Battery issue 2022 Micro Minnie 1800BH

John 6 · 07-13-2023, 05:36 PM

We just bought a new 2022 micro Minnie 1800bh. We have had it about a month now. It has a solar panel on the roof. We have not been camping in it yet. When I brought it home, the battery alone would power the lights, awning etc. with no issues. I have been away for a few weeks and and I cut the power switch off before I left so no power would be going to the camper from the battery. Yesterday, I looked at the solar controller and it said the battery was full. I then turned the switch to power the camper and anything I cut on, like a light would flicker. The fridge light was flickering along with the stove lights. Then the battery dies within about 30 seconds. I charged the battery today and put it back on and the same thing happened, fully charged to dead. I bought a rv inverter generator and the entire camper runs fine with it. Any ideas what the issue could be. I checked the breakers, none were tripped and cut them all off and on and have the same issue. I hate to take it back to the dealer already! Thanks it’s a new battery, lead acid , rv boat type from the dealer and has water.

Ray,IN · 07-13-2023, 06:01 PM

Still under warranty? The battery is also under warranty, but you don't have to return to the selling dealer. Locate an auto shop that sells that brand of battery, take it in and have them load-test the battery and if faulty replace under warranty.

John 6 · 07-13-2023, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

Still under warranty? The battery is also under warranty, but you don't have to return to the selling dealer. Locate an auto shop that sells that brand of battery, take it in and have them load-test the battery and if faulty replace under warranty.

Well, that’s a great idea! Thank you, I did not know that, this is our first camper!

Morich · 07-13-2023, 07:52 PM

But there may also be some tricks on RV that "may" be misleading you and need some looking to find out?

Trailers are not my best thought as it has been a long time since owning one, so keep that in mind.

But when you say you disconnected all the drains, this is a point that snags a lot of new motorhome owners as the battery disconnect switch DOES NOT disconnect aLL the drains. Check things like CO and propane detectors and steps before being sure they are disconnected as the builders are almost paranoid about letting you get hurt!
Or at least they worry about their liablility!
A quick check might be to look for lights on the detectors and test if those lights stay on after you flip the disconnect? Are there steps which still flip out and may have a light underneath them that is easy to miss seeing in the daylight?

As a side issue, it may be good to questions exactly what the solar indications really mean, also.
The problem can be that a battery gets really run down and it takes hours to fully recharge. But if the place where the voltage is read is not thought out carefully it can tell you the battery voltage is back to full charge when it is actually just reading the output of the solar!

Batteries are so simple but so confusing at times, so we need to really look closer at times. What we can find is that you may in fact have a bad battery situation but it "could" also be that the reading is fooling you , you have a battery that is really nearly drained and when something is turned on, it is fully zapped!

Monitors can be great but they also can lead us down the wrong path! What may help is some form of reading the battery voltage when the solar is not charging and no other charging has been done for several hours.
A meter is a great thing for RV folks to have as it can give real numbers. If you have the best set of lead acid batteries they will never actull hold a charge above 12.8 due to the chemistry involved. so if the meter says the battery is at 13, etc. we know you are reading a false "surface charge" from recent charging and it will move down to around 12.8 as it becomes stable over a few hours.

Simple but tricky??

John 6 · 07-14-2023, 05:43 AM

Yeah, I’m not an electrical wizard!�� I do know that this entire wiring system looks really complicated, to me and a lot could go wrong. The switch itself could be bad, I guess? I did charge the battery, took it off the RV, put it on my old trusted battery charger. It said it was full, put it back on and the same thing happened. I’m gonna start by getting the battery tested, if that’s not it, I’ll probably just have to take it back to the dealer. Thank you for all the advice !

Morich · 07-14-2023, 08:29 AM

Ok! More details on what has been done and how give different ideas! Part of the problem of forums is that we don't get to know who is on the other end and that leaves lots of guessing on how well experienced the folks on that end are about those details!
monitors are grerat things and lots of automatic stuff is great but I like using a charger as I can tell more what it is doing!
Like everything else, our automatic stuff can be great or not so great, at times!
Telling somebody new to use a charger, can seem almost obviously stupid to the folks who do not have one!
If you've used the charger and let it have time to do the charge, then the battery goes dead right away, it does lean toward the battery not holding that charge.
A load test is one good way to get down to more exact ideas of what the battery has left as it should store that charge and what we want is knowing how well we can get that stored energy back.
Putting a load on and seeing how it reacts is a good quick way to see the battery do it's job!
I think of batteries and power being kind of like a bucket and water. If we could SEE the power we put in like water in a bucket, we could tell a lot better if the bucket leaks or if it is a good bucket that holds water!
They tell me there are electrons in there but I've not seen any come out yet! all I can see coming out is a bunch of sparks!

