]

Originally Posted by tafische

the two reverse polarity fuses in the load center. .

Where are these 2 fuses?

[Crabman]

Originally Posted by Snake Plissken

Where are these 2 fuses?

On mine it is a little black box at the power converter. It has the breakers and fuses there. There is a door that opens revealing the fuses.

[kcconawa]

Originally Posted by Snake Plissken

When I plug power in everything works inside the camper. When I unplug the cord nothing works.

The battery reads good.

If when plugged in, everything works, then that eliminates everything downstream of your inverter. The issue has to be between your battery and your fuse panel.

Even though you say it reads good, I would start by checking the battery. Don't know your resources but hook up jumper cable off truck, replace temporally with truck battery… Too many times those reading are one thing but under load the truth comes out.

[Snake Plissken]

Thanks everyone for your help. I was able to locate a break in the negative wire that I fixed and I now have battery power.

[Terry]

Got to love a relatively easy fix! Sometimes those can be a little "fun" to chase down...