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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385
 
Location: washington | I have 2 Marine batteries that power my trailer, and an inverter that can helps switch from DC to AC. There is a "key" on the battery box that should be on when I use battery power and off to bypasss the DC and use AC. The trailer has been parked a while unplugged and the batteries were dead. I plugged in to AC to charge the batteries overnight... when I first plugged in to AC the "key" was on and an alarm went off in the trailer. I turned the key off so it was in the right AC mode. The batteries did not charge overnight. I have power to the trailer when plugged in but not with the batteries. Also, one very wierd thing was that I was turning the power off and on after I unplugged from AC to see if anything was going to work, and once when i turned the switch off, the radio came on. hmmmm. I turned the power switch on and the radio went off. I couldn't get it to repeat that so am not too worried but it was odd. I think I am supposed to be able to charge my DC batteries while the trailer is plugged in to AC but it didn't work so I am a little confused. Any suggestions.
Edited by cowgirl98034 2008-09-05 11:41 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 233
Location: Pataskala, Ohio | I think the battery switch has to be "ON" not "OFF" for the batteries to charge. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385
Location: washington | The "key" was on when I initially plugged the trailer in to the AC, but an alarm went off and I could hear a little fan turning in the box that the inverter is in... something smelled a little funny too, like hot dust, so I turned the key off! It has been a while since I had the trailer plugged in to keep it charged and have lights inside if I needed to find anything in a cupboard. I brought the batteries home to charge with a normal battery charger but wish I did not have to do that on a regular basis... those batteries are heavy and it is a pain to lug them back and forth. * |
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.jpg) Expert
Posts: 2828
 
Location: Southern New Mexico | The alarm was probally a low voltage alarm and the fan was probally the inverter cooling fan. That is the way it is in our camper anyway. |
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Regular
Posts: 64
Location: Oklahoma City | If your trailer is wired like most, you will need battery switch turned on while trailer is plugged in to recharge your batteries. The converter should have a trickle charger in it and recharge the batteries. The battery switch should be turned off when the trailer is NOT plugged in, otherwise you will drain the batteries. The converter fan can keep working or any 12V items even when you are not aware of it. Once marine batteries are completely discharged it will take a full charger to recharge them & it will take the charger awhile to start charging because it senses the batteries are worn out and not discharged. You should probably have your converter checked to make sure it is ok. Good luck...
Edited by trguy4820 2008-09-06 4:50 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385
Location: washington | Thanks, that makes perfect sense...my "key" was accidently left on, so the batteries were drained after 3 weeks. I will make sure to have the key off when I park it from now on. I will have the inverter checked too so I know I able to recharge while camping and using my generator for back-up power. |
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Expert
Posts: 2828
Location: Southern New Mexico | The inverter will only charge while it is plugged into power. House or generator. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385
Location: washington | Okay, so I have an answer from the LQ installer about the battery power issue. The battery key has to be "on" if I want battery power... if I leave it on when it's parked, the batteries will drain over time. If I want to use AC power I can turn the key off and simply plug in the electric power. The alarm came on when I tried to charge the batteries with AC because the batteries were 100% dead... that put too much load on the converter. It is only meant to charge up a partially drained battery. I did the right thing by turning the key off when I heard the alarm. I manually charged the batteries with a car charger and everything works great now. I can't let the batteries get down so low unless I want to pull them out and charge with the car battery charger. If the batteries are partially drained I can leave the key on and plug in to AC power and they will charge up just fine. One of these days I will know how everything works on this trailer :) |
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Member
Posts: 12
| Originally written by cowgirl98034 on 2008-09-10 12:01 AM Okay, so I have an answer from the LQ installer about the battery power issue. The battery key has to be "on" if I want battery power... if I leave it on when it's parked, the batteries will drain over time. If I want to use AC power I can turn the key off and simply plug in the electric power. The alarm came on when I tried to charge the batteries with AC because the batteries were 100% dead... that put too much load on the converter. It is only meant to charge up a partially drained battery. I did the right thing by turning the key off when I heard the alarm. I manually charged the batteries with a car charger and everything works great now. I can't let the batteries get down so low unless I want to pull them out and charge with the car battery charger. If the batteries are partially drained I can leave the key on and plug in to AC power and they will charge up just fine. One of these days I will know how everything works on this trailer :) |
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power in trailer
