2013 Plateau TS - Power only from shore/generator

[jimaz]

I have a 2013 Pleasure-Way Plateau TS that we just bought that has developed a strange power problem. This started when I (accidentally) left the fridge on "dC" power, but did not connect to shore power, overnight at the house. When I came out in the morning, there was a loud alarm and the fridge showed "dC lO" (DC Low). We drove to an appointment and I waited in the RV for an hour, generator running, everything working.

When I turned the generator off, the lights went out, as did the water pump, the "idiot lights" (tank levels), nothing works except the power bed. I could not even start the generator again. When we got home, I connected to shore power again and everything works. There is a battery monitor that showed the battery level at 47%. I left the RV on shore power overnight and found the battery level at 45%. I checked the voltage on the house batteries (2 x 6 volt AGM), they are 6+ volts each and 12+ volts in series, so I assume that the battery monitor needs to be recalibrated, but it does not interrupt the battery circuit.

I've checked the battery disconnect, a couple fuses and the breakers are all on, I reset them all anyway, but since everything works when hooked to shore power or the generator, I think the problem is with some other component. Having just bought this, I am not well educated on its power system. I would *think* that there is some gizmo that has "blown out", but it doesn't make sense to do that.

I've also found that PW does not provide wiring diagrams of their vehicles, so I'm stuck there.

Any insights, suggestions?

[mikeehlert]

Originally Posted by jimaz

I have a 2013 Pleasure-Way Plateau TS that we just bought that has developed a strange power problem. This started when I (accidentally) left the fridge on "dC" power, but did not connect to shore power, overnight at the house. When I came out in the morning, there was a loud alarm and the fridge showed "dC lO" (DC Low). We drove to an appointment and I waited in the RV for an hour, generator running, everything working.

When I turned the generator off, the lights went out, as did the water pump, the "idiot lights" (tank levels), nothing works except the power bed. I could not even start the generator again. When we got home, I connected to shore power again and everything works. There is a battery monitor that showed the battery level at 47%. I left the RV on shore power overnight and found the battery level at 45%. I checked the voltage on the house batteries (2 x 6 volt AGM), they are 6+ volts each and 12+ volts in series, so I assume that the battery monitor needs to be recalibrated, but it does not interrupt the battery circuit.

I've checked the battery disconnect, a couple fuses and the breakers are all on, I reset them all anyway, but since everything works when hooked to shore power or the generator, I think the problem is with some other component. Having just bought this, I am not well educated on its power system. I would *think* that there is some gizmo that has "blown out", but it doesn't make sense to do that.

I've also found that PW does not provide wiring diagrams of their vehicles, so I'm stuck there.

Any insights, suggestions?

Well, evidently your converter and generator are not charging the battery.

A multimeter or test lamp to see what is getting voltage will really help.

[jimaz]

Ultimately, the "fix" was to realize the devices behind the little brown door with the battery disconnect switch are breaker, and that the tiny little button sticking out of one of them is the reset button. Pushed it in, and the lights came back on. It was, as I suspected, some gizmo in the line. I have to give credit to the prior owner for the solution.

What I still don't understand is why that breaker popped in the first place. The fridge was on DC power and the batteries went low. The only thing I can imagine is something tried to compensate for the low voltage and started pulling more amps, until the breaker finally popped.

[bl_smith25]

You have a 45A converter and a 30A electrical system and breaker. When you ran down the battery and plugged in, the converter likely sent out all 45A and tripped the breaker. Once it’s tripped, it stops the 12V system from working until it’s reset.
If you don’t keep running down your battery to dead, it won’t happen anymore and your battery will last a lot longer.
Anyways, most of the PW owners are on the groups.io platform. So since you have a PW, you will get PW experienced owners there.

[jimaz]

Originally Posted by bl_smith25

You have a 45A converter and a 30A electrical system and breaker. When you ran down the battery and plugged in, the converter likely sent out all 45A and tripped the breaker. Once it’s tripped, it stops the 12V system from working until it’s reset.
If you don’t keep running down your battery to dead, it won’t happen anymore and your battery will last a lot longer.
Anyways, most of the PW owners are on the groups.io platform. So since you have a PW, you will get PW experienced owners there.

That's what I thinking, along the lines of what an autoformer does, only worse. It ran down because I forgot to turn on the shore power breaker when I plugged in. I've signed up for the groups.io platform - thanks

[mkguitar]

Originally Posted by jimaz

The only thing I can imagine is something tried to compensate for the low voltage and started pulling more amps, until the breaker finally popped.

when voltage drops by 1/2, current draw ( amps) doubles


that's probably what happened


I went through similar on my 2006 PW the first week I had it


Right down to the breaker tripping



oops


gave me the impetus I needed to become more familiar with the electrical systems lay out in my van


Mike