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Question about DC Converter

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MandB View Drop Down
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    Posted: 01 Aug 2015 at 12:46pm
Do you need to have the battery attached to get DC current from the converter? Otherwise, will your lights work even if the battery isn't attached?

The reason I ask is that I believe my converter is dead (tested the 2- 40 amp auto fuses) and the easiest way I can think of to tell if the replacement works is to have the battery disconnected and turn on the lights. 

There is another reason I ask too. It would be nice to leave the battery disconnected for long periods of time and still have the ability to turn on lights when plugged into shore power. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HuronSailor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Aug 2015 at 5:36pm
The converter will supply power to the pod without a battery attached but it has a downside. If the converter is running and the positive battery lead touches the rpod frame anywhere, or touches the negative battery lead you've got a dead short and you will blow fuses and all sorts of bad stuff. Don't take the pod on the road without a battery, as this is the source of power for the emergency brakes in the event your pod becomes disconnected from the tow vehicle.

If you have a voltage tester, check the voltage at the battery terminals with the converter running. If you show about 13.6 volts the converter is running. A fully charged brand new deep cycle battery will only read around 12.8 volts. Another quick and dirty way to check is to press the battery check button on the tank monitor panel when the converter is running. If it shows 100% charged then it's a pretty good bet the charger is working like it should, and the monitor panel is actually reading the voltage from the charger.

The best solution for disconnecting your battery for long periods is to install a cutoff switch. The battery can be removed from the pod electrical system without having unconnected and possibly hot battery leads dangling in open space.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote furpod Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Aug 2015 at 8:38pm
BUT.. it's a very good charger/maintainer (3 stage). If you are going to be hooked up to shore power, NO reason to disconnect the battery.
Mark, Susie, Micah, and The Maggie.
'11 RP177(sold) '17 Lance 2295FurPodsMods
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Lark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2015 at 8:38am
As a Ham, a problem with the Wfco  converter is that it creates a great deal of RF noise.  After market units are available to  fit the Wfco that eliminate this problem. 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MandB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2015 at 9:48am
Thanks for all the replies. I'll probably order a battery disconnect along with the converter. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote furpod Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2015 at 10:08am
If you are sure the converter is dead...

if you click my "mods" link , and go to page 8, there is a walk through of a Intelli Power 9260 instal..
Mark, Susie, Micah, and The Maggie.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MandB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Aug 2015 at 11:25am
Thanks everyone for the help with this problem. The help proved very valuable. I decided to go with the factory replacement as I didn't want this to be any harder than it needed to be and with a little luck we will be replacing this trailer in a year or two. It ended up being a 2 person job. I had to do the replacement and the wife's job was to do the nagging. Otherwise it would have never got done. It takes about an hour to do the replacement and I am sure a skilled person could do it in a shorter period of time. The only trick I will pass along to neophytes is that the job is nearly impossible to do unless you loosen the circuit board from the panel. That wasn't readily obvious because some monster cable was blocking the view of the release clip on the bottom of the circuit board. I took pictures of everything before I started which made it easy to put everything back together and how to route the wires. 

Not impressed at all with Forest River's quality control. However this was a 2 year old trailer when we bought it, so the following flaws could have been introduced after the sale. I however very much doubt that. Weeks ago when I first looked at this and tested the fuses and wire connections I noticed a black 12 gauge clipped wire just hanging free in the fuse panel. All I could see was that it went behind the panel. I figured I would investigate it when I did the repair, but I was fairly sure it had nothing to do with failure as the hot (120V) 12 gauge wire from the converter was firmly attached in a twist-on and all that stuff was on the other side of the panel. This on top of the fact that the wire was deliberately clipped.  When I removed the circuit board, a 4 inch or so wire just dropped out. Both ends clipped flush with the insolation. That black wire was just some scrap left inside the fuse box. Very sloppy and potentially dangerous. This is on top of me discovering a year or so ago that the box the GFI is mounted in had the whole top-left corner broken off. These boxes are there to prevent sparks from igniting things and the Rpod is a tinder box. Not sure how RV construction works but when you build a house or have any significant work done, you have electrical inspectors that look over the work as it is being done. What do they have in the RV industry? I sort of doubt any government entity follows the build throughout the process, but I don't know. You would have to have multiple people there full time. Humans make mistakes and take dangerous shortcuts and the way to prevent that is with inspections. Off my soapbox now. 



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