House DC Power Issues

[Storey]

Did you figure it out yet? You’re looking for a battery isolator breaker. Reset the little black button.
I've got a Four Winds Chateau Citation 23A that is having issues with the DC power and I need some help troubleshooting it!!

Here's the problem - when I'm on Shore Power, or Generator everything internally runs great (lights, water pump, etc) but as soon as I disconnect Shore Power, or turn off the Generator then there is no power inside the RV.

The House Battery is fully charged and I've tested it and made sure it's working great (it's only 3 months old). The House Battery seems to come into RV via the Red Cable (from the floor) in the picture below:



It connects up to the switch that I marked with an arrow and when I check there is 12.6 v on both sides of that switch. I'm using the copper ground cable pictured as my ground for testing.

The red cable goes from the switch into the breaker box pictured below:



I get the same voltage when testing at the right and white cables. I also tested by grounding the tester on the big white cable and then testing on the silver screw heads next to each fuse and got 12.6v there too.

So I'm not sure why there is no power inside the RV.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm not good with electrical, so if my testing is on the wrong cables, please let me know what I should be testing!!

Thanks so much!
Steve[/QUOTE]

[redshift]

My issues seems to be on the chassis side, don't have any issue with the coach power.

[BillW1]

I'm looking at your picture of the panel with the little blue fuses on the right side and the circuit breakers on the left. When you are disconnected from shore power and generator is off I think the breakers on the left side in your picture should have no voltage at all. They are for all the 120 volt applications...like TV, microwave, etc.

The little fuses on the right are for the 12 volt applications...interior lights, exhaust fan, water pump, etc.

Do you have 12 volts (or close to it) on both sides of the fuses in right side panel. If you don't have voltage on the right side of the fuses but you have it on the left then the fuse is blown. If you don't have voltage on the left side of the fuses then the panel is not getting voltage from the batteries. If the thick wire going into the panel has voltage but the fuses don't then the fuse panel itself has a bad connection somewhere.

If you have no voltage at all in the right side panel you'll have to trace the big wire back until it reaches the battery. Somewhere along that circuit there would be a problem, blown fuse, bad connection, broken wire, etc.


These things take time and patience to figure out. Start at the 12 volt fuses that are dead and keep going down the big wire towards the battery till you find where you have voltage. Whatever is between where you have voltage and where you don't is the problem.


Good luck. Be patient and methodical and you'll figure it out.


Bill