'03 granby electrical queations

[reflex99]

My '03 granby is new to me in the last year and I've had a couple issues I was going for some guidance on.

One is quite simple. Despite looking up manuals on the FWC site as well as searching this forum, I haven't been able to find out exactly what the switch under the sink is for...

Also, and more importantly, whenever I connect to "shore power", I trip the GFI of the outlet I'm connecting to. Which is annoying as I would like to trickle charge the 2 deep cycle batteries I installed rather than us a separate charger which is what I do now. It seems the converter is set up for this and wiring seems intact and correct but not sure why I keep tripping GFI outlets I plug in to. Now to clarify, these are outlets at my home, external outlets connected to no more than a 15breaker at the fuse box but it's the GFI outlet that trips, not the breaker at the box. I have tried tripping GFI prior to plugging I and then resetting it after I've plugged in but that doesn't work either.

Sorry, I'm sure these are newbie questions but I would appreciate any help you can provide, thanks!





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[Wandering Sagebrush]

OK, one more 2¢ worth for today. Unless someone has monkeyed with your converter, or it has failed, I suspect the issue is with your house wiring. You can pick up a circuit tester for just a few bucks ($10ish) that will let you know if it is wired correctly. They identify things like open grounds, open neutral, hot and neutral swapped, etc.. Handy to have around the house anyway. I would start there. This is a fairly common problem in RV parks where the electrical service is old. Lots of folks use the circuit tester or a surge protector prior to/when hooking up shore power.

Just out of curiosity, does everything work correctly at other sites, with and without GFI?

If it's OK, then I would start looking at the camper. Here's where a digital multimeter might come in handy, also not too expensive, $20-$30. I would check to see if there is a current on the camper skin, to ground. Just so you don't end up being the path for current, when you grab the door, with your feet in a puddle. If you have significant voltage (and I can't tell you what that would be) between the skin and ground, be really careful. You don't want to be the path for that current when grabbing the door. I don't know enough about the converters to tell you how to find the issue. Oh, it could be an AC receptacle in the FWC, too. Anything plugged in to them?

The switch... Maybe a light to illuminate the floor.

Hope that gives you some ideas. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Edit: regarding trickle charging. Unless you have a multi stage converter, chances are you won't be able to trickle charge the batteries. It will keep the charge voltage, therefore the current, high enough to damage the batteries if left connected for a long period of time.

 

[DrJ]

Have you tried plugging your camper into a non GFI outlet?

You might find that it charges just fine from there.

Sometimes there is a "load" that creates an immediate current from the camper that causes these to trip.

I've had that happen with some other FWCs and they seem to work just fine on a non GFI outlet.

 

[wuck]

It sounds like you've tried more than one GFI outlet, if that is the case then you have a current path from the AC hot to ground. This can be caused by anything from a dirty outlet to a failing line filter capacitor in you elixer converter.

From your picture, it appears you have only a single AC breaker. Turn it off, and plug in. If the gfi trips, check the wiring between the outside socket and the converter, pay attention to any insect nests, water leaks etc. A very small amount of current can cause that gfi trip, less than 10 mA (0.01 amp). If the gfi doesn't trip, then suspect the converter.

If you have another breaker panel in front of the elixer, try the test with that panel. Shut off the main breaker, test, try each circuit separately to "divide and conquer".

The elixer manual indicates a two step charging profile, which should be adequate for your batteries.

The only switch in my hawk (04) controls the optional rear flood lights.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

The switch on the cabinets will turn on power to the interior lights and roof van, if you have one.

Switch off, interior lights won't turn on.


Always best NOT to plug the camper into an outlet equipped with a GFCI built in.

Best to plug the camper into a normal 120V outlet without GFCI protection.

We only used that Elixer power converter for 6 months before we realized what a POS it was.



The fuse panel is separate, so that is probably working just fine.

But if I had to bet $$ on it, I would guess your power converter is "dead" and needs replacing.

Try plugging into an outlet that is NOT GFIC protected, first.

