June 18th - First Campout of the Season - Good and Bad

On Monday we took Homer to Meramec Valley RV Resort in Cuba, Missouri, for a couple of days of camping and family time with my sister, her husband, and two of their grandchildren. We had grandson Kellen with us so the cousins were able to have rare time together.

We hadn't driven long when the CO detector started beeping a pattern of beeps. It is old and I just figured it was beeping to let me know it needed to be replaced. I didn't think there was any other issue.

It was a two hour and a half hour drive to Cuba and when we arrived the automatic step would not come out. It works off the house batteries.  Last week I put two new six volt batteries in Homer. Upon checking the house batteries with a voltmeter they read 8 volts, instead of 12+ volts, which is needed for everything. This meant they were severely discharged. The batteries should have been kept charged on the trip by the truck alternator but apparently they weren't. I plugged Homer into the electric pedestal. It powered the converter/charger which converts the 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC needed for almost all interior electrical items. There was no change in the 12 volts. I then connected a battery charger I brought along to the batteries. I immediately had 12+ volt. The steps came out. I didn't know what was going on but things got much worse from there. The battery charger I used is an expensive one and is very sophisticated. It gives all types of readings of the battery conditions via three rows of LED lights.  Here is a picture of the charger hooked up.

It indicated that the batteries were severely discharged which didn't make sense to me. They were fully charged the day before and nothing was on during the trip except a small draw for the refrigerator control board.

I messaged my friend John and he suggested that something was drawing the batteries down. I disconnected the CO detector and the LP detector. At John's suggestion I also disconnected the new voltage meter which had quit working during all these weird electrical issues. Nothing else, other than the refrigerator was on drawing power. The 12 volt DC power for the refrigerator is merely for the control board. It draws very little, nothing like the draw needed to kill the batteries in 2.5 hours.

I tried different combinations of having the charger/converter plugged in and the external battery charger on, running things just on the battery charger, etc. We were getting power but the readings on the external battery charger were weird. We were getting ready for bed when all 12 volt electric went out. I went outside to check the battery charger and it was still charging. Then the florescent light came back on very dim and the refrigerator was blinking and clicking like crazy. I turned it off and then unplugged the charger/converter. The lights brightened up. Things then seemed "ok" so went to bed. I couldn't do much in the dark anyway.

I got up in the morning and turned on the hot water heater to take a shower. While the hot water heater runs on gas like the refrigerator it needs 12 volt DC for its control board. It lit then went out within a few seconds. It would not restart. I went outside unplugged the battery charger and plugged it back in and the water heater came on. The rest of the day the 12 volt system worked fine with the battery charger on and the interior charger/converter unplugged.

Despite these electrical issues we had a nice time. Daughter Alexa and her friend Aaron drove down for the day. The weather was cooler than we expected but plenty warm for the kids to swim in the pool.  Here are the three cousins in the pool - Jake, Loren, and Kellen.

After a nice steak dinner smores were in order. Here is a picture of some being made. Aaron was voted the best marshmellow melter.

Here is a picture of brother-in-law Jim relaxing  after we worked on the roof of his camper and fixed two of his interior lights.

Kellen taught everyone how to play "Kings in the Corner" and they played several rounds throughout the day.

 

Because of the bizarre electrical issues with Homer we decided to cut our trip a day short. When we were packing up I unplugged the electric and the refrigerator would not come on in the gas mode because the converter/charger was unplugged. I wasn't about to plug it back in. 

When I got home the batteries once again showed half discharged. That made no sense because absolutely nothing was drawing power.

More and more things were pointing to a problem with the charger/converter. I put this charger/converter in five years ago before we left for Alaska. It is state-of-the-art with a three stage charging system based on the needs of the batteries. A couple of weeks ago I thought it had not been charging correctly. I pulled it out and John took it home and tested it best he could. Everything seemed to be working properly. I reinstalled it. I will enlist John's help.