Electrical not working

[jon23d]

Good evening —

I purchased a new All-Access 29RL fifth wheel last week. We took it out for a night right away at a site with power, and loved it. The next day I brought it home (this was four days ago). The dealer told me to cut off the power when not using it by switching two switches in the front compartment to off (big dials with a green on section and a red off section). One of them (I think) stops power from flowing from the factory-installed solar system to the battery, and the other (I think) stops all power from flowing from the battery to the 12v items in the RV (lights, slides(?), levelers(?)).

Today I wanted to pull the slides out and turn on the lights, but not plug in the rv to 110v. I turned the two switches from off to on, and was unable to use anything that required power, even lights. I checked that the circuit breakers inside hadn’t tripped. There is a box (Renology I think) inside the front compartment that the solar “switch” is connected to. I think it is telling me that my battery is at 0% charge. I hooked the rv up to my truck thinking that this would provide me with some power, but that didn’t work either.

Help!

 

[Lantley]

It does sound like your battery is dead. The truck will not provide enough 12 volt power via the pigtail . To power the RV.
1st task is to charge batteries. I'm not familiar with your model but there are lots of parasitic loads that can discharge battery in 4 days. In general the cut off switches do not turn off everything!

 

[BryanValRox]

I would agree with Lantley comments on this one.
Also, you might consider leaving the solar master disconnect switch ON, it kind of defeats the purpose of using the solar panel to keep the battery charged by turning it off during storage.
Personally, I shut my 12v master off and leave my solar master on all the time. This ensures the battery is always topped off.
The solar controller senses battery health and has different charging modes/rates that help to prevent battery maintenance issues.

 

[jon23d]

Thank you folks. I'll keep the solar on going forward. Should I flip the breaker switches when I'm not using it? Is it safe to drive the unit now (will the brakes still work)? Can I jump the battery?

 

[Lantley]

You can recharge batteries by plugging in RV and letting converter charge up batteries.
You can us a portable charger to recharge.
Once charged your solar will be able to keep the charged assuming there adequate sunlight. I'm not sure you can recharge dead batteries with by just using solar.

 

[jon23d]

Just a quick update for anyone else who stumbles upon this. After about 24 hour of the solar being open again, the battery was at 60%. I'll check again later today to see if it has improved.

 

[Mazboy]

also, you may want to asses you battery. you may just a basic battery which the dealer installs. research solar and rv

enjoy your travels.

 

[RognMar]

Funny story, it happend to me. With my old pull behind Couger 28rls. I now have a Avenue 32rls.
While at the trailers storage yard, I used an adapter I made up that went from my cars battery through the adapter to my 7 way cord attached to the Cougar. I was going to do some repairs inside.
Like repairing your RV hasn't happed to you.
I had 3 lead acid batteries (silly me). Make up whatever Ah you want.
I checked my shunt and I going to say for the purposes of this post they could use a charge. Hence my bright idea, leave the car running and it will charge the RV batteries. I can work run the Fantatic Fan. All is good right? About an hour later I checked the shunt for batteries state of charge, however, the RV. batteries charge levels were way less than when I started this awesome idea.
In fact the cars alternater only gives your cars battery what it needs, charging wise. The cars alternator did not provide more DC voltage for it's battery and my trailers batteries. My RV Lead Acid batteries (silly me) were being drained like a 8 year old drinking a soda at McDonald's. Because it saw my trailers 12Vdc supply the cars alternator stopped charging all together, took a break I suppose. My advice, don't use your cars alternator to charge your RV batteries.
Just Saying
Roger