Community Forums

Todd T · 06-07-2005, 07:38 AM

well things are not looking good. our 3mo old Wolf Pack decided to shed its converter yesterday.

we had just opened the trailer for my brother in law to stay in for the week while in town working. we turned the air on and walked back to his truck to get his luggage. while walking back we could see smoke rolling out the door.

I quikly ran and unplugged it and started to investigate. it turns out the 12 volt converter shot craps. there is a big capacitor that the top blew out of and shot oil and smoke all over everything under there. now the trailer is completely dead of course.

the dealer is ordering parts and i hope to get it in next week for the repairs. what gives here? its been plugged in here at home since we got it. no storms, shoot it hasnt rained for over a month. we usually keep it plugged in and the fridge on while in the driveway. the kids will play with thier puzzles and watch TV occasionally too. is this not a good idea?

Todd T · 06-07-2005, 07:38 AM

well things are not looking good. our 3mo old Wolf Pack decided to shed its converter yesterday.

we had just opened the trailer for my brother in law to stay in for the week while in town working. we turned the air on and walked back to his truck to get his luggage. while walking back we could see smoke rolling out the door.

I quikly ran and unplugged it and started to investigate. it turns out the 12 volt converter shot craps. there is a big capacitor that the top blew out of and shot oil and smoke all over everything under there. now the trailer is completely dead of course.

the dealer is ordering parts and i hope to get it in next week for the repairs. what gives here? its been plugged in here at home since we got it. no storms, shoot it hasnt rained for over a month. we usually keep it plugged in and the fridge on while in the driveway. the kids will play with thier puzzles and watch TV occasionally too. is this not a good idea?

56Nomad · 06-07-2005, 08:07 AM

Boy...... hope your dealer puts in a
better converter than first one.

Glad that it only resulted in smoke...

FatDog · 06-07-2005, 08:09 AM

Todd,
welcome to iRV2 and welcome to ToyHauler land !

sorry to hear about a brand new solid state converter blowing its lid. Not good.

Sometimes bad luck seems to follow my brother-in-law around too, but thats not your point.

The converter is your 110 volt converter, or do you have an inverter? And we used ours a lot when we had our smaller trailer stored at home, kind of a rumpus room on the driveway. That should be fine. I think you just got a bad converter. You did have it plugged into 30 amp service from the house?

And an interesting choice as well - Cherokee Wolf Pack. We look forward here to hearing more about it. Where abouts you from? and what are your uses for your 'hauler?

Again, sorry to hear of the problem.
Mike

Todd T · 06-07-2005, 09:12 AM

thanks Mike, its the converter for the 12volt that switches from battery to 110/12v when the power is pugged in. its a Parallax 7300 series.

yes, I had a 30amp dedicated circuit and outlet installed just for the trailer before we brought it home.

I was able to weed out the converter (4 wires)and then found a fusable link blown just after the battery on the frame rail. i have power (110v) restored to the trailer with the battery and solar charger running all the 12 volt items now. just the converter and that fuse blew. it must have been a bad unit. at least the brother-in-law can use it the rest of the week.

We haul our dirt bikes. I race hare scrambles. My wife rides a TTR125le and our oldest boy (5yrs) rides a JR50 just for trail riding and the like.

we have three kids and camping is in our blood. this is our first RV we tent camped for years until the kids came along. we love it, sleeps 8 in beds and can hold another queen bed in the ramp room (10 if you're counting) and then there's the floor. LOL

FatDog · 06-07-2005, 10:44 AM

So you have a custom built crib for your toyhauler with its own electricity, well WWFan (Sean) has a thread going here looking for pics of these. We're all interested in good ideas and how everyone does theirs.

Sounds like the capacitor or something blew its cork and sent the full juice on downstream?? I personally haven't seen that happen. good catch on the fusable link too. Surprised an electrical glitch didn't surface the first week.

Toss out some info on that solar charger too. There isn't one of us here who couldn't use a little more "how i did its" on that.

While you're at it post a pic of your trailer at one of those scrambles. Dirtier the better.

And its funny how you say it sleeps 10, shoot maybe even .....
that really is true. When my pops first started taking us kids tent camping, the trunk of the car would sleep two kids if it started snowing too hard. And thats the way we look at our trailer these days. We divide the total square footage of the floor and divide that by a 6' long person, and thats how many it sleeps.

Vette Racer · 06-08-2005, 07:09 AM

Welcome to the forum Todd T, Sorry to hear about the converter but it should be an easy fix.

FD, I like the old addage better about the sleeping capacities of a trailer.

10 for dinner, 4 for drinks, and sleeps 2.

OR, is that 10 for drinks, 4 for dinner, and sleeps 2 ????????????????????????.

Todd T · 06-09-2005, 09:56 AM

shoot you're lucky. we grew up sleeping in tents. the "adults" got to use the trailer. us kids would just go knock on the door and they would serve us through the screen door slot. yelling "hurry up you're letting flys in" LOL

Knowing what i know now, I'm convinced those flys wanted nothing to do with all that cigarette smoke in there! but that's another topic. (no I'm not bitter, I'll be OK)

the solar charger came on the trailer. its mounted in the air conditioner filter section and the solar panel is on the roof just above. dont know much more about that. it works great we can jamb the 150 watt stereo all day and run the lights all night on the one battery.

I saw that thread. the "Crib" you speak of is what us country folks call a driveway. And the 2-4-D keeps the weeds from a-growin! LOL

seriously, I just park the TT in the driveway (big enough to hold 18 cars) and plug her in to an outlet we installed on the corner of the garage. it took us several weeks to figure out the best place to keep it. we tried; in front of the garage, beside the garage, out by the barn, all four corners of the driveway and finally settled on where it's at now. its out of the way and doesnt block our view of the pond from the house. I use the garden hose to fill it up and the gray water i dump in the creek out by the barn (where all our home grey water goes). the black i dump in town. we're on a ceptic system here.

FatDog · 06-09-2005, 10:46 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I saw that thread. the "Crib" you speak of is what us country folks call a driveway </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yo, we call it a driveway out here too.

and '56Nomad:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">..And the 2-4-D keeps the weeds from a-growin!... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
reminds me of YOUR cri.. ehhhh,.. driveway. Except Todd USES the 2-4-D

and Todd, that sounds great having a solar already on your trailer. I wonder if it is a normal Cherokee factory job, or if the dealer tosses them on.

Todd T · 07-06-2005, 12:24 PM

the converter has been replaced and this weekend we found the reason it blew. see my post "i think i need a lawyer" in the tt and 5th wheel troubles forum.