One way to go if the battery looks good may take more equipment than we have or want to get. IF you had the right test stuff, you could set a meter that measures amps going out of the battery. That is much like gallons if we swere speaking of water. So is we set a meter in the line between the battery and the cable feeding the rest of the wiring, we can see how manay amps (gallons?) is going out as we turn each breaker on.
Gradually , we can figure out which line is using poer to leat the bucket go dry!
But hat also comes with some major problem besides not having the right meters. We don't get really good wiring info on trailers like we do for motorized before the 2010 year models.
So where the wires go and how they get there is lots more difficult. Something as simple as a wire scraped bare on the frame is harder to find if we don't have any idea how the wires were placed!!

Wish you luck and maybe it's just a sudden battery failure! I hate to buy new batteries but I hate chasing trouble for weeks even more!

John 6 · 07-14-2023, 05:22 PM

I had the battery checked today and it’s fine. Taking it in Monday morning for them to figure it out. Thanks for the help and I will let you know what was wrong !

Morich · 07-14-2023, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John 6

I had the battery checked today and it’s fine. Taking it in Monday morning for them to figure it out. Thanks for the help and I will let you know what was wrong !

Good enough! Always good to hear what is found as a way to know if I was close or just missing the whole idea!

I wish we got better info on the trailer group but I guess we have to make do with what we do get!

John 6 · 07-29-2023, 04:16 PM

Hello everyone. They figured out what was wrong with the battery or the camper draining the battery. It had been wired improperly from the factory. On the frame, right beside the battery, there are some small boxes and the wires were not wired correctly going into them. I don’t want to use the wrong term for these boxes, I took a photo of them , but I did not see how to post a photo. They moved the wires around and fixed it while I was watching. He told me what they were, but I’m having a brain cloud right now about what they are called. Thank you for all the help and when I remember what they are called, I’ll post it or I’m sure someone with electrical knowledge knows what they are.

John 6 · 07-29-2023, 04:33 PM

Here ya go!

John 6 · 01-09-2024, 05:26 PM

I thought y’all might want to know exactly what the issue was with my camper, they just figured it out last Friday. The camper was not grounded properly to the chassis from the factory. I was told there was no ground attached to the chassis, they did this at the dealer and it’s working correctly now with no issues. It took 5 trips, 4 months at the dealer and 5 calls to Winnebago towable. I might note that Winnebago had no involvement in solving this issue. A master tech from the same large dealership visited my local dealer and he figured it out with the local tech. I’m not gonna go into all of the details, but I’m not very happy with Winnebago’s customer service. Honestly they have not been much help at all. We have tried to take the camper out 4 times since we bought it, but the power failed each time and then we would take it back to the dealer and they would “fix” it again. They replaced many parts on it before they finally figured it out. So, if someone has a similar issue, take a look and see if your camper is properly grounded!

Morich · 01-09-2024, 07:36 PM

I think I see a shoe sticking out there on the side? So this is looking down from above at connections on the trailer frame?

I would think those items are small breakers for the 12Volt power? do either of the green items have a small button on the end that might be used to rest a tripped breaker?
They may also be a type that resets after the excess current problem is solved.
They need a closer look at I might want to do some more work to prevent future trouble if this is what I think I see?

It's always hard to figure the thinking when others are doing the work but I might have some doubts about the grounding being long term cure as I see lots of potential for this to be a trouble spot if it gets wet!

Take a look at things and think what happens if these 12Volts supply wires get wet and are that close to the frame and grounding? It looks from here like a definite place for things to get wet and trip the breaker!
I'm pretty sure driving in rain will get them soaked!

Something as simple as pulling them off and adding a zip-lock bag to keep them dry might be a good move?

Morich · 01-09-2024, 07:39 PM

Something like this, maybe?
https://wiringproducts.com/collectio...-angle-bracket

OR this?
https://wiringproducts.com/collectio...standard-mount

John 6 · 01-10-2024, 06:27 AM

Yes those are in the elements and that concerns me to. My father in law said the same thing when he looked at them. I will take a look at fixing that too. Thank you!

Fred L · 02-28-2024, 05:33 PM

Disappointing for me, ie someone looking to buy a Winnebago Trailer, that the customer service was non-existent or worse.
Also confused as to why these electrical connections are outside exposed vs inside? Maybe my logic is flawed, but its not more then a few inches back to get inside?
Edit... I see Morich had the same concern about getting wet. Note to self, read the whole thread first