Battery smoking

Kristin · 08-29-2011, 11:47 PM

On our third trip with the FFX19 I have owned class A before but they didnt seem so complicated.... or maybe my ex husband took care of it. I went to it tonight and used the adapter to plug it in to a 15 amp outlet to get a light on and refrigerator started. That went well. Have one light and fridge on. Enough to load stuff up
Checked water tanks.... all empty. Good we did that last trip

OOPS. Battery panel says empty. HMMMMM forget how that works. All I know is push the button in and turn it turns off. OK it was off. How do I get it to charge? When does that button go on? I know it needs power for my trailer brakes. AAHHHHHHHH. Better turn it on .... mayby the electricity will charge it. UH OH>.........SMOKE COMIN OUT FROM UNDER THE BED.... I RUN OUT TO THE BATTERY.....WOW, WHAT THE HELL DID I DO? MORE SMOKE NOW I AM PISSED. I SHOULD KNOW BETTER . Turned off battery and electricity. What the hell happened? I am afraid to start it now. What did I do wrong?

**LJAZ** · 08-30-2011, 08:16 AM

From your description it sounds like you didn't do anything wrong. Turning on the battery disconnect switch when connected to shore power should charge the battery. So it sounds like something is wrong on the battery side of the switch. A long shot maybe but any chance that the positive cable has been rubbing on something and wore through the insulation?

I'm sure there's other possibilities hopefully someone will chime in with other ideas.

Kristin · 08-30-2011, 12:01 PM

Went out and looked at it better. One of the small gauge wires that was coming off the battery and hooked to the frame is melted. So can I hook up and drive it in to be fixed with batteries disengaged? There goes labor day weekend plans.

**LJAZ** · 08-30-2011, 01:50 PM

Can you describe the wire that melted? What color is it? Is it attached directly to the frame from the battery? Or is there something in between like an electric tongue jack? Better yet can you post a picture?

If you tow it without a battery connected the brakes can't be activated by the breakaway switch. That's not legal in some states, although you can probably squeak by for a short trip to the repair shop.

Kristin · 08-30-2011, 02:32 PM

I had my dad come over to help me. The two wires going from the breakaway switch were ran underneath the metal brace put on to hold the sway bars. The two wires were melted all the way back to a fuse. It didnt appear to harm any other wires. He is going to try and fix it. The dealer is and hour away. We are assuming that the breakaway switch itself should probably be replaced? Thank you for your help

webslave · 08-30-2011, 05:44 PM

Any time the battery is hooked up, the breakaway switch has current going to it in order to activate the brakes if the pin is pulled from the switch body and there isn't a fuse since that would be a "weak point" in that safety system (it wouldn't do any good to have the break away switch activated in an emergency only to find the fuse was bad, broken or corroded). It is common for the bar brackets for the WDH to be installed too close or right on top of the switch's wires (sloppy installation, but, far too common). After the dealer installed my Equal-i-zer, I relocated the switch a safe distance from the brackets and made sure there was enough slack in the wires to prevent them abrading themselves bare.

Repairing the wires should make the system right as rain; the switch itself should still be OK. You didn't do anything wrong.

**LJAZ** · 08-31-2011, 08:03 AM

Sounds like you found your issue. Webslave is right the brake switch should be fine, replacing (and relocating) the wires should resolve your problem. Good to go for labor day!