No battery charge

[JimKrieger]

5 months on shore power with no problems, then disconnected shore power. Battery was at full charge. Tried to get refrigerator to use gas, but it wouldn't turn on. Water heater electric setting at heater was left on with gas with switch off. Drove for 8 hours. Battery was dead at 3 volts. Plugged into shore power. Battery won't charge and 12 volt lights at low glow. Refrigerator 12 volt fuse was blown, so replaced it, but refrigerator still won't turn on with either AC or gas. Anyone know what happened here. Will get a new battery today, but how can I know if it is charging, or just discharging like before?

[DQDick]

First thing to check is your battery disconnect in the convienence center. If you can remove the key it's off and if it's off the converter can't charge the battery. If that's ok then you'll have to check the power coming from the converter and we'll need someone with more electrical experience to explain how to do that.

[RMcNeal]

With shore power on, check voltage at battery terminals. You should get 14+ volts with bulk charge on the converter. You could even check battery voltage on the level up panel if you have that.
If no good, then start by checking reverse polarity fuses on converter. If they're good, you'll need to check converter output directly, then trace lines to battery box.
If refrigerator won't turn on with shore power on AC, then you may have additional issues to correct.
Do lights return to normal on shore power? Maybe that converter isn't outputting at all?

[JimKrieger]

Thanks everyone. Turned out to be my own screw up. On bad O'Reilly employee advice, I greased the contact surfaces of the battery terminals and, of course, created a very poor connection which still carried enough current while on shore power to keep the battery charged, but failed miserably and almost ruined the battery on a day of travel and no shore power. Cleaned the terminals of the grease and wire brushed them to a shine and whammo, back to perfect operation.

[RMcNeal]

Could he/she have meant Dielectric Grease?

[JimKrieger]

The grease was in a poorly described packet. No mention of anything but "battery post grease." Turns out it apparently was dielectric grease (non-conductive) and that's what messed things up. I do have clearly marked conductive grease, but will not use that or anything else and simply clean the posts and wire terminals once each year with a wire brush.

[RMcNeal]

Occasional cleaning is probably best. Just curious from your post if you used actual grease, like bearing grease.

[JimKrieger]

I didn't use actual grease like bearing grease. Instead used battery terminal grease, but I used it inappropriately by putting it between the wire or cable connector and the actual post going into the battery. The grease, being non-conductive, that is, di-electric, prevented the battery from charging adequately.