I'm hooking my camper up for the first time this year and have come across a problem I havn't seen before. While the camper is plugged in all appliances work, hot water, fridge fan for the heater. As soon as I unplug and try to run on battery power the appliances stop working. The water pump, lights, and propane stove work fine, also the fan above the stove is fine, battery is good, lots of propane in the bottles. There is no power to the fridge and the indicator lights for the grey and black water and battery level don't work unplugged. The indicator lights work fine with it plugged in and show the battery as being full. I've checked the battery levels (fine) had it on 2 amp charge for a week prior to installing it in the camper for the year. I'm likley missing something simple...any ideas???? Thanks in advance for your time.

How old is the battery? Often times the battery will show a good charge but as soon as you put a load on it the battery will "flatline".
You may have to replace the battery. You could take it to a parts store and they can load test it for you.
Chet
P.S. Welcome to the site!

It's going to be interesting to hear the solution to this. The way an RV is normally wired I can't think of a way this would occur (I can't even think of how I'd cause this on purpose, without throwing in a relay or two).

BC, you're saying that when you unplug, most everything still works fine in your camper, but it's like a switch was turned off to the fridge and tank indicator lights. Correct? They just lose power right away.

Doesn't sound like a battery problem if this is correct.

Good luck! Wish I could help.

Mac

The battery is less than 1 year old, I've tested it with an hydrometer, it seem to be OK. What I now suspect is the converter. (12 volt to 120) There is a slight burned wire smell. I'm making an appointment at a RV shop, I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the welcome!

I had this problem and I am going to tell you what happened if you promise not to laugh!

After spending hours trying to diagnose the problem, (I was underneath the camper, had taken covers off junction boxes, etc), I started to take the converter apart. It is under the sofa and I spent at least an hour getting the cover off and apart when I noticed a 110 volt wire wasn't plugged in to an outlet that is right there with the converter. Now - I see this and it is still not registering. I plugged in the wire to see what happended and I almost jumped out of my skin when the converter fan kicked on!! I quietly put everything back together, triumphantly proclaim to DW that I fixed it and then bask in the complemets of how talented I am to have fixed something so complicated. (I did tell her later)

Here's the answer to my problem, I suggest you are sitting before going further. My wife almost fell over laughing at me. I've been doing a bit of wiring in my house lately and WHITE is always positive, right? Well, not so on an RV! A call to our local RV repair place Monday morning corrected me. Not only is my face red, but we lost the best weekend (so far) of the season to get away. Dosn't seem to be any permanant damage though. On the bright side, I got my garden planted.....

Thanks again for your replies

Thanks for having the guts to post.

BC Boy; Welcome to our Forums. Good to have you with us.
Thanks for sharing your story. Often times, what we think is a real problem, turns out to be no problem at all. I'm glad things turned out so well for you. Cheers!!!........Brad