Half Dead RV

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by motofabio

What if the fuse doesn’t pop, but the appliances now don’t work again? What other single item could case all those appliances to die?

And was pulling it and replacing it sheer coincidence before? I have a hard time with that.

Look at the post above yours; loose or bad connections behind the fuse panel. Breakers are not involved with DC loads.

[motofabio]

Originally Posted by simidrm

…has to be bad connection somewhere down stream from that breaker or fuse,only thing you can do is track power and ground wires all the way to each appliance and look for burnt or corroded connection.

I agree and will check this next. Question… how do you do this when all the wires are sealed in walls? Am I looking at removing cabinets and cutting open the interior panels?

[simidrm]

If it were mine, I would check for power and ground at all the appliances that don’t work to see which one is bad, do that with a volt meter, or ohms test the wiring with power removed, and start working backwards till you find power and ground both, find the broken wire(s) first decide on how to repair next as you might find the bad spot most likely external or where wires go into coach, unless a screw or nail pierced the wiring when it was built.

[motofabio]

Originally Posted by lwmcguir

Don't know if you have a converter or inverter but whichever it isn't working. Start from there

Add you RV info for better advice

I failed to mention that all the 110v receptacles work fine and all the 12v items (lighting) work fine. I believe that eliminates the converter as the issue.

I didn’t fail to mention RV info; it’s literally the first thing. Haha

[txc2936@yahoo.com]

Fabio

I have a similar model, 30.4 i am interested in your solution.

I would start with the source of pwr, at the battery, make sure all the CB are closed in the battery compartment, everything clean and no corrosion. Then check for 12 Vdc at the Fuse panel.

I would remove shore pwr, you know the converter is working, and it pwrs the lights. Need to isolate to just DC pwr from the battery.

Interesting that you have been using the RV, its not been in storage and dis use...

So, i would trouble shoot every DC system. Start with the water pump...Do you hear it run when you turn on pump switch? Find a system that works. Are the HDMI ports showing that little green light?

The Water pump is a good system, because the terminals are accessible outside to run a voltmeter to. If it doesnt work, and no voltage to the pump. The issue is on the fuse panel to the pump... do this for each system, if you can isolate the wires...

From a trouble shooting prospective, Nothing working might be better than intermittent. Because the problem may be a single point failure somewhere. Good luck

[motofabio]

Is it possible that the 12v fuse panel is bad and the 12v items are working off the battery power instead? Because with a voltmeter I see no power across any of the fuses.

Would a dead fuse panel stop the AC units from working, even though they ONLY work on 110v?

Is there a big “main” fuse like a main on a breaker panel?

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by motofabio

Is it possible that the 12v fuse panel is bad and the 12v items are working off the battery power instead? Because with a voltmeter I see no power across any of the fuses.

Would a dead fuse panel stop the AC units from working, even though they ONLY work on 110v?

You wouldn't see any voltage across a fuse. There are test points on the back of all fuses for measuring both sides of the fuse TO GROUND while in place.

Also, if the fuse panel was not powered, none of the 12 volt loads would be either, Power from both the converter AND the battery has to go through the fuses to the DC loads.

You MAY have a connection problem in the fuse panel for the loads that are dropping out intermittently. Thor is not know for making quality wire connections.

[motofabio]

I think I’m closing in on this. There are two 35 amp blade fuses behind the converter, which are good, but no 12v (13.xv) power coming out of it.

I suppose that explains it. The AC units must not be working because the controllers need the 12v. That’s my theory at least.

So I’ll replace the converter and update this thread. Wish me luck!

Should I replace it with the same crappy one that burnt out after four years or is there a better brand? I know they slap these RVs together with the cheapest garbage they can find.

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by motofabio

I think I’m closing in on this. There are two 35 amp blade fuses behind the converter, which are good, but no 12v (13.xv) power coming out of it.

I suppose that explains it. The AC units must not be working because the controllers need the 12v. That’s my theory at least.

So I’ll replace the converter and update this thread. Wish me luck!

Should I replace it with the same crappy one that burnt out after four years or is there a better brand? I know they slap these RVs together with the cheapest garbage they can find.

The A/C doesn't need 12 VDC from the converter. It just needs 12 VDC from the batteries, THROUGH the "appliances" fuse.

Are the 35 amp fuses good? They are the reverse polarity fuses for your converter to protect it when the batteries are connected backwards.

Have you measured the actual converter output?

[motofabio]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

The A/C doesn't need 12 VDC from the converter. It just needs 12 VDC from the batteries, THROUGH the "appliances" fuse.

Are the 35 amp fuses good? They are the reverse polarity fuses for your converter to protect it when the batteries are connected backwards.

Have you measured the actual converter output?

The 35 amp fuses are good, and they are simple automotive blade fuses, not directional. Scroll down for more!

[motofabio]

I did a little more troubleshooting today. My plan was to replace the converter with a known good simple transformer. When I disconnected the output positive, it fell out of the lug for the input on the fuse panel. The meth addicts that slapped together this one didn’t bother to tighten down the screw holding the cable in place.



So I reconnected that, but it still didn’t work. Then I noticed that one set of wires had a very poorly made joint, with exposed copper. That joint was just on top of a bare copper ground wire. I followed it to the end and found it was burned/melted and popped out of the back of the fuse panel.



These guys are unbelievable. I fixed the joint and plugged the wire it and low and behold… everything works again.

There is still some mystery. That wire goes into the fuse panel in a slot labeled “macerator”, which I don’t have and had a 15 amp fuse in it when it shows a 20 on the label.

Basically the wiring in the fuse panel is suspect at best. I’m sure there are misplaced labels and wires. It’s all working now, so I’m not going to get into it, but I know at some point - maybe when the kids are older - I’ll have to get in there and sort it all out.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I very much appreciate it!

[simidrm]

Glad you were able to find and fix the problem without having to pull any interior out.
Thanks for the update with what you found, might just help the next person with a similar problem.

[txc2936@yahoo.com]

Glad to hear it was a wiring problem. While your down in that area, i found that they attached the converter plug to a cheap pig tail and connected to AC panel. I decided to add a plug outlet on the floor, and add 12ga wire to the CB panel.