Lost power on 5th wheel

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

The other night I had the power cord from the trailer hooked to the truck and I was raising the trailer with the jacks to hook to the truck. Got the trailer about half way up and lost all power. The jacks and lights all went dead. I checked all the fuses in the breaker box in the bathroom and all were good. I checked all the in-line fuses under the front of the trailer and all of those were good. Also, since this happened, the trailer battery isn't charging. Any ideas would be great, thanks. Mike

 

[Ramtough]

You didn't say what type of trailer you have. I have a 315G Wilderness - had a very similar problem. I found a 30a in-line fuse right beside the jack motor.

 

[KBalzuweit]

Check the plug on the truck and see if you have power coming from the truck. If not check the fuse in the under the hood fuse box. If thats good then you may have the same problem I have had. I found about 18" away from the plug on the truck that the wire had corroded inside and thats why I lost power. Karl

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Ramtough, I've got a 32' Travel Supreme triple slide 5th wheel. I found that same fuse, not blown. I also found four other in-line fuses that are not blown either.



Karl, I checked the fuses on the truck too. Then I started thinking, the fuses on the truck really shouldn't matter in this case. The outside lights and jacks have always worked without the trailer being plugged in. I recently added more weight to the front of the trailer so I'm thinking something got too hot and kicked out, but I can't find any blown fuses.



Thanks for the replys. Mike

 

[CCBrady]

Mike, you say that you have checked all of the fuses, this is a start. Now check all of your grounds and your batteries for proper and good connections. Also if you can, get brhind the power panel and make sure that the connections there are ok. A problem with RV's is that the mfrs don't always do a good job on these connections and they either come loose or start to corrode, this will cause heat in the wires that burns the wire into or just breaks the electrical path.

Good luck, Chris

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Chris, thanks, I'll check all that out now. Mike

 

[BKeence]

Mike,



I have resets on the battery disconnect switches on mine that "threw" once, I'm trying to remember... . Peko or something like that was the brand name of the switches. They were mounted in the battery compartment. HTH



Brian

 

[cwsoules]

My battery charger has fuses as part of the charger. I have to crawl into the basement and use a flashlight to find mine.



Time to breakout a good digital voltmeter. I would start at the batteries and trace back on the wires to see where voltage available stops. If you were on shore power and lost it some how you should still have battery power.



It sounds as if you have lost a main dc power connection. i would also check the connections to the battery and at the power panels to ensure they are not corroded and all terminals are tight, including the ground connection to your frame.



In my rig I have had a main power lead ground out on the opposite power connection on one of my batteries. It shorted out the cable and the ruined the battery. Blown fuses occur on occasion.



You should be able to find this problem with basic tools and a voltmeter. A good set of coveralls would be useful as our are likely to do a lot of crawling around on this easter egg hunt.

 

[CCBrady]

Mike,

Brians post about battery disconnect switchs, made me think of one other thing to look for. On another unit that I worked on that the slides stopped working on I found that it had manual reset circit breakers next to the batteries. These have a little arm that pops out when they trip, if you have these, just reset them and then start looking for your real problem that caused them to trip in the first place.

Chris

 

[JJ Jackson]

You say the battery isn't charging, are you absolutely sure your terminals are clean? Maybe the battery is dead. The truck 12V wire won't supply enough power to power anything if the battery is dead. Good luck... ... ... ... ... Jim

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

OK, it's a new Optima battery, just checked voltage, 12. 9V. I checked all the connections and they are all tight and clean. The battery terminals are tight and clean too.

Chris, I'll check those little circuit breakers now. Thanks guys. Mike

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Chris, you were right on with the tripped breaker. There are two of those little 40A breakers there and one was tripped. Thanks everyone for your replys, much appreciated. Mike