Battery Not Charging

[SmokeyBear-JAY]

Just spent 4 days, 3 nights, in a campground with no hookups.

I ran the generator at least two hours daily. However, I could sense that the battery was getting weaker and weaker. Unfortunately, I didn't have the sense to actually check it with my voltmeter. I was just watching it with the "test" lights on the panel: Poor, Fair, Good. Sometimes it showed Fair, sometimes Good. Then it dropped to Poor.

A hookup site opened up for the 4th night, so I took it. Plugged in and everything seemed to be working fine. Refrigerator and microwave working dandy. I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed the lights on the refrigerator panel were blinking. A sure sign of not getting enough DC power and about to shut down. I turned it off manually. The test light showed Poor.

What is wrong when the battery is not receiving charge by neither the generator nor shore power?

PS: I have learned I cannot trust the battery test lights. On the way home I decided to look into an alternative although I had no idea of what nor if any exists. Thanks to another post (can't remember the author) I am looking into a Victron BMV-712.

PPS: The battery was installed new in May.

 

[Taftcoach]

How old is the battery?
How did you hook up the generator? Directly to the battery with a battery charger or through your shore power?
What else were you running while hooked up to the generator?

My guess is an older 100ah battery that just couldn't keep up. But there could be other issues happening.

 

[RogerR]

With a multimeter check the voltage at your battery. Should be around 12 volts when generator not running and if there is some charge left in it. Under 12 volts suggests battery is very low and maybe toast. Then start generator or plug into shore power. Once plugged in your charging system should register 13 to 14 volts at the battery. If no change to voltage than start looking for where the current flow is interrupted. Blown fuses or breakers are possible. Usually there is a fuse near the battery so check for one there. Then look at all connections. Start at the battery and work back along the lines for any connection that may have gone bad.

There are youtubes on this that may help you find the fault.

 

[pconroy]

What is wrong when the battery is not receiving charge by neither the generator nor shore power?

The converter and associated wiring.

 

[N Saban]

My neutral wire from my battery to converter got disconnected some how last summer on a road trip. Couldn’t charge batteries with gen or shore power. Start with voltmeter test.

 

[dvspl]

Do voltage checks to make sure your converter is working. On shore or generator power check to see if you've got 120 VAC going into the converter and at least 13 VDC coming out of it. If not, find the problem which may be a bad converter.

As you've noted, the 4 LED "battery monitor" that Jayco provides is essentially worthless. It's just a simple voltage indicator. Here's what they say each of the four lights (L F G C) means:


And here's what each really means (assuming FLA battery):
C Charge This light should ALWAYS be on if you're on shore or generator power
G Good Battery is somewhere between about 40% and fully charged. If plugged in, your converter is not putting out sufficient voltage
F Fair Battery is less than 40% charged and should be charged as soon as possible
P Poor Battery is completely depleted and may not be recoverable

 

[JFlightRisk]

snip...a

What is wrong when the battery is not receiving charge by neither the generator nor shore power?

We don't currently have a MH or on-board genset, but our TT has an inline flat-blade fuse holder near the battery. Ours is a 30-amp (green colored) fuse inside it. If it blows the battery won't charge from the converter or truck.

Check for low water in the battery cells, if you have a FLA battery. A sealed one will have to be tested with a load tester, and many major auto parts stores will test it for free.

A digital volt/ohm meter is a necessary tool to have with you and will tell you a lot and is essential for testing both power and grounds.

 

[SmokeyBear-JAY]

Thank you all for your help. I have a digital volt/ohm meter, but I only know how to measure voltage. I'm studying YouTube trying to learn ohms and amps. I'm not an electrician and flunked bonehead electronics in college. It's just not my thing.

What should I be looking for to recognize a converter, and where? Also, a fuse, if any?

 

[pauldeere]

As suggested, I would start my trouble shooting at the most likely source of the problem which is a weak battery, meaning a battery with a couple bad cells. It's not impossible in todays world for a battery to take a crap within a year of purchase.

 

[pconroy]

Thank you all for your help. I have a digital volt/ohm meter, but I only know how to measure voltage. I'm studying YouTube trying to learn ohms and amps. I'm not an electrician and flunked bonehead electronics in college. It's just not my thing.

