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Subject |
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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: help with electrical
i going to take the mh out this weekend and let you know what i find.. what would be the best way to check that the batts are being charged while pluged into a shoreline???Measure the voltage at the battery, if it's being charged the voltage will be around 13.5 or more. If it isn't charging the voltage will around 12.5 or less.
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big dave
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11/27/09 05:22pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Plugging into 50 amp
This question comes up quite often. all who respond think they know what they're talking about, and some actually do. The bottom line is it won't hurt anything, and it could help. As stated above, the 30 amp outlet receives much more use/abuse and is lighter duty. Your load is limited by the 30 amp breaker in your RV, so the only thing the 50 amp breaker is protecting is 30' of #10 wire against a short. #10 wire can handle 55 amps for a short time and a shorted cable would trip the 50 amp breaker in a fraction of a second.
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big dave
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11/26/09 11:38am |
Tech Issues
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RE: help with electrical
Pete,
Don't confuse the functions of the inverter and the converter. In your case, they could be in the same box, but the inverter takes power from the battery and makes 120 volt AC. The converter takes 120 volt AC from shore power or generator, changes it to 12 volt DC and charges the battery and supplies power for the lights. The lights, fans,controls for the fridge, slide motors, etc. are 12 volt DC. The outlets, TV, AC's, microwave, coffee maker, etc are 120 Volt AC. They are two different systems.
Your battery is charged either from the converter or the alternator when the engine is running. The converter receives it's power from shore power or the generator. And since it works from the generator, the problem has to be on the shore power side of the transfer switch. The reason I mentioned trying another 50 amp outlet is that if one prong of the plug wasn't making contact, some things could work while others wouldn't.
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big dave
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11/25/09 10:48am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: help with electrical
The batteries are in the circuit all the time. when you plug in and the converter charges the batteries, it's just in the circuit also. When you unplug from shore power, the lights may get slightly dimmer because the voltage drops say 13.5 volts to 12.5. 13.5 being the charging voltage. The fact that the lights went out when you stopped the gen. either means the batteries were dead, or you have an open circuit.
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big dave
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11/24/09 07:44pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Torn Awning
I had the bead cut off and re-sewn, it worked for awhile, but tore again. it seems that when it gets old enough to tear, you may as well save a step and go ahead and replace it.
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big dave
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11/24/09 04:58pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: help with electrical
It sounds like a problem with the transfer switch?? The converter is working since the batteries charged from the generator. They should have also charged from the alternator when you were driving.
You might try plugging into a different 50 amp outlet.
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big dave
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11/24/09 04:31pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: House Battery problems
With a 12.4 volt reading at the battery, my guess is that the battery isn't the problem. Turn on all of the lights and check the voltage again at the battery. The voltage will drop well below 12 volts if the battery is the problem. Otherwise, I'd look for a bad connection.
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big dave
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11/23/09 08:45pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Shorted house battery
If you're going to leave it plugged in, you need a good multi stage converter to prevent boiling. I just disconnect the batteries, check voltage about every 6 weeks, and charge when necessary (once or twice per winter). A battery disconnect switch makes the process easy.
I have a disconnect switch on both house and chassis batteries.
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big dave
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11/22/09 11:04am |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Can you use the leveling jacks for tire removal?
I do it as needed. It is much safer than a bottle jack on blocks. With the levelers, you don't need to get under it at all (as stated above).
Be aware that the parking brake on a lot of rigs is on the drive shaft, so if you lift a rear off the ground, there is no brake. Good wheel chocks on the tires that are still on the ground will handle that problem as long as the ground is somewhat level.
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big dave
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11/21/09 07:04pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: gernrator has black sticky oil
I'd take it on a drive to a Cat dealer and ask them.
A 4 year old unit with 9k miles could have missed some maintenance, but for the rite price, that wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. You may need to fix a few things.
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big dave
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11/19/09 10:17am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Toilet Doesn't Hold Water - Causes?
Keep in mind that the answers above don't all apply to your brand of toilet. It helps to give the brand and mod.
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big dave
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11/16/09 09:29am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Toilet Doesn't Hold Water - Causes?
Cleaning it usually works, but I have had to replace the seal. They sell a kit for it.
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big dave
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11/15/09 11:45am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: converter/battery
As the batteries charge (if they can), the converter output may come up to normal voltage. Charging into a shorted battery will hold the voltage down. Though the dry batteries may have also taken a toll on the converter.
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big dave
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11/14/09 10:49am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Genset and shore power
If it's set up properly, it will either have a transfer switch or you unplug from shore power and plug into the generator. Either way you can't be connected to both at once.
If they did somehow get tied together it would destroy the generator.
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big dave
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11/11/09 11:37pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Where can I find Pumice rocks?
Crater Lake, Or. (if there are any left, it's been 50 years since I was there).
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big dave
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11/11/09 09:51am |
Family Camping
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RE: Battery charge for toad.
It takes a hot wire from the MH battery to the toad battery, with a circuit breaker at both ends.
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big dave
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11/11/09 09:40am |
Towing
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RE: replace 2 6V with one 12V?
You say that your chassis battery is a deep cycle. It shouldn't be. It may in fact work, but it isn't the correct application. You might consider using it for the house, and replace the chassis battery with one rated for cold cranking.
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big dave
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11/09/09 06:03pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Shore power plug popping GFI
To figure out what circuit is causing the problem, turn all breakers off, plug into the GFI, then turn the breakers on one at a time starting with the main. When the GFI trips, turn that breaker off agin, reset the GFI and continue with rest.
On my MH, it's my block heater that trips the GFI.
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big dave
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11/09/09 09:51am |
Toy Haulers
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RE: what the heck is that??
It sounds to me like someone making a point against WM's over night parking???
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big dave
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11/07/09 10:21am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: How far can you drive on a flat?
A friend had a flat on the front axle of his 5er, and the first he knew of it was when the front axle went under the rear one. They never did figure out exactly how it could happen, but it did. No one was near him at the time, and it stayed uprite, but based on that, I wouldn't drive any further than absolutely necessary.
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big dave
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11/07/09 09:44am |
Fifth-Wheels
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