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Old 05-15-2005, 05:41 AM   #1
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My battery was dead (12 volt) and I neeeded it to start my generator so I could raise the camper with electric Jacks. Connected Jumper cables from my truck battery to the camper battery. Most vehicles use black as neg (-) and red as pos (+). I don't know why Lance made black pos (+) and white neg (-)! I messed up and connected them backwrds. The cables wer connected for about 5 minutes before I realized what I did. Blew the two main fuses and the generator fuse. Now with a newly charged battery, the instant I push in the battery on/off switch the two min fuses pop. I tried several fuses and all blow instantly. Is my converter/charger damaged or did I burn up a wire perhaps. I'm going out today to start tracing the wires from the battery to the converter to look for damage. Any help appreciated. Thanks
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Old 05-15-2005, 05:41 AM   #2
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My battery was dead (12 volt) and I neeeded it to start my generator so I could raise the camper with electric Jacks. Connected Jumper cables from my truck battery to the camper battery. Most vehicles use black as neg (-) and red as pos (+). I don't know why Lance made black pos (+) and white neg (-)! I messed up and connected them backwrds. The cables wer connected for about 5 minutes before I realized what I did. Blew the two main fuses and the generator fuse. Now with a newly charged battery, the instant I push in the battery on/off switch the two min fuses pop. I tried several fuses and all blow instantly. Is my converter/charger damaged or did I burn up a wire perhaps. I'm going out today to start tracing the wires from the battery to the converter to look for damage. Any help appreciated. Thanks
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Old 05-15-2005, 07:38 AM   #3
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HomerDog,
For starters take a volt-ohm meter check from frame of slide-in, an check to what you think is gnd wire to your battery. Using the ohm setting or a continuity tone setting. Unplug your converter. Gnd will not be fused. Let us know. --"007"
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Old 05-15-2005, 12:51 PM   #4
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I would recommend pulling all the 12 volt fuses in the DC distribution panel 1st, and disconnect the converter. You may need a bag of fuses as you test by trial an error as to which system was damaged. A simple ohm meter may not help all that much as many 12 volt system are low impedance (low resistance) and even a good system may look like a short circuit with an ohm meter, but it doesn't hurt to try either. Hope you get it fixed without much expense. This may seem a bit obvious now, but I would recommend clearly marking the battery connections to avoid this in the future.
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Old 05-16-2005, 03:32 AM   #5
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Thanks for the help. I pulled all of the fuses and replaced a small section of the negative wire going into the converter that looked kind of burnt. Tightened everything down and now it's all working as it should. Have had no problems since yesterday. Thanks again.
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Old 05-17-2005, 03:11 PM   #6
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Please, Need more help as I spoke too soon. After doing what I described above the 2 main 30 amp fuses on the DC distribution panel continue to blow. I was misled because all of my 12 volt systems now/still work after the fuses are blown. All AC powered systems also work. However, when I connect 12v to the system, either through the battery or starting my truck it burns both 30amp main fuses instantly. However, all 12 volt systems continue to work. After I connected the camper to 110 tonight I realized that the battery was not charging. When I fired up the truck it would charge. I've opened/removed/torn apart as much as I can and have found all wires to be in good shape and all connections tight. I've tried to run a new wire from the converter direct to the to the battery, both pos and neg and the fuses still blow. Could I have fried the actual 12 volt fuse panel? Just thinking out loud. I'm afraid of what it would cost to take this to someone to troubleshoot. Sorry about the long post and thanks for any input.

Dave
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Old 05-17-2005, 11:52 PM   #7
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I think you may have damaged the converter and I would recommend you look in that area. If all works off battery the 12 volt distribution circuuits are ok. The fact that the battery does not charge is an indication there is a charger problem (which is in the converter).
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Old 05-30-2005, 03:14 PM   #8
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RV Wizard, thanks for the help. A new converter fixed all of my problems. It is built as a unit and didn't look like you could replace individual components of it. I didn't suspect the converter at first because I thought that it was reverse polarity protected, but I believe that I damaged the Circuit board.
Now I have to figure out what I did to my Generac LP generator as I tried to start it as well with the battery hooked up backwards. When I try to start with either switch I hear a slight buzz but no cranking of the starter. The start solenoid has one cable coming from the battery and one going to the starter motor. There are also two wires coming off the start solenoid. One goes through the fuse to the start switch and the other one goes to the control board. I have good power from the battery and good power through the start switch that was checked with my tester. The wire coming from the control board has no power. I think that this is what energizes the solenoid to apply the power to the starter motor. I can jump the 12 volts from the battery input cable to the starter input cable and the generator will crank. I believe that the board is damaged and not the start solenoid but would like any inputs if anyone is willing to help. Thanks again, Dave
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Old 05-30-2005, 11:42 PM   #9
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Replacing the control board should repair the generator. Again due to reversed polarity the board blew a componet.
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Old 06-28-2005, 10:23 AM   #10
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I recently had a good one. I walked into a unit where all of the switches worked backwards. Up was off, down was on. Nothing with a circuit board would work. Water pump wouldn't pump...

Then it dawned on me. I stuck my test meter on the battery terminals and found that the battery was hooked up backwards, and was charging, and discharging, in reverse polarity.

I put a new battery in it, changed a couple of fuses, replaced the converter, and everything worked fine.



And when dealing with 12 volt stuff, black is hot, and white is ground. However, this does not always hold true. Color means nothing. Always look at the battery. If you take the cables off of the battery, mark them if there is any question as to how they go back on.

We've ran into a few problems with Weekend Warrior trailers. They have both black and white wires that go to ground.
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Old 06-30-2005, 07:51 PM   #11
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I always tie a knot in any positive wire(Battery charger, etc) so I can hook them up in low light or darkness. It also helps if you're colorblind.
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Old 07-01-2005, 04:07 AM   #12
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One of the wiring mods I did to my trailer was to install some bus bars from Home Depot in the battery compartment. Then I connected all the grounds to one bus bar and all the 12 volt hot wires to another bus bar. Finally, there is only one wire from the bus bar to each battery terminal. When I take the batteries out, I only need to keep track of one wire for each terminal, which is color coded black for ground and red for hot. The pic at http://www.klenger.net/arctic-fox/so...stallation.jpg isn't quite up to date, but you can get the idea of what I did.
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