Battery Cables on Backwards...


Shehi_3

New Member
Hi all: We just bought a Sunnybrook Sunset Creek (love it!). Went through the walkthrough at the dealership and all was well. Got down the road to the 1st stop of the trip home and no airconditioner or fridge (as well as other items). To make a very long story short, my husband figure out the guy at the dealership put the positive cable on the negative plug and vice versa on the battery (had to push the "in" button to get the slideout to go out). Anyway, we replaced fuses in the breaker box and the converter. Had to buy a new battery. The situation now is that even if we are plugged in anything over 12 V doesn't work and the battery isn't getting recharged - once it's dead - it's dead. Also, at one point we were stuck with the slide-out in the out position and no power to pull it in. We were told we could hook up to the tow vehicle and get the slide-out in. Didn't work. The dealership is sending a new converter because you can hook up an amp meter to the positive and negative cables that normally go on the battery and there is no power. Once we replace the converter, and have already replaced fused in the breaker box, is there anything else we should check for so we don't end up finding things down the road caused by this? Someone suggested a fuse in the truck may have blown and that's why the tow vehicle didn't give power to get the slide-out in, but we didn't find a fuse for the power cable (2002 Ford F-150). We think the converter will do the trick, but just putting the question out there to those with a little more experience than us!

Thanks in advance for any input.

Sandy (a/k/a "Sam") :blush:
 

ARCHER

Senior Member
Re: Battery Cables on Backwards...

Take it back to the dealer and don't accept it until it is totally repaired.
 

Grandview Trailer Sa

Senior Member
Re: Battery Cables on Backwards...

I would like to know how "all was well" at the dealership. If the wires were backward, problems would have showed up right then, not miles down the road.

Sounds like you are on the right track in replacing the converter, but you might want to check near the battery and see if there is a fuse or reset breaker that could be shot. That would prevent the battery from charging. On a Ford, the ignition has to be on before the charge circuit is hot.

Get back to us and let us know what happened, I am thinking about taking on the Sunset Creek line.

I agree with Archer, take it back to your dealer and make him fix it once you get it moveable.
 

C Nash

Senior Member
Re: Battery Cables on Backwards...

Some of the converters have two fuses on the converter. Seems like they were 5 amp. Had to remove my converter to get to them. Agree with GTS and Archer.
 

s.harrington

Senior Member
Re: Battery Cables on Backwards...

If you get no power to the trailer plug(get a tester that plugs into your socket) you need to tes a few things. The power fuse on your truck is in the large fuse box in the engine compartment. There are several large fuses, some relays, and some standard or mini spade fuses. Check your relay for towing (look at the underside of the fuse box lid) and use a test lite to check the spade fuses. Bet way to test your relay is to take a similar relay(in my ford all the relays are the same) replace the towing relay with the blower relay temporaraly and check to see if you get power at the battery when you have your ignition on.
 

Shehi_3

New Member
Re: Battery Cables on Backwards...

First of all thank you for the input. Secondly, I should clarify a couple of things. We drove 600 miles to get the unit so taking it back to the dealer we got it from isn’t really an option. The dealers in our area were $3,500 to $4,000 higher so we drove to a dealership in Indiana right in the town of the Sunnybrook plant. The dealership was great and is responding to the situation. They are paying for expenses for tools purchased and camping fees along the route on the trip home. They are also going to pay for a local RV dealer to go through the unit and test the electrical system. They shipped overnight a new converter which we installed last night and we are now able to operate without the battery in place. Previously the battery had to be hooked up because the converter actually wasn't working - the battery would drain down and then we were "dead". So, I think we are probably all good to go now. Still going to have all electrical tested and do the tests on the Ford F150 fuse as suggested by someone. The walkthrough at the dealership went well because the battery had not yet been hooked up so at that point the converter was working. We did also try the reset switch early in the adventure, but were pretty sure it wasn't that because the slideout worked at that point (I think that's why they thought it wasn't that). They are also sending us a new reset switch just in case.

As far as the Sunnybrook Sunset Creek – I can say you can feel the difference in quality when you walk in the door. We compared to other “like” models (won’t mention names so I don’t offend), but the quality was no comparison. Also, my father has owned a couple of Sunnybrooks and currently owns a Sunnybrook Titan and says Sunnybrook goes over and above to stand behind their product. We have no qualms with the dealership who was wonderful to work with – even to the point of calling an engineer at Sunnybrook to help figure out the problem – and love the Sunnybrook itself. We just had an unfortunate incident with one person making a mistake and we’re trying to make sure we’ve covered the bases on all the things that triggered from that. Thanks again for all the suggestions and wish us happy camping this weekend!!
:cool:
 

ARCHER

Senior Member
Re: Battery Cables on Backwards...

Sounds like they are doing just about all they can to help you get all fixed. Sounds good. Guess those Indiana Hoosiers are pretty good most of the time (been one for a long, long time). ;)
 
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