Battery Not Charging

NJAg78 · 08-24-2010, 09:31 AM

Okay, so before I take my trailer to the dealership and find out I am missing something stupid, I thought I would ask here.

My battery is not charging. As long as I have shore power, or I am plugged into my tow vehicle, all the twelve volt systems work fine. Unplug and nothing. My trailer routinely stays plugged into shore power while in my driveway, so the battery should stay charged if the charger is working properly. I haven't pulled the battery to have it checked, but I plan on doing that before I go to the trouble of taking it in.

I rarely, if ever use the OTA TV antenna, so it shouldn't be the TV signal booster. Is there something simple I am missing here like a fuse that supports just the charging system?

This problem is annoying, not catastrophic for now.

JPBeck · 08-24-2010, 10:25 AM

Are you checking the water in the battery regularly since you keep it plugged in? If not I bet you cooked out all the water and fried the battery.
If that's not the case then check the fuse next to the battery, then the fuses in the trailer.

Good Luck!

Jim Manley · 08-24-2010, 10:41 AM

You should buy a little cheepy meter for such cases. Measuring the battery voltage is easy, just place the red lead on the + and black lead on the minus. The battery can read all over the place (depending on charge) but something above 12 is okay (not necessarily much charge left), if it's <9V you probably have a bad battery.
You can check the fuse by pulling it and using the meter on the ohms setting. Take the fuse out, measure accross the fuse, should read 0, if it shows all dashes then it's blown.
Good luck,
Jim

OurJayco · 08-24-2010, 11:15 AM

At this point, if you do not have a volt meter, see if someone you know has one to use for an hour.

Disconnect the battery cables.

Read the voltage of the battery with the meter. As said before, it should be higher than 11 volts for sure. Preferably higher than 12 volts.
Anything under 11 would indicate that the battery has a shorted cell or "BAD".

Then read the voltage at the cables. Place the RED lead on the cable that was connected to the + side of battery and the BLACK lead to the lead connected to the - side of battery. If you are still plugged in to shore power, you should read higher than 12 volts. This will tell you that you are getting power to the battery and it should be charging your battery, unless you have a bad battery.

Then change the meter to read ohms. Pull out the fuse and read across the blades. It should read 0 ohms. Fuse is good.

Return the meter to the friend!

NJAg78 · 08-24-2010, 12:41 PM

Thanks for the comments. I probably didn't give enough information.

This happened on the first trip out. When we got back I checked the water in the battery it was okay and put it on an external charger and it came back up to almost 13 V (I have a Fluke Model 88 Multimeter). However, I did not know about the fuse near the battery, I will look for and check that if I can find it tonight.

Again, thanks for the help.

OurJayco · 08-24-2010, 02:09 PM

I have a green 30 amp fuse holder located right at the battery.
It looks something like the one in this link:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2103778

Not all units have a fuse right at the battery. Some may have a cut off switch located near the battery or fuse in a junction box. You may have to follow the positive cable and see where it leads to on your unit.
Disconnect the battery and check for voltage at the cables assuming you are still plugged in to shore power.

Seann45 · 08-24-2010, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OurJayco

I have a green 30 amp fuse holder located right at the battery.
It looks something like the one in this link:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2103778

Not all units have a fuse right at the battery. Some may have a cut off switch located near the battery or fuse in a junction box. You may have to follow the positive cable and see where it leads to on your unit.
Disconnect the battery and check for voltage at the cables assuming you are still plugged in to shore power.

Bets are the fuse... Unplug the trailer and check both sides of the fuse to see if it is letting power thru.

NJAg78 · 08-24-2010, 05:09 PM

30 Amp fuse at the battery blown. Replaced fuse, 12.7 Volts on battery with no shore power, 13.5 Volts with shore power connected. Water levels in battery are normal.

Thanks for the responses, saved a pull to dealership to replace a fuse.

barrelslime · 08-24-2010, 08:21 PM

Yup a fuse.

JPBeck · 08-24-2010, 08:33 PM

Right On! Glad it wasn't the battery. That fuse by the battery blew on my pop-up once.

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