1998 Fleetwood Tioga power issues

[johndrury]

I have a 1998 Tioga Class C Motorhome. When plugged into shore power, everything works as it should. When I unplug, I have no power to the lights and items that run on the coach batteries. Coach batteries are new. Any ideas?

[Skip426]

Welcome to iRV2

Sorry your first post is about problems .
Did you install the batteries ?
Are all the connections clean and tight?
Do you have a multi meter ?
Is your Class C equipped with a coach battery disconnect system ( salesman switch ).
There is a good chance there is a fuse or 12 volt circuit breaker in the power cable from the coach batteries before the distribution panel individual circuit fuses. That fuse ( C/B ) is usually in the first 3' of cable.

[johndrury]

Yes, the batteries are new and are charged. I have a multimeter and yes it has an disconnect switch. I spoke with Fleetwood and they mentioned the circuit breaker. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have plans for the Tioga so the location of that breaker is yet to be determined. I can't find it.

[Skip426]

The C/B should be between the batteries and the " disconnect relay " you'll have to go over every inch of the power cable .

Disconnect relay should look like the item in the yellow circle in the picture below . Check for battery power on both large terminals .
C/B might look like second picture , has manual reset lever.

[Skip426]

A second though ... I always have them ,

Did they mention a BCC ( Battery Control Center ) as being part of your coach electrical . The disconnect relay would be internal to the BCC ( it's a box about 8"x10 " x5 " with cable connections on the outside. Like picture below.

[twinboat]

Any circuit breaker will be close to the battery connections.

They protect the wiring so follow the poisitive battery cable or cables. The size of The cable size determines the size of breaker.

Sometimes a large cable goes to a junction point and smaller wires leave that with breakers on each wire.

My 2000 model MH used breakers like this.
Some have little reset buttons.

[johndrury]

I haven't been able to find the battery control center or the breaker, but as of yesterday afternoon, everything started working normally again. So I am really stumped now.

[Skip426]

The circuit breaker that Twinboat showed in his post is self resetting, your coach may have them for the main 12 volt power , and although normal reset would be 30 seconds, being older yours could have taken much longer.
So continue searching, because Murphy says you’ll loose power again...at the most inconvenient time.

[avfordguy]

Ok if I remember your tioga house batteries are on a slide table, correct? At least they were on my 97 that I had years ago, I would remove the ground cables and clean every connection in that battery compartment, from there the 12v goes to the 12v convertervpanel located at the front of the bed in the rear, check for loose connections on the back side where the 12 feed comes from the battery compartment.that 97 tioga 31w never gave me any gremlins other than a chewed wire in the onan, bought it new, rolled some 70,000 on it with no issues, solid unit, loved the locking slide !

[johndrury]

Yes, the batteries are on a slide table in the rear. I am unable to find the converter panel. When you say it is located at the front of the bed in the rear, is it accessible from the inside or the outside of the RV?

[avfordguy]

Look for a brown box at the foot of the bed, as your walking to the bedroom it should be facing you, between mattress platform and the floor.

[johndrury]

unfortunately, it's not there.

[JJ Meares]

We have a '98 Tioga 31' and the circuit panel is under the bed, at the foot of the bed on the passenger side facing toward the front. It is enclosed in a wooden box. We just had ours open yesterday by taking out the screws after lifting the bed.