12V lights get brighter and dimmer

[jjmeneau]

Hi, I have a question my fathers camper the lights constantly get brighter and dimmer. He had the battery checked and all was good. I disconnected the converter from the panel and checked the voltage and it was 13.6V which is supposed to be good. the lights get brighter when the fan on the converter kicks in. when I hooked the converter back to the panel and he plugged it back in to the shore power I was reading about 7V and the lights were dim then he hooked the battery back up and it jumped to 12V and the lights got brighter. I'm thinking its the converter going bad. any suggestions?????? just another note it is a permenant and has never traveled with it and it is always plugged into shore power

thanks for any help

["007"]

Welcome to irv2 jjmeneau.
It maybe your converter. First check all screw connections 12V off converter to fuse panel in RV, power leads feeding converter and any ground wires or cables from converter & battery to frame of RV making they are clean and tight.
You mentioned fuse panel when hooked to converter may want to pull all fuses and put them in one at a time to see if one of them circuits is causing the lights to dim.
If one does then you will have to find out why.
If this is a trailer converters are not that expensive and you could use a 12v battery charger until you get your new converter if necessary.
Let us know how your making out.

[SUMDALUS]

jjmeneau,

In addition to the recommendations from "007", I would also recommend checking the output of the converter with a volt meter. You should read something between 13.2 and 13.6 volts as the normal (not charging) output.

When a converter goes into boost (charge) mode, the lights tend to brighten up because of the increased output of the converter - somewhere around 14.2 volts. The fan comes on when the converter reaches a designated ambient temperature - caused by the increased heat from converting the higher output.

Hope this helps.

[jjmeneau]

I did check the output voltage I disconnected the converter from the fuse panel and when I checked it it was 13.6 v. But when I hooked it back to the fuse panel and checked it again it dropped to about 7v without the battery connected and it went to 12v with the battery connected. Just a question on boost mode how often should it go on the fan on the converter goes on about every 1 to 2 min thanks for your help

[ksg5000]

Do you know which model converter you have? Older converters put out a constant voltage and are sometimes called "battery eaters" -- newer "smart" converters will have several modes which are designed to vary voltage to extend battery life.

[garym114]

To provide a constant 12v older converters need a good battery for everything to operate correctly. Have you checked the battery ??

[jjmeneau]

My dad had the battery checked and it was good the converter is a wfco wf-9865

[jjmeneau]

Thanks for the help I replaced the converter with a new one and it solved the problem also when I checked the voltage where it connected to the panel there was only 7 volts when the battery was not connected and after I replaced it with the new one and and checked it without the battery I had 13.6 v like I should

Thanks again