Charging battery from shore power w/extension cord

debfuji

I have recently had to take over the maintenance of our 2021 TAB 320 Boondock. I am very new to this and learning along the way.  In attempting to keep the battery charged using the house shore power, I am forced to use a very long heavy duty extension cord with the camper power cord and surge protector. I have remembered to turn on the battery when charging. Realizing it will take longer this way, I have charged it for two days and there has been no change on the Control Panel.  The three bottom lights are red but the "fully charged" indicator does not light up.  All lights on the panel have lit up in the recent past when battery was fully charged.  What am I doing wrong? 

pthomas745

Probably not doing anything "wrong", if the battery monitor in the trailer is showing you "mostly" charged.  The in-trailer voltage monitors are simply not very reliable.  If the trailer battery switch is on, and something is running in the trailer, the little lights will always read "lower than actual battery" voltage.  Battery monitoring and reading voltage is always a little tricky.

Tell us about the extension cords you are using, and how long they are.  (An RV extension cord?  A big "utility" type cord?) Open up your battery box, take a picture, or tell us what battery you have.  Do you know if the battery has been run down and left in a discharged state for a long while?  There could be issues with the battery itself.

The trailer has built in solar (most likely).  As part of the solar setup, there is a phone app you can use to monitor the battery.  If whoever did these maintenance things on the trailer before you has the "Victron Connect App" on their phone, it will tell you much more about your battery status.  It will be quite useful to get the password from the other phone, since resetting the password to use the App is a bit of a pain.

This is the link to the App.

https://www.victronenergy.com/panel-systems-remote-monitoring/victronconnect

Welcome to the Forums.  Ask questions.  We love questions.

debfuji

Update: After I posted my question, I went out and checked the battery light on the control panel again. Battery is now showing "low" - it is the only light lit!  That is a change from two days ago where it was three lights lit.  I am giving up on the the shore power plugged into camper.  I have now connected the battery to a battery charger at Quick Charge 10amps, instead of Trickle charge (2amps) or Emergency Charge (50amps). The charger is now plugged into the heavy duty extension cord because it didn't seem to work without being plugged in. The charging light on the charger, but is not green yet only white.

Thank you for your reply and the information.  I will try to answer some of your questions.

1. Marine/RV Interstate battery

2. The battery has never been run down all the way.

3. Big "utility" outdoor heavy-duty orange extension cord.  It is really long, maybe 25ft.

4. The TAB has solar and we never used the app. I am going to give it a try on my phone.

The pictures I tried to attach took up too much space and bogged down this reply.  I will separately.

 

debfuji

debfuji

pthomas745

Ok...good.  That is a "stock" 80 amp hour battery.  If you have a multimeter, that is another way to get an idea of your battery state of charge.  Get the Victron App up and going and we can show you what it is trying to tell you. 

debfuji

I am registering on the Victron website and have downloaded the app on my phone.  The registration is asking me for the type of device i am registering.  The phone app does not let me do anything.

pthomas745

Registration?  I'm not sure.  What you are trying to monitor is a solar controller, and mostly the only thing that needs to be done is finding it and setting up the phone app.

Grumpy_G

The Victron app is not going to help you figure out what went wrong in the first place. Charging via the converter in the power center should have worked, the length of the extension cord doesn't make a difference with the few amps the converter draws (as evidenced by the fact that the external charger works). Next time you plug in the regular shore power, check if any of the 120V outlets actually works. If so, check the 120V breakers, one of them goes to the converter.

GregChris

In my experience, if the trailer is plugged in to shore power  the monitor should read full, even with a dead battery. If not then your ac/dc converter is not working. This happened to me with my previous trailer. You still have ac power with a bad converter.

debfuji

OK.  Thank you for all of your tips and the information.  I am taking it out a short distance with my knowledgeable camping family.  I will see how it goes. I have make notes or on your comments.  Thank you again for your help. 

Tabmanic

Sounds like your battery has gone bad, my 2021 320 had the same lead acid battery and it lasted only a year and half as the previous owner had discharge it below 50% many times and it wouldn't hold a charge over night.

debfuji

Update. I was able to fully charge the battery with my charger and left with a fully charged battery. I camped this week connected to shore power. I will check next weekend to see if it held the charge. Now I will fuss with the app so I can monitor remotely.