dc voltage

none of my dc items will work unless I use a battery charger on the battery. With a fully vcharged battery all is well. I hade a electrition look at this and he thinks there is a dead short to the converter? He is not a electrition on campers.

Tom, has your battery been out lately? It sounds like your converter is shot or some blown fuses on it. There are, I think, three thirty amp fuses located on the converter.
If you battery gets hooked up backward the fuses will blow.

Peace
Dave

It does sound like you may have a problem with the converter/charger or connections between the converter and batteries. Do you know the model of the convertor/charger? I would assume it may be a PD Intellicharger (manual here --> http://manuals.heartlandowners.org/?Major=Electrical&Minor=Converter&Brand=Progressive_Dynamics )

Do you hear the converter "humming" when you are connected to shore power? Another check would be to test voltage on battery terminals with a digital DC meter (multimeter set to appropriate DC scale) while you are plugged into shore power. ~14+ Volts would indicate a boost charge from the converter and it would be working to charge the batteries; anything around less than ~12.8 would be battery voltage only and not connected to the convertor - ie no charge coming from converter.

Failing on the above test means you'll have to test the connections or convertor itself. Was it working before? Any additional information that you can share will help the experts here chime in. I know enough just enough to be dangerous .

Hope this helps you start....

Take care,
Brian

I agree with Dave(cookie) make sure that your battery cables are on correctly. A dead battery will charge even if the cables are on backwards with some bad results.

We had our converter suddenly fail to charge the battery on our old North Trail. Turns out we had hooked up to an incorrectly wired 30 amp outlet and fried the converter (blew the internal fuse).

It was under warranty and we didn't know we'd done it... until the dealer sent the converter to the mfg, whom confirmed it. We had to replace the converter. I believe it was under $600.