Wacko Lights

[Jedsmom]

Hey All, I need some of your collective wisdom/opinions, please.

We have a 2015 ACE, and we’re doing a little weekend glamping. We’re plugged in to a good pedestal with a Progressive EMS monitoring everything, and it all looks good.

It got to be time to turn on the porch light, so I did, and when I flipped the switch the TV went off. Took us a minute to figure out what was going on, but we tested it several times and it happens every time we turn on the porch light. However, when we turn the TV back on we notice that the “main” lights dim. The microwave works, no breakers have been tripped and the GFI is fine. However, the ceiling light closest to the TV isn’t working properly — won’t allow just one side to come on, but both will come on.

I hope this makes sense. We’ve got power everywhere else in the rig. We’re thinking that there’s some kind of short in the area between the TV, porch light, and possibly ceiling light.

Any thoughts?

[JamieGeek]

Keep in mind that the porch light and the "main" lights are on the 12V circuit and the GFI, TV, etc. are on 120V--separate systems.

Was your TV working off an inverter at the time? (which may explain it shutting off with the porch light coming on to some extent)

Sounds to me like you'll need to divide and conquer: First debug the 12V system and then the 120V system.

[Jedsmom]

Thanks for the thoughts. We’re thinking it might be the house batteries. We’ll check them in the morning.

[Yodaguy]

If you are plugged into a pedestal your converter should be charging the battery and supplying 12v to the lights. Maybe the converter is the problem.

[Jedsmom]

Where’s the converter? And how do we check it?

[Long & Winding road]

The converter is at the bottom of your fuse box (inside RV - usually under the bed in many RV). Take cover off and you will see a little fan that is on top of the converter. Thats the noise you hear when its charging you batteries (or you pulling a lot of 12v juice while plugged in).

I have seen some test that you can do yourself to see if your having problems. Search on Youtube for the test or go to Progressive Dynamics website - they also show you how to test it.

Im going to replace my factory single stage converter with the Progressive Dynamic 4655 "smart 4 stage" (On order but due to arrive after Xmas ).

Im afraid the OEM converter will boil my new AGM's so I been using it sparingly. Plus I want long life out of them and I have the very contagious "improvement bug" that is going around on this forum.

Check all of your 12 volt conections and check for corrosion on the battiery terminals.

Let us know what you find out.

[Jedsmom]

We’re going to check the batteries in the morning. They’re the originals, and we’ve had the rig almost 4 years. I’d say we’ve gotten our money’s worth from them, as I’ve read they’re not very good. As long as we can make it through tomorrow & tomorrow night we’ll be fine. If it’s the converter (and I haven’t heard the fan come on yet), then our extended warranty should cover it. Could be a combination of both, I suppose! I’ll keep you posted, but won’t be able to anything until after Christmas.