What should I be looking for to recognize a converter, and where? Also, a fuse, if any?

Go slow on the amps thing... For a lot of the multimeters - you need to move the red lead from one plug to the other at the bottom.

Also, most multimeters max out at 10A. There's a fuse inside that pops if you push too much thru. DAMHIKT.

When I realized I was going to be needing to measure current fairly frequently, I bought a new multimeter with a "clamp on" ammeter. Much easier, safer to measure currents.

Now I find I need to upgrade the meter again to buy one that can measure AC and DC current. Not just AC.

The stream of new-tools never ends!

 

[pconroy]

What should I be looking for to recognize a converter, and where? Also, a fuse, if any?

The converter is going to be a (usually) silver looking box at the bottom of the circuit breaker panel. Google up the make and model of your converter and you'll get all the info on how to check it out.

Oh - another easy and cheap way to measure amps, is to buy one of those Kill-A-Watt plugs. If you're in a spot where you need to measure amps/watts of something with a 120V plug, they work really well.

They max out at 15A.
Which I forgot one time, when I pushed 20A thru it...

 

[dvspl]

The converter is going to be a (usually) silver looking box at the bottom of the circuit breaker panel. Google up the make and model of your converter and you'll get all the info on how to check it out.

In those older motorhomes, the converter was also sometimes directly attached to, or an integral part of, the DC fuse panel. See if you can look behind it. Also, sometimes you can find the converter by following the path of the shore power cord.

 

[DNMakinson]

I’m amazed that a battery with no charging lasted as long as g as yours did.

Yes, sounds like your converter is bad, or its supply fuse open.

 

[Bulgers]

Converter problem

We had a similar issue on our last trip. We didn't notice the issue until we got home and were unpacking and cleaning up.
First thing, we got the multi meter out and the voltage was low. Too low to get the rear slide out to access the converter under the bed.
Ran the engine for a while to get enough juice to run the rear slide out. Opened up the access panel to start troubleshooting the issue.
We laugh now, but not so funny at the time. The converter plug fell out of the outlet. Easy fix. Hopes your solution is as simple as ours was.

 

[Leon-JAY]

Battery low

You may have flattened your RV batteries to a point where your inverter charger doesn’t have enough power to bring up to full charge .you could replace your batteries to fix it.Or if you put a real battery charger on it maybe that’s all need

 

[SmokeyBear-JAY]

Which is what I have done. A trickle charger. It seems to be working. I'll know more later in the day.

 

[Leon-JAY]

Battery not charging

No a trickle charger is not really a charger if the battery is low

I meant a real 3 stage charger that puts out 25 -30 amps

 

[SmokeyBear-JAY]

Well, in a perfect world, that is what I would use. My world is not perfect as I do not have one of those. I used what I have, a Battery Tender. Guess what. After two days it fully charged to 13v.

Now to watch and try to determine how it is draining.

Before anybody suggests it, this unit is so old it does not have smoke, carbon, and any other detectors other than LP.

 

[SmokeyBear-JAY]

Pictures!!!

We finally got enough sunshine today to get some reasonably decent pictures. Rather than guess as to what is needed, I tried to get pictures of everything. All this is under the jackknife sofa which is open as far as possible. For the frontal views, I am as far away as possible which is why I had to take multiple photos.

Can you help me out and tell me what I am looking at here?
Is this the converter?
If yes, how do I test it?

See photos attached. They are the best I can do.
Please note the green sticker in the bottom right corner of a photo which the forum uploaded upside down.

 

[dvspl]

Can you help me out and tell me what I am looking at here?
Is this the converter?
If yes, how do I test it?

The first two pictures are your Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS); chooses between shore power or generator power for your AC system. It has a wiring diagram on it so should be pretty self explanatory.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth pictures show your AC breaker panel and DC fuse panel. It looks like the rig originally had a Magnetek 6345 converter that provided 45 amps of DC power to your fuse panel (connected to it) and to charge the batteries. But the green sticker says that the converter has been replaced with a Progressive Dynamics converter. I don't see that in the pictures so you haven't found it yet. It should be nearby. Probably a silver box.