Electrical problem troubleshooting

I'm having problems with my electrical system, specifically the battery, and I'm hoping I can get some ideas about what to try next for sorting them out.

When I charge my battery and hook it back up to my Rpod, I'm getting little or no power flowing into my trailer. When I press the battery indicator level, I get a 3/4ths reading, but the light itself is very faint. The lights don't turn on, and I get intermittent beeping from the CO2 sensor, which I understand is normal.

I've tried different things to sort out the problem. Got a new battery. Got a new battery charger.

I'm not sure what to try next. Could this be a fuse issue?

I ran into this on our last trip, and having the towing vehicle hooked up to the trailer seemed to somehow rectify the situation, and we had no other issues on the short weekend trip. But I'm getting ready for longer one and hate to take off again with this unresolved issue. I welcome any of your suggestions. Many thanks!

You are using a stand alone charger to charge the battery? What is the voltage of the battery after charging?

If, after sitting for a couple hours not hooked up to anything, you have 12.6v or above, your battery is probably OK. If not, it may be the problem.

If you have 12v power at all, it's not a fuse issue persay. That is easy enough to check, are any fuses blown?

How did the camper act when plugged in at the campground? Everything worked?

If you have changed the battery, and have faith in the charger, my guess would be a ground issue.

Have you tried charging the battery using the pod itself?  

A note about the detectors - the two on the ceiling run on 9 volt batteries.  One is a standard smoke detector and the other is a standard carbon monoxide (CO) detector.  If either of them starts chirping just replace the 9 volt.  Chirping is the low-battery warning.  There is a 3rd detector near the floor, usually near the converter which is a LPG detector.  It only runs from the 12 volt supply either from the converter or the battery on the tongue.  It has a low-battery warning too and you won't miss it - low battery or propane warning it will scream you out of the camper.   

I installed a 12VDC socket inside my POD, and bought a digital 12VDC meter.  If I am dry camping I can easily insert the meter and read the battery voltage.  I have learned not to let the voltage drop too far (battery capacity less than 50%).  Time to charge the dual batteries.

I had an issue this weekend while camping. I had the Pod plugged in at home before leaving and had a full battery reading on the inside monitor. I parked the Pod at our bus stop with only the fridge running on battery for 6 hours since we wanted to leave right away after work. When I got to the Pod afterwork, my battery was down to it's last light on the monitor. I changed the fridgerator to propane, hooked the Bargman to the TV and took off for our camping trip. After driving for 2.5 hours and getting to our campsite, the battery was drained, interior lights were very dim and the LPG monitor was chirping a low battery warning. This was a Provinvial Park campground with no services and I was not even able to open the slide out with the TV running.

We slept with the slide in that night and headed to the next destination which would have full hookups. The next two days, with the Pod plugged in, everything worked fine and I left yesterday morning with a full battery reading. After getting home 5 hours later, the same thing happened. Battery was drained to the point that the LPG monitor was chirping.