wopachop
New Member
I pulled a bone head maneuver and think i have a lot to learn about grounding a trailer. Ive got a toyhauler. Added a 120v 20a dedicated circuit that gets hot when on shore power or when running the generator. My WFCO converter has been acting up, and it never charges at 14.4v anyway, so i decided to use my RC plane charger. Its an Icharger 308 Duo and uses two 750w 12v power supplies in series.
I plugged the charger into the new 120v outlet with my genny running. The trailer has a main battery disconnect. I hooked the positive lead to the disconnect post that is the positive wire back to the batteries. I had the disconnect turned off, but left the WFCO running so the trailer would have 12v power. I then hooked the negative lead from the charger to the negative terminal off my service panel. Everything looked ok. Went to start a charge and one of the power supplies shut down. I then did a 2nd bone head maneuver and rigged up the charger to pull from a single 12v power supply. Hooked it up, clicked the button to start charge, that power supply shut down as well.
I dont know if the power supplies have an internal resettable fuse. Havnt tried plugging them back in. I must be lacking a fundamental understanding of how the 120v AC and 12v DC play together. Its still confusing how the 12v ground and the 120v negative is tied together. I normally use this charger with battery clamps directly to the battery terminals. To keep the charger out of the outside dust i wanted to charge from inside the trailer. Using the main positive lead that goes back to the battery. The 12v ground is tied to the chassis. Just like the 120v. Im thinking this is where i screwed myself?
I plugged the charger into the new 120v outlet with my genny running. The trailer has a main battery disconnect. I hooked the positive lead to the disconnect post that is the positive wire back to the batteries. I had the disconnect turned off, but left the WFCO running so the trailer would have 12v power. I then hooked the negative lead from the charger to the negative terminal off my service panel. Everything looked ok. Went to start a charge and one of the power supplies shut down. I then did a 2nd bone head maneuver and rigged up the charger to pull from a single 12v power supply. Hooked it up, clicked the button to start charge, that power supply shut down as well.
I dont know if the power supplies have an internal resettable fuse. Havnt tried plugging them back in. I must be lacking a fundamental understanding of how the 120v AC and 12v DC play together. Its still confusing how the 12v ground and the 120v negative is tied together. I normally use this charger with battery clamps directly to the battery terminals. To keep the charger out of the outside dust i wanted to charge from inside the trailer. Using the main positive lead that goes back to the battery. The 12v ground is tied to the chassis. Just like the 120v. Im thinking this is where i screwed myself?