Black screen under fridge?

[Bornbrock]

Probably a stupid newbee question, but I just purchased a 2005 Voyage 33V and there is a black screen under the fridge area that runs intermittently. I can’t seem to find out what it does and not sure if runs while travelling but something is running down my house batteries.

[Bornbrock]

Can anyone tell me what this panel is ?

[creativepart]

Looks like a subwoofer speaker cover to me.

[Morich]

Lots of new and different things to learn on RV and one of the big onesis what hapens with the batteries. Maybe a brief rundown to start, in case there are things you've missed?
A lot of newer folks miss the details and wind up killing a set of batteries, so maybe we can help you avoid that!

First thought on what you describesounds like the converter which uses 110AC power when plugged in or running generator to then make the 12VDC for house things like lights, vent fans and water pump. It is a box of elev=ctronics and needs to run a fan to cool and may run lots on hot days.

But there are three "systems" which I divide this way.
The 110AC as mentioned which runs the big power userslike microwave, air condioner, and outlets.
The 12vdc which runs coach items like mentioned and then a second 12VDc which does the normal car/truck things like headlights, horn, wipers, etc.

The second two can get really confusing as they often have battery disconnect switch on one or both but those switches DO NOT disconnect all the load!! So we can run the batteries down while the RV is stored even with us thinking we turned it all off....

Safety stuff is left powered,so we don't come back to an RV full of gas without the propane detector being powered! The steps often still work and the radio presets may be still there using power on the chassis/ start battery.

See if that makes some sense of what might be happening and then the wholoe idea is what keeps this forum busy as it takes some timesand discussion to get the details of what makes things happen.
So welcome to the group and ask any questions you have as that is what makes things move around here!!

[Bones2003]

Can you remove what looks like a drawer just to the right of the black screen to see what might be behind it?

[Morich]

I did a bit of checking on drawings and find that looks like a speaker from the drawings. If you are hearing a fan it is logical that you are hearing the converter fan as it is right next door to the left and a speaker with little on the backside may let the sound come straight through.



But it may take a check to see that the speaker is not putting out a noise full time, indicating something is not fully turned off as that could also eat battery??

But the converter operation while driving should be fine and supplying all the power for any 12VDC items like a radio.
That can be part of the confusing things as there is a solenoid which ties both the coach battery and the chassis battery with the engine alternator all together at times.
One is when we are running the engine and want the alternator to put some power back into both sets of batteries as we drive to the next campsite.

OR it has a second function using a switch near the driver, often labeled "boost or aux" which can be used to momentarily connect the batteries together to get a "jump start" for a weak chassis battery!

But this should not make the battery run down while driving as it is designed to power things inside like the lights, fans, and other things we might want to use while moving. The things we use on a car are running off the alternator so it simply adds the RV coach items to the group while running and then disconnects them when we stop so that each group can do it's part without risking running ALL of them down at once to leave us stranded.

[tim myers]

How old and what type house batteries do you have, are they 12 volt or 6 volt, and how many