Battery / Electrical issues, I am stumped

[devoreg]

Spring is coming here in Michigan and we are eagerly anticipating taking our camper out for the first time. We purchased a Jayflight 29fbs this past November and it has been in storage.

Now to my issue. When we purchased this camper it came with a new battery. This battery ended up falling off a shelf and cracking open, making an awful mess and major pain in the butt but that is a whole other story. I had an extra old deep cycle battery that I was going to use as a back up until i figure out what to replace the broken battery with (2 - 6 volts, Duel 12 volts etc.). This battery did work when i stopped by over the winter but then a couple weeks ago I went to the storage lot and hooked up the battery and nothing worked, no lights, no slide not even the tongue jack. Checked fuses but nothing looked blown, when I hooked it up to tow vehicle power everything worked fine. I assumed the old battery I had died, i had it checked and they said it still had some life in it but not even knowing how old it was I ended up getting a new battery.

I hooked up the new battery and nothing, at one point after cleaning all the wires and terminals i swear the light on the tongue jack flickered on but then nothing. I was positive I hooked the battery up correctly but then started 2nd guessing myself. The trailer brake blue wire and the electric tongue jack would go to the positive correct? I visually checked all the fuses and I am not sure what else to check. I put the batteries on a trickle charger for a couple day each month and store inside over the winter so they should be all charged up. When hooked up to the truck through the tow power cord the lights, slide and the tongue jack work fine.

Anyone have any suggestions, having checked this site many times I know often times problems like this are easy answers that others have figured out already, I really hope this is the case.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks

[gvn71]

Make sure the in line fuse near the battery is seated correctly.....

[fmichaels]

Just based on your description of events and actions, you might have a high resistance connection due to either a bad splice or corrosion where the voltage will look great until you apply the load and then the voltage drops across the high resistance and nothing works. I would inspect any and all wiring especially outside for signs of damage, cuts, green corrosion. good luck!

[Mustang65]

Do you have a Volt/Ohm meter to measure voltage?
Don

[fmichaels]

also all grounding points

[Subaru297]

Originally Posted by fmichaels

also all grounding points

+1

Your flickering jack light made me think your negative frame ground could be loose.

Good Luck

[Seann45]

You know BLACK is positive on RV's right?

[devoreg]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think it must have been a combination of a bad ground and a fuse that looked to be ok but had blown. Everything appears to be working now.

Thanks