Cardinal RV Club

I had my first converter replaced after the first trip out it was only putting out 9.3 volts No after 4 more trips here we are again same issue Are these things junk, I sure hope the get it fixed right with a good one soon.
any one else having converter issues in a 07 bird?

Dave......just so I know...can you tell me what the symptoms were with your bad converter???........I have a new 34qs...........the other day I was "excersizing" the 5er's generator and initially had no voltage going to the breaker box. Shut the generator off............then restarted and had normal voltage. I was thinking at the time that the converter "didn't switch"...could that have been my problem??...bad converter??

Sorry to hear about your converter problems. Just out of curiosity have you checked your batteries with a hydrometer to check each cell?

Rob

My Issue is dim lights then a low batt when I go to bring in the slides.
If i have no 12 volt lites on it will stay at 12.3 volts if i turn 1 light on it drops down to 11.5.
the last one was the same but it only put out 9.3 volts.

I'm with Rob. The batteries would be the first thing I would check.

With the trailer on shore power you should have a minimum of 13.5vdc at the batteries and no more that 14.5vdc. Since you've gone through two converters so quickly I would suspect that there is an external problem.

Rob

well I just got the new one installed friday they checked it over and said They are made in china was most likely a toster before it became a converter. lol

It is doing 13.58 volts now will see how long this one last.

PS they checked the Batt also it was good.

Sounds good Dave. I hope this one hangs in there for you.

Rob

My converter died this spring as the result of a lighting strike and it was plugged into shore power. I replaced the stock converter with a 75 amp of the same brand. Why? Who knows, but I like to have my power when I need it. The first thing that I did notice is that the slides are much snappier. I don't know if it was the bigger converter or resident ghost helping out, but I did like that.

Al

On the trailer I traded in I had a problem with the converter overcharging the batteries. I installed a converter with the battery tender function and never regreted it. The converter in the Cardnal has already fried one battery, but as long as things are covered by warrenty I'll let the dealer do their thing. After that, I'll install a good converter - not a toaster. Batteries are expensive, and there is a fire danger created by a shorted battery. You can bet the bank I check the water level in the cells on a daily basis if I'm on shore power or the generator.

Sorry to hear about your battery problem Jeff. I'm curious if you had a bad converter or a bad battery. My trailer has two batteries and I'm on shore power 24/7. In fact the only time it's not on shore power is when it's hitched to the truck. In the two years I've had the trailer I've popped the caps on the batteries twice to check water level and charging with hydrometer. So far all is well, I have not needed to add a drop of water and all cells show full and equal charge.

Rob

It was a new Interstate Deep Cycle. After the trip to June Lake the battery wouldn't hold a charge. I brought into my shop and sure enough one cell had the fluid down to the top of the plates. Refilled that cell with distilled water, put it on a smart charger, after 8 hours it was still not charged. It also failed a load test at the dealer.The dealer replaced the battery, so I'm letting things ride for now. But when the warrenties run out I'll replace the charger/recifier with one that has a battery minder. They also seem to have a cleaner output.

All of the above (except the dealer) was what I had experienced with the factory charger/recfier on the Prowler. Except I had a dual battery set on it. When you check the voltage at the battery, and it's over 13.6VDC for a 12VDC system with the charger energized, you're looking at a problem, unless you have a smart charger which will have a higher voltage at the beginning of the charge if the battery is severely discharged. and then tapers down to the "float voltage" when the battery is charged. 13.6VDC is the usual "float voltage" for a 12VDC lead acid battery, higher is not better. 0.5V hot on the "float" will cause excessive venting in my experiance.

We have the same model as Dave -- '07 362BH, and our first converter died after 1 month, and the second one lasted 7 months. Seems like these aren't the best converters.

We also have the 36-2BH (thought it's an 08) that is less than 6 months old. This weekend the 12v lights were dim Sunday morning. The tank/battery wall monitor center showed 1 light and we were connected to shore power since Friday evening. Checked everything, fuses, etc. and could not find a problem. I also didn't hear the converter fan go on at all Sunday morning. I tried to raise the landing gear and they lasted only a few seconds before stopping altogether. I "jumpted" the fiver battery from the TV battery (using jumper cables) and finished getting the landnig gear up and the slides in. I suspect my converter has gone south like others here have reported.

For others here who have had the same thing happen, did the dealer replace it with the same make/model? Also, the dealer is 2 hours away and we still have several trips planned over the next month or so. I suspect I can just get a cheap battery charger at Wal-Mart and lim through the rest of the season if I'm careful to not over charge the battery. Is that correct?
Finally, it seems these units are just bad altogether. Has anyone had any luck getting the dealer to change to a different model?

Thanks,

James

Both times, our converter was replaced with the same model Since we were living in our RV, and both times the converter died it wasn't convenient (first time was Labor Day w/e in SD), we used a battery charger to survive until it was convenient to have it replaced. We were able to survive with that arrangement for over a month the first time.