Quote:
Originally Posted by T and C
Tim,
Thanks for the links.
My TM suffers from the common problem of arriving at a campsite with the batteries low. The cause is that the refrigerator and fan draw more power than is replaced by the TV. There are fixes but they all seem to be beyond my level of understanding. I know very little about electricity.
When I plugged in to the campsite AC, my power center began to make a noise I had not heard before. I listened and figured it must be a cooling fan.
Sure enough, the manual says that when it kicks into bulk mode a cooling fan clicks on.
Tom
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I haven't actually tested the available Amps from my Tow Vehicle with larger size 12v charge wire so take my experience as what it is.
Since buying the TM we have had same problem even on a short trip. The battery was too weak to even run our tongue jack when we arrived. So I tested the battery & acid finding both were ok. This led me to the assumption that the fridge & fridge fan was just too much for my alternator to keep the battery charged.
However recently I replaced the crappy fuse holder & wiring with a heavier more robust setup. So what happen next was a surprise we went on our Thanks Giving Day Trip & arrived at camp ground expecting as usual to need to keep the tow vehicle hooked up during leveling with tongue jack.
But we ended up with a good charged battery that worked fine. Now if I remember I plan on testing voltage when we return home just to see how well the battery is charged after a road trip.
Really the way TM connected my wiring was in a word DANGEROUS IMO that is. I should have investigated it more when first purchased based on a few comments I read here but I kept thinking surely the guys are just overkilling since a manufacture wouldn't do something totally wrong. Now we love our TM but I have found a few potentially bad issues with it so I no longer assume they are correct on the way they build it.
Ps. This is a very easy & inexpensive mod so it might be worth trying & even if it doesn't solve your issue is a good mod to have IMO.
I used an audio quality larger fuse holder which I may change to a 12v heavy duty breaker in the future.
I also used marine grade wire to go to the battery.
And last I shielded the fuse holder from weather.
Oh & I also noticed the Ground wire was corroded & not making a good connection so I cut it & reconnected it to frame. I plan on weather proofing this connection sometime soon also just didn't have time before trip.
Now all this will doi nothing if you are using a small gauge charge wire though which if you aren't mechanical can get a bit more technical to fix.