Battery charging problem

Originally posted by McLagman If anyone has any insight on battery charging, please help! I picked up my new R-Pod the other day, left the fridge on battery overnight, then the next day it was dead as a doornail.  -- I left it hooked up to shore power overnight. When I checked it this morning, the batteries were still dead as a doornail (no charge at all). -- While hooked up to shore power AND with the dead batteries, the lights and furnace would not work. However, the television, air conditionaer, microwave and fridge would work fine. -- I hooked up the tow vehicle, cranked it, and with it hooked up, the lights, furnace and pump worked fine. -- I let the tow vehicle run for about an hour and it charged the batteries up to where the indicator said 2/3 full. -- I disconnected the tow vehicle but left the shore power connected (with the 2/3 battery charge). Everything seemed to be working fine, but after an hour or so of using the bathroom fan and a couple of lights and television, the indicator said it was down to 1/3 battery left. Is that normal? So I think the tow vehicle will charge the battery, the AC appliances will work on shore power, but the inverter or shore power is not charging the battery or putting out DC (for the lights, furnace, etc.). Does anyone know what might cause this or how to fix it? I checked the fuse box and it didn't appear that any fuses were blown.  This is a brand new R-pod... I found this on my shakedown. Also, the dealer where I bought the R-Pod is in another state. My local deal sells Forest Rivers, but not the R-pod line. Will the local dealer make warranty repairs or do I have to re-tow it back where I got it? (I'm going to post this in the repairs thread too.) Thanks for any help! - Davis

My pod is sitting in the driveway hooked up to the umbilical.  I unhooked the battery and checked the lights, which worked.  This is how I thought it should work.  When hooked to umbilical the 120v runs through an inverter, which provides 12v DC to run appliances and charge the battery.  This suggests that your pod may have a problem with the power conversion between 120 and 12 volts. 

Sounds like you've sorted out the distribution of 12v and 120v in the trailer.  So I've nothing to add there.

I too bought my pod in another state and have a local FR dealer who doesn't sell them.  I had a problem with the 120v when the pod was hooked to the umbilical.  The local FR dealer helped me on warranty.  I can't say for sure whether or not it is a policy, but I can say my local dealer did warranty work in a situation similar to yours.

Good luck sorting it out.

I answered some of your questions on the other thread you started on this.  I'll continue by saying that your local Forest River dealer can handle any warranty issues, especially for a generic part like the converter.  However, they are not obliged to help you.  Unlike car dealerships, camper dealerships aren't required to do work on campers they didn't sell.

Originally posted by techntrek ... the AC mode isn't working for some reason (someone here recently had that problem) ... .

I had an AC problem recently, which turned out to be a burnt pin in the female end of the umbilical cord.  My local dealer (the trailer was purchased out of state as posted earlier) identified the burnt pin as the problem with the cable and fixed it for me.

It is good to know that they are under no obligations to perform warranty work.  Thanks for clarifying that.

One more follow-up. I have two batteries. They are wired as so: the cable coming from the R-Pod to the batteries has the white cable to the negative post and red cable to positive on battery 1, then a black cable from from positive on battery 2 to positive on battery 1, then a white cable from negative on battery 2 to negative on battery 1. Does that sound right?

I'm not following your description.  Parallel is correct, as Keith-N-Dar said.  The positives should be connected (+ to +) and negatives (- to -).  When black and white are used together black is positive and white is negative, this is due to color coding used by the NEC for AC wiring.

Then the positive (red) going to the pod should be connected to the positive terminal on one battery - and this is important for battery longevity - the negative (black) should be connected to the OTHER battery's negative terminal.  I won't go into details why, just trust me.  When black and red are used together black is negative and red is positive.  This is a carryover from automotive wiring.