This is a new thread that is a spin off of the thread about battery replacement. Turns out my new battery went dead flat within 48 hours of installation while it was supposedly getting charged by the shore power the trailer was hooked up to. Took the trailer by the shop where I got the battery and the fellow there checked all the cells while he had it hooked to a 60amp charger. He could see the cells bubbling so he knew they were charging. He got a reading of 13.5 amps when the 60am charger was on the posts. Then he had me hook up the shore power to let the converter charge and he got a 12.1 volt reading which is what the battery was at that time. Plus the reading slowly dropped the longer he held the multitester on the posts. We checked the inline fuse, which was fine. I see on the wiring diagram another fuse under the forward bunk, which we don't have. Our toilet/shower and closet are at the front and there's a table/single bed on the driver side. So I don't know if there's another fuse forward or not. I can't find one in the access panels we have. His conclusion was that the converter for whatever reason is not charging the battery. Anyone had a similar issue with their battery/converter.
The converter is an FTL model exl 20, 30 amp. I'm assuming it's the original on my 16' 2001 Scamp.
As an aside, the old battery I thought was dead probably wasn't.
In order to double check that the converter is the culprit, I charged the battery up to 13.5 volts and then plugged in the shore power. Then I turned on 4 lights in the trailer and left them on. About 20 hours in the battery was down to a bit under 12 v. I have a multitester with a needle. Hard to read exactly. Another 20 hours or so and it was down under 10v. Only conclusion I can come to is the converter is bad. I did find another fuse in line under the rug in the front closet and it was also fine. So I'm buying a WFCO 8735 converter to replace the elx 20. Found a couple Youtube videos on the change out. Doesn't look too bad other than squatting and bending into a tight space to make the change. If anyone is interested, I'll post what the outcome is.
Gene Spinner
Grand Junction, CO
2001 Scamp 16'
Had the same issue. Turned out the converter was not plugged in. I do not know about your 2001 scamp converter but the 2014 scamp has a reg. 3 prong plug behind the breaker panel. It could have been jarred from the plug in. The converter should be warm to touch if it is charging. Carl
Hey Carl, so glad you mentioned the plug-in on the converter. I've been trying to figure out why my battery wasn't charging on shore power but was charging when towing. While down checking the external 30 amp fuses on the converter, I noticed a 3 prong plug sitting on the floor not near anything. "Hmmm, I wonder what that's for", I asked myself. Then I read your post. Sure enough, it's not plugged in. And from where the plug was laying, it may not ever have been plugged since we bought it in 2018. It should plug into the back of the fuse box, right?
well, I plugged it in where it obviously went. It's working!
We did find out after traveling for a distance on differance trips,that the contverter did start coming unplugged.it looked plugged in but really wasnt and would not charge the battery when plugged into shore powers. Got to the point where that was just the first thing we did,was check on that to make sure it had stayed plugged in
Launey and Earlene
Thanks for checking in about the converter. Unfortunately it's not that easy a fix. Everything is hardwired into the converter, so I think a change out is in order. The video I've seen on the change out from the elx 20 to the wfco 8735 looks pretty straight forward. There's no way to access the back of the converter when it's installed. I would have to cut out an access panel in order to check the back on a regular basis.
Gene Spinner
Grand Junction, CO
2001 Scamp 16'
This weekend I changed out the converter and everything works fine now. Not at all technically difficult just a pain because it's underneath one of the bench seats and requires squatting and bending and my joints just don't work like that any more. But, now it's done and I'm hopeful that will be the end of that.
Gene Spinner
Grand Junction, CO
2001 Scamp 16'