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Old 01-01-2011, 01:41 AM   #1
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SO, last night (New Year's Eve) was about 30 degrees going down into the mid 20's and DW and I were sitting at the dining table eating and she noticed the radio was flashing on and off. I figured the power button was stuck or something and was finishing dinner when the furnace came on... kind of. The fan came on and before the flame lit the fan went off again. I thought that was odd and DW said "didn't the lights go really dim?". She was right, all of the lights were really dim. Then the LP gas alarm beeped once and turned off, I found out it runs on the 12v batteries and at low voltage it alarms and shuts off. Then the picture on the TV went on and off, at this point the batteries were so low the TV antenna booster wasn't staying on.

OH CRAP- something is shorting out the 12v system and I need to find it fast before something worse happens. Well, let me tell you, this is no easy task. I am a mechanic by trade and very good with electrical troubleshooting, but when you are working on a RV there is nothing direct or straightforward. I unhooked both batteries and they were at 6.5 volts by the time I got to them. I pulled the panel inside the front compartment and found the little tiny hole that is supposed to access the power converter and the back of the fuse/ breaker panel. I can barely get my head to the hole and see inside, but everything is plugged in and no melted wires are seen, so I move on. I try to pull the cover on the breaker panel to check the wires coming to the panel for the 12v and to check the input plug for the converter as at this point I am sure the converter is not working and that the 12v systems have simply depleted the batteries during the operation of lights and furnace all day. I get two screws out, but when the panel was put on the bottom screws were broken off in the panel at the factory. I had to pull it off by hand which now broke the bottom screws in the retainers (great, that will be another issue to get fixed). I found no problems with connections and everything had good continuity to it's connections on the batteries and to the converter. I rechecked the batteries at this time and they had recovered on their own back to about 11.5v, so I know they are good and not the short in the system of course. I pulled every fuse out of the fuse box to eliminate any short or excessive load from the system and reconnected the batteries. At this time I found that something was still pulling a load on the batteries as they immediately dropped to about 9v. I could not see anything clearly through the access hole, but did find that my main slide still works with all of the fuses out (where is the fuse for this then????) but nothing else does and the power is still dropping. I reinstalled one fuse at a time and still nothing was making a major power drain beyond what was already happening. At this time I realized the converter must have failed internally and shorted out. My DW then found in the manual that there are two fuses in the converter, so I reached in and felt them and pulled them both. Now the batteries are about 8v, but did start coming back up slowly to about 11v. I was sure I had this licked, but now how do we get power to them to run the furnace and keep the waterlines (and US!) from freezing tonight?? Well, I could hook up the truck to the 7 pin, that will charge them up, but how long will it last? I hooked up the truck and brought the batteries up to about 13v while we were packing up just in case. I unhooked the truck and turned on the furnace and the batteries were at 11v in 5 minutes so I think it is pulling too much power and may have been the demise of my converter. So at this point we are hooking up and leaving, period. I get the bedroom slide in no problem, just kind of slow, then the main slide ok again just slow and then the problem, the rear slide has a digital controller and won't work below 12v apparently. So I hook up the truck and pray- and it comes in! We get the jacks up and hook up the truck and then get to do the winterizing the water lines and go to the dump station in the dark- yuck.

Now is where I am not sure- is the furnace the problem or the converter? Well, either way at this point we are now hooking up and pulling home at 10 PM on New Year's Eve...... not a happy Crossroads owner today. I know it is a component they buy to install, but whatever the culprit, it is in a Crossroads trailer that I bought in May and should not have ruined my holiday weekend trip.

The dealer is not open today, so I will have to take the trailer with me tomorrow to work and take it to them at lunch.

Boy, I sure hope Vogt RV in Fort Worth has the great service department they claimed when I was buying this trailer! Edited by: me1magoo
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Old 01-01-2011, 01:46 AM   #2
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OOPS- I wrote the wrong model in the topic line!!! Man, my head is scrambled today. Did I mention I have a terrible cold also and got to tow home in the dark at night with my eyes itching and watering so bad I could barely see!!!
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Old 01-01-2011, 01:56 AM   #3
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OK- edited and fixed model!
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Old 01-01-2011, 02:06 AM   #4
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I read through quickly but with no line breaks it's a eye breaker

So I assume you were dry camping without electrical connection? Even with batteries in hooked in series on a cold night have only a limited useable life. In addition, the batteries take longer to charge in the cold. I assume these are just typical RV/Marine batteries? Where they fully charged to start? It sounds like you had a good load running (TV, lights, furnace, etc.)



Here was a post not that long ago, it has a chart showing temp. relation to battery life/charge:



http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24680119.cfm



The furnace draws a huge load and that's typical.
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Old 01-01-2011, 03:40 AM   #5
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I believe it was the converter. I pulled the fuses out of the back of the converter and it sat in the driveway overnight and the batteries are still at 12.5v after towing home last night and unhooking from the truck power when we got home.

Sorry for the lines, I just get going and forget to hit enter often enough.
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Old 01-01-2011, 06:31 AM   #6
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When we dry camped in cold weather (before I installed solar) The batteries were about dead in the morning, just from the furnace, let alone having a load running like you mentioned. Starting the generator was a high priority when I got up. I don't know that I would jump to the conclusion that your converter is bad just yet. You can do some more testing now that it's sitting at home.

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Old 01-02-2011, 06:18 AM   #7
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Ya know what.... I found my issue. Me. Yep, I screwed up. We were not dry camping, we had power, but only a 30 amp outlet. I didn't have my regular 50 to 30 dog bone connector, so I had to use the box I bought that uses two connectors 30/20 to hook up power.

BUT- the 20 amp was a GFCI plug and kept tripping (the box says it won't work with GFI, so I wasn't shocked) so there was only power on one side of the box. I had always wondered how the 50 amp service worked and thought that the two legs just came in and spread the load in the power distribution/ breaker box.--- I was wrong!

The power comes in together, but one hot line feeds one side of the breakers and the other hot line feeds the other side.

Left side- Main A/C, refridg, front and rear plugs, tv

Right side- Elec water heater, open circuit (spare) and ..... wait for it..... the converter.

So, today I felt better and went out and checked the batteries and they were at 11.9 and I checked all of the circuits and then put the fuses back in the converter and they sat at 11.9. I hooked up power at the house with my regular adapter that does feed both hot lines and the converter kicked in and immediately the batteries came up to 12.9 and climbing. I vacuumed out all of the holes and tested everything and started putting covers and panels back on.

Lesson learned- 50 amp 120 volt power has two hot legs that are NOT combined and each leg feeds separate items in the breaker box and must be fed equally with a true adapter and not with a splitter box with only one plug hooked up.
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Old 01-02-2011, 06:25 AM   #8
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Well, good!! Nothing hurt except your camping trip and your feelings.
I'm glad to hear it turned out so well for you. Nothing broke---nothing to fix---and it didn't cost you anything.


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Old 01-02-2011, 07:37 AM   #9
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Yeah, it's a tough pill to swallow. But at least there is nothing to deal with now like going to the dealer and praying they fix it right and how long will they have it and all of that. Just had to put it all back together. The only cost was the wasted nights at the campground technically that was $28. Not too bad for a good lesson I guess.

By the way, the shop vac got a workout too. There is SO much sawdust inside of everything in these trailers it is ridiculous! Every panel and cover I pulled off was full of it. I had to clean it all out, that is such a fire hazard it's crazy they leave all of that in there.
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Old 01-02-2011, 08:07 AM   #10
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glad to read that you found yourcause and sorry your weekend was cut short.
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Old 01-02-2011, 11:57 AM   #11
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No harm no foul! Happy camping!
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Old 01-02-2011, 01:39 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by me1magoo
Yeah, it's a tough pill to swallow. But at least there is nothing to deal with now like going to the dealer and praying they fix it right and how long will they have it and all of that. Just had to put it all back together. The only cost was the wasted nights at the campground technically that was $28. Not too bad for a good lesson I guess.

By the way, the shop vac got a workout too. There is SO much sawdust inside of everything in these trailers it is ridiculous! Every panel and cover I pulled off was full of it. I had to clean it all out, that is such a fire hazard it's crazy they leave all of that in there.
I agree on the sawdust. I've had my 2010 29RK apart in just about every way. Sawdust was everywhere in large quantities in areas that cannot be seen by the buyer. Guess I suffer from OCD but I've cleaned up every spec of it in my trailer since I've made modifications in just about all compartments.

Another example of the quality seen in this industry.
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Old 01-06-2011, 12:57 AM   #13
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The first time I had to go in and do a wood repair, I noticed all of the residual sawdust. I figured that would be a good time to pull of any removable panels and give it a Bob cleaning. That sawdust can also evebtually find it's way into your air conditioner filter.
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Old 01-06-2011, 09:23 AM   #14
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We are on our 3rd Crossroads product. One thing about it is they are consistant; they are full of sawdust. We get a new trailer home and take it all apart and vacuum everything. You also can't believe the cutout pieces laying around and some of the heating and AC ducts are all filled up with debris. Hey, if you don't look, you don't see. Also, if you don't want to hookup the power correctly, at least convert all the lights to LED. You can't believe how long you can go on battery.
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Old 01-13-2011, 11:42 AM   #15
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Lesson learned- adapter cord that shares the two hots to one leg when I don't have a second usable plug or the converter box if I do that will give me the extra amperage capacity or just find places with 50 amps!
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Old 01-24-2011, 01:00 PM   #16
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How do you like the LF with the loft. We absolutely love ours. other than a couple of minor issues it has been trouble free.
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