guitarlover519 Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I am completely a dummy when it comes to electricity. and i am about to take my rig somewhere just to have it fixed, but maybe you guys can help. Everything was fine and gravy till 4 days ago i came out to the rig at night to grab something and nothing worked on the coach battery... Just figured i left a light on. Plugged it into shore today and the charge light on my inverter is off, indicating no charge. Besides that the only lights that work now are the two on the ceiling and the one in the bathroom. the rear light under the cabinet and the one over the sink wont work. not to mention now the A/C only works the fan. compressor wont kick in now. All the 'small fuses' in the circuit breaker are ok. I am stumped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90toydolphin Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 taking it to an electrical shop could add up fast on the cost side, takes time to trace things. i would start by making sure the coach battery is ok. take it out, check the water level and refill if necessary, check main connections, clean real well. if battery is dead put it on a charger and bring it up to full charge out of the motor home. many auto parts places will test the battery for you free. as for the fuses, you should test with continuity tester to make sure they are ok, or just replace, cheap. they can look fine and not be good. cheap enough and easy enough to just replace. if you can, once the battery is removed use jumpers to connect a battery that you know is good to the coach and see if any of the problems go away. with it going "bad" just sitting my brain says it has to be the battery or connections, after all nothing was being used, maybe a light left on as you mentioned. the air conditioner not coming on is a120v not 12 volt problem. i think most units have a plug coming out of the lower unit that plugs in somewhere, mine plugged in next to it into a receptacle on the ceiling. plug that directly into an extension cord to shore power and check it. if it works then maybe there is a problem with the converter. if you are running the air of an inverter it must be pretty big and the house battery pretty big and powerful. really doesn't make much sense that the fan worked but the compressor didn't come on, unless it was too cold for the thermostat on the air to tell it to come on. the battery, fuse and extension cord to the air are things that you can do that may save a mechanic time if you do need to take it in. good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarlover519 Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 Ok at least I know where to start now. As soon as i get home im going to run thru that checklist. The battery seems newer, and its a good deep cycle. Your probably right about the a/c thermostat . ill wait till it warms up here in chicagoland before i start worrying about that... Any ideas why the side and rear lights just suddenly stopped working? Maybe one of those fuses is bad and just isnt showing any signs? all the bulbs seem ok taking it to an electrical shop could add up fast on the cost side, takes time to trace things. i would start by making sure the coach battery is ok. take it out, check the water level and refill if necessary, check main connections, clean real well. if battery is dead put it on a charger and bring it up to full charge out of the motor home. many auto parts places will test the battery for you free. as for the fuses, you