Roadtrek No House Power After Reinstalling Battery

[alwechs]

Greetings. I have a Roadtrek camper van with an electrical problem. I'm not getting any house power, either from the house battery or from shore power. However, the microwave is working when I plug it into shore power. The battery has a full charge. I checked the circuit breakers and they all seem to be on. I did make sure the battery bypass switch was turned to "on" when I plugged it into shore power.

It worked fine last year, and I took the house battery out for the winter. This problem was discovered when I put it back recently. Is there anything simple that I'm missing? Also, when I put the battery back I realized I wasn't sure which leads were positive or negative (I tried all the variations with no power). The manual was no help, of course. Can anyone confirm if I've got this plugged in correctly (Positive is on the right). I tried switching them around and neither configuration worked.

? Thanks!

 

[booster]

Greetings. I have a Roadtrek camper van with an electrical problem. I'm not getting any house power, either from the house battery or from shore power. However, the microwave is working when I plug it into shore power. The battery has a full charge. I checked the circuit breakers and they all seem to be on. I did make sure the battery bypass switch was turned to "on" when I plugged it into shore power.

It worked fine last year, and I took the house battery out for the winter. This problem was discovered when I put it back recently. Is there anything simple that I'm missing? Also, when I put the battery back I realized I wasn't sure which leads were positive or negative (I tried all the variations with no power). The manual was no help, of course. Can anyone confirm if I've got this plugged in correctly (Positive is on the right). I tried switching them around and neither configuration worked. View attachment 2491120? Thanks!

Red would normally be positive and blue negative. It is likely that by hooking up backwards the Tripplite or other charger has faulted or possibly damaged. There should be a reset button on the Tripplite you can push and possibly some resettable breakers.

If the microwave works, you should have shore power on all the outlets except the inverter switched outlets like the audio cabinet and kitchen and maybe another depending on year and model.

Are the batteries currently hooked up properly now, if not you need to switch the leads before resetting things.

 

[alwechs]

Thanks. I did start with red in the positive spot -- that didn't work initially. It is currently hooked up correctly. What do you mean by "tripplite?"

 

[DaveBad]

A Tripp Lite unit is a combined system converts 12V DC battery power to 110V AC household power, acts as a multi-stage battery charger, and serves as an automatic transfer switch when plugged into shore power or running a generator.

 

[DaveBad]

One possibility is that the unit may need to be reset. If the unit locks up or stops transferring power, you can force a reset. Move the slide switch to "Off", unplug from shore power, wait a moment, plug shore power back in, and return the switch to "Auto/Remote".
This image may or may not be similar to your unit.

 

[alwechs]

Oh, great, that is very helpful. Is that located under the bed in back? I think I recall seeing it in a compartment next to the water heater.

 

[cptnjohn]

why are there two negative wires but only one positive wire? you may find another positive wire that got shoved out of the way when battery disconnected?

 

[Richard Cranium]

That battery looks awful "gunky". Is that dust or salt/acid buildup? If it sat over the winter and completely discharged it could show 12 VDC after charging but not have enough amperage to use the inverter.
If you don't have a battery tester, most all auto part stores will test for you. How many volts are you getting under load?
But to the original problem. If you aren't getting 110 from the inverter supplied outlets, it's most probably the Tripplite that needs to be reset. They are built pretty tough and a reverse voltage shouldn't kill it but it very well could trip the internal breaker. In Dave Bad's picture it's the black button. It only trips out a short distance so it may not look like it tripped. Push it anyway, it won't affect anything if it isn't tripped and you'll feel a slight click if it was.

 

[joglen]

I am not electrically inclined but your electrical symptoms sound like something my son, who is good at electrical, helped me troubleshoot when I first purchased my 2004 Roadtrek 3 years ago. I had removed the house battery to clean terminals and I believe what happened next caused the same problem you describe. As I put the battery back in, the cables were attached. The positive terminal may have momentarily touched and grounded the the un-insulated metal opening to the house battery compartment. At that moment I think I fried the 30A breaker and was unaware (maybe the 50A too - can't remember). See drawing - Breakers highlighted in pink. Also see pic of of me pointing to these (located under drivers side bed). Do a continuity check on those. If bad head to your closest auto parts dealer. These were cheap and available where I shop here in Florida. Good luck.