Community Forums

Rick_K · 11-30-2009, 08:16 PM

Hello!
Been awhile since I've been on, but I had a question and am in need of some advice. The converter on my '90 American Star trailer blew the top of the battery right off, which of course means to me that I have an issue somewhere in the charging circut.

Don't mean to ramble, but this is what I did, in an attempt to isolate the issue:

When I disovered the blown battery, I unplugged the AC power, disconnected the battery, cleaned up the mess, etc., and plugged the AC back in (no battery hooked up at this point)

Now I have 3 white wires (ground leads) up front and one black. I checked voltage, and am getting 11.6 on all except one. For lack of a better description, when I put the negative lead of my meter to one of the white wires (and the red lead to the black wire), I get voltage jumping all over the place - so I am assuming that this ground wire may have a short in it. This particular white wire is the thinnest of all of them (not sure why the difference).

Also, my converter hums sometimes, quite loudly.

Should I go through the motions of checking all the wiring under the camper, or, should I just replace the coverter?

I should also mention that I have the correct (or what seems to be correct) voltage at the fuses - 11.6, which seems a little low to me - so I'm thinking that any issues are underneath.

I've been through every system on this camper, and everything is working perfectly for a 20 year old unit, only this one's got me stumpped!

Any advice or direction here is really appreciated.

Thank you

wa8yxm · 12-01-2009, 09:20 AM

First: Can you tell us what converter you have?

Second: BestConverter - Converters, Inverters, Electrical Supplies, Electronics if I have typed it right, They sell both the Xantrex True Charge XADC and the Progressive Dynamics 9200 (also the 9100 with optional charge wizard) and I would pick one of those 3 to replace the existing converter.

If you have something like a Magnetek 6300 (That will be your main power panel) the easiest way to "replace" it is to simply cut and tape off the 120 vac wire to the converter (or disconnect it from the breaker and re-use that breaker for the new one) and mount the new one elsewhere.

or you can remove an bypass the orignial and put the new one in the hole left behind.

Finally. that said.. IF the battery failed in the shorted cell mode.. Then you are trying to charge a 10 v or 8 v (2 cells) battery to the proper voltage for a 12V battery... This can cause exactly the symptoms you cited.

Rick_K · 12-01-2009, 07:33 PM

Thanks for the reply wa8yxm. I'm not certain of the make on the converter. I'll be out this weekend to finalize the winterization, so I'll check it out. The prices on the website you quoted above seem very reasonable. I'm not against just replacing everything outright, I just want to make sure there'd be no other reason for the battery to blow. It was about 4 years old, and never really used that much as we always used the AC power.

Thanks again,
Rick

Dav5942 · 12-02-2009, 04:44 AM

Are you sure the battery had water in it? Main reason they blow, not necessarily the fault of the charging system.

Rick_K · 12-02-2009, 07:22 AM

From what I could tell, there was water in it. I'm only pointing to the converter, for two reasons. 1, the ridiculous humming sound that it makes, and 2, the fact that when I test for voltage up front, I get that crazy voltage reading when I test at the one ground wire. I'll have to get up under there and check everything out. I just don't like going into uncharted waters without first getting some advice from the experts...
Thanks
Rick

Rick_K · 12-05-2009, 07:27 PM

The converter is a Magnetek TU-740-2, and the power panel is a Westinghouse TT20FLNG, SLNG - Type 1, Max Rating of 40A. I see by some research I did that Parralax bought out the Magnetek line. I took some pictures of everything, and while I was taking them I noticed that EVERYTHING under there was just packed with dust/dirt and whatnot.

I suppose before I invest in a new converter, I will need to clean everything up, check the wiring underneath, etc., and go from there.

Does it make sense that all this grime could be causing something to go wrong? And, what unit would you recommend as a direct replacement?

Thanks agian!
Rick