If that doesn't work, there are many aftermarket plug and play replacements available on-line, if you need.

Maybe something like this . . .

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?skunum=86727&rewrote&affiliateid=5193&gclid=CLq9jMvhhM0CFZSEfgodM0MFMg


Hope this helps a bit.

Happy Camping.



.

 

[reflex99]

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

Like Stan and a couple of you suggested, I have tried plugging in to a non GFCI outlet and the battery monitor inside the camper does indicate "charging" when I do this. I haven't had a chance to run the batteries down a bit and charge up again from a non-GFCI plug, but I will give it a try and let you know what happens.

Stan, I thought that switch I inquired about was the "on/off" for the overhead lights and fan, but it doesn't seem to be working, switching it on or off doesn't seem to make a difference either way. They still work no matter which way the switch is positioned.

Speaking of the inverter, one thing I noticed is that the 120v AC outlet only works when the camper is plugged in to 120v AC power... Which I have only done once with a non GFCI outlet so it has only worked one time. So my question is, isn't the inverter supposed to convert the DC from the battery to the AC for the outlet? Or is that something more advanced that inverter doesn't do?

Another question is the about the battery master switch. Of course my model is a 2003 and online the FWC website doesn't list a manual for that year. But in the other manuals, it's describes a red "push/pull" knob that is a master battery cut off so that things like the leak sensor will not drain the battery while the camper is stored between trips. My question is, does this "push/pull" exist on my camper, and if so where is it? I have looked next to the breaker box where it is described in the manual but cannot find it... :/

Thanks again for you help!

John





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[Wallowa]

John...to the best of my limited knowledge..FWCs have converters [chargers] and separators [isolators] but no inverters...hence external power needed to use the 120 v outlets...

Phil

I carry a 12 volt 400w portable inverter for small jobs...grinding coffee!....pulls serious amps.

 

[reflex99]

@wallowa

Right... Converter, not inverter. Now I remember why I bought that inverter way back... Lol. I haven't even had to take it out of the box so far. Nothing I use draws much power at all... I use a hand crank burr grinder.

So, since the battery indicator underneath the counter has a green light indicating "charge" when I plug in to a non GFCI outlet, then I can assume it's charging? I'll have to try it out the next time I discharge the batteries which should be in another couple weeks.

Thanks!
John



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[reflex99]

Also, I missed @wuck mentioning to try turning off the AC breaker to the outlet in the camper prior to plugging in.... I'll give that a try too. And also thanks for the nudge to google up the Elixir manual...

Best
John



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[ntsqd]

Our Phoenix has one of those Elixer thing-a-ma-bob's. The "converter" did charge the batteries, but it is really stupid. It just puts some set voltage and current to them regardless of their state of charge. When I found that it was causing the electrolyte in our batteries to boil I disabled the 'converter' feature, and installed a battery charger with a 4 stage charging program. Present plan is to remove it entirely and replace it with a Blue Seas 12VDC fuse block and 120VAC breaker. In the process I expect to lighten the camper by about 20-25 lbs.

 

[Happyjax]

Did I forget to label that self destruct switch again?

 

[wuck]

The monitor panel "Charge" indicates a certain voltage level present on the battery, but is intended to give a warm fuzzy feeling about the state of the battery. A better indicator would be an actual voltmeter on the battery itself, or even an accessory outlet (cigarette lighter socket) voltmeter like this.

With two votes against the Elixer, it is certainly worth a good hard look at the charge profile to to make sure your batteries aren't at risk. Maybe Stan can elaborate on the issues they incurred.

Here's the master kill switch in my Hawk:

It's big and red, should be easy to find if present

The knob is easily removed, maybe yours was unscrewed along the way, leaving this:

 

[AK Nomad]

reflex99, my 04 Grandby did not come with a red knob (DC power on/off). I added one on the positive conductor running from battery to power center. I like to turn DC off when camper is not in use to keep things like the CO detector from draining battery (I don't have solar).

My 04 Grandby also came with the Elixer unit, which I scrapped for an IOTA converter/charger and BlueSea fuse block.