No cabin power after getting trailer from storage

[JR512]

Hello,

I was hoping someone could give me some pointers. I have a 2014 Jay Swift Flight 238RB that I've owned for about a year.

I had my trailer stored at an RV dealer with a full service shop for the last 3 months. When I stored it, I asked them to disconnect the battery so it wouldn't run down while stored. When I called to pick it up, I asked them to reconnect the battery before I got there. Instead of reconnecting the battery, they plugged the trailer into an outlet "to charge." So it was plugged in without the battery connected.

When I get there, I check the battery and see it's not connected so I have them help me connect it up because I didn't bring any wrenches to connect the terminals. I make the mistake of not going inside the cabin to check it out before hitching up and towing back to my place to load up there.

My issue is that now the cabin is getting no power from the battery (note: I haven't plugged it into city power at all, I don't have a way to do that where it is). When I hit the "battery level" display, it briefly flickered and went out. It's never flickered again when I checked it. I checked the breaker/fuse panel that's below the stove. I flipped/reset all the breakers, and pulled all the fuses to check them, and they all look good. I reset the GFCI several times as well.

I know the battery is not dead because the electric tongue lift thingy works when the RV is parked and not connected to any vehicle. What else can I check for the cabin? Would plugging in the RV with the battery disconnected cause damage?

I called back the RV place that stored it when I got home, about an hour before they closed and left a message. No one has called me back. I was planning on leaving in the morning on a trip, so I was hoping there was something I could do to fix this, some easy fix, instead of taking it into the shop first thing in the morning.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance, I'm still learning about this travel trailer.

[gypsmjim]

The battery may not be dead, but its almost dead. Plug it into a battery charger all night long and it'll probably be OK in the morning.

If you don't have a battery charger run over to Wallmart quick and get one before they close. If you have a trailer you'll need one in the future anyway. Also, go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their $1.99 battery testers, you'll need one of them too, then you'll KNOW the state of the battery. Or, google HF coupons - I got 3 of my battery testers there for free.

Going to the dealer on the way to vacation probably is futile because you'll be there half a day waiting for it to charge. Besides, since they screwed up once already I'd be leary of going there again anyway.

[Edd505]

Walmart close?

[gypsmjim]

Originally Posted by Edd505

Walmart close?

The old one did, but now that I think of it the newly built SuperCenter is open 24.

[JR512]

Originally Posted by gypsmjim

The battery may not be dead, but its almost dead. Plug it into a battery charger all night long and it'll probably be OK in the morning.

If the battery was dead, the electric tongue jack wouldn't function or have enough power to move the tongue up and down. I've had the battery die and be low before--which is why I disconnect it now--the electric tongue jack won't have enough amperage to operate.

Originally Posted by gypsmjim

If you don't have a battery charger run over to Wallmart quick and get one before they close. If you have a trailer you'll need one in the future anyway. Also, go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their $1.99 battery testers, you'll need one of them too, then you'll KNOW the state of the battery. Or, google HF coupons - I got 3 of my battery testers there for free.

I have a combo battery charger/tester, I suppose I can test it to double check, but the fact that the electric tongue jack is operating with full force leads me to believe it's not the battery. It had a full charge 3 months ago and has been disconnected since I last used it, plus it was hooked up to my running vehicle for an hour already.

Originally Posted by gypsmjim

Going to the dealer on the way to vacation probably is futile because you'll be there half a day waiting for it to charge. Besides, since they screwed up once already I'd be leary of going there again anyway.

There are multiple shops, but yes I would prefer to NOT go into the service place. They're fairly responsive. At the moment I'm reading through section 6 of the manual: http://www.jayco.com/files/downloads...lename_180.pdf It mentions the power converted should be turned off before disconnecting the battery *oops* so I'm reading through to figure out how to turn that off and on before doing anything else like remove the battery.

[JR512]

Originally Posted by gypsmjim

The battery may not be dead, but its almost dead. Plug it into a battery charger all night long and it'll probably be OK in the morning.

The fact the battery is able to power the electric tongue jack leads me to conclude it has enough juice to power a light inside the cabin, evidenced by the fact it can not only power the light on the electric tongue jack but also lift about 800 pounds of tongue weight up and down. Otherwise, I would have hooked it up to my battery charger/tester. It's not that the inside lights are dim, they don't come on all all. Nothing in the cabin does, not the carbon monoxide tester, lights, anything.

I can hook up my battery charger/tester to evaluate it, but it just doesn't seem likely given the battery can lift the tongue as well as it ever could.

Originally Posted by gypsmjim

If you don't have a battery charger run over to Wallmart quick and get one before they close. If you have a trailer you'll need one in the future anyway. Also, go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their $1.99 battery testers, you'll need one of them too, then you'll KNOW the state of the battery. Or, google HF coupons - I got 3 of my battery testers there for free.

My previous reply got marked for moderation, probably because I linked to the manual for the trailer which I'm reading through now. It says the power converter should be turned off before unplugging the battery. It also references some safety mechanism in the power converter, but it doesn't actually say -where- the power converter is, or how to turn it on or off =/

Originally Posted by gypsmjim

Going to the dealer on the way to vacation probably is futile because you'll be there half a day waiting for it to charge. Besides, since they screwed up once already I'd be leary of going there again anyway.

There are multiple dealers, and they're pretty responsive at the place I store, but I'd rather just fix it. I hope they didn't burn out the power converter by plugging it into shore power with the battery disconnected...

Does anyone have any idea where the power converter is and how to turn it off and on in this 238RB?

[outofhere]

Hi could there possibly be two different fuses leading of of the battery, 0ne for the 12 volts to the trailer and one leading to the jack or maybe there is more than one leads off of the negative side of the battery like mine is and they just didn't connect it

[Edd505]

Originally Posted by JR512

there.

My issue is that now the cabin is getting no power from the battery (note: I haven't plugged it into city power at all, I don't have a way to do that where it is). When I hit the "battery level" display, it briefly flickered and went out. It's never flickered again when I checked it. I checked the breaker/fuse panel that's below the stove. I flipped/reset all the breakers, and pulled all the fuses to check them, and they all look good. I reset the GFCI several times as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance, I'm still learning about this travel trailer.

I'm not familiar with your rig but is there a fuse near the battery? Mine has a main fuse and a battery disconnect in the same area. Is it possible the battery is hooked backwards? The front jack would have a polarity reversing switch so might work with the battery wired wrong. Also looking at a fuse does not always show bad they should be checked with a test light or better yet an ohm meter. With the test light is there power in the 12v panel. Hope you find the issue before you leave.

[JR512]

I figured it out. They hooked up one of the positive cables to the ground/negative side of the battery. Double ground electric potential does not make. This particular positive happened to be a black cable, there was a tiny sticker on each cable with "+" and "-" on it. So there were two positive cables and one ground cable. The positive for the electric jack was on the positive terminal, the ground cable was on the ground, and the positive cable for the cabin was on ground.

I went out and bought a socket/wrench set to keep in the trailer and was able to move the cable to the proper terminal. Needless to say, I won't leave it to them to disconnect and reconnect the battery again when I store it.

[tnchuck100]

A dealer should never make that kind of a mistake. Not verifying the 12V system was actually powered after connecting the battery smacks of incompetence. It would make me think twice about ever letting them service or work on my camper.

[JR512]

Originally Posted by tnchuck100

A dealer should never make that kind of a mistake. Not verifying the 12V system was actually powered after connecting the battery smacks of incompetence. It would make me think twice about ever letting them service or work on my camper.

The place I bought the camper doesn't do storage so I store it at a different place that happens to be an AirStream dealer; they don't even sell Jaycos. The place that hooked up one of the positive cables to the battery wrong didn't even have the keys to get inside. I just pay them to store my camper and put LP into when I pick it up, and since they had a service shop I figured they could handle the battery but yea they don't have the keys to it.

I do service at the dealer I bought it from, especially since it's still under warranty. These two places are literally across the street from each other.

[Edd505]

That's really bad. Glad you found the issue though. Happy motoring.

[gypsmjim]

When I removed my battery for Winter the first time, I saw that the colors of the wires made no sense to me. So, I used red and white tape on them just so I wouldn't make a bonehead mistake.

Also, since our trailer is permanerntly boondocked and I don't want to run the battery down, and I don't like disconnecting it all the time, I installed a simple Perko marine grade on/off switch. It works like a charm.

The other thing I did was hook up a permanent digital volt meter so I have a constant view of the battery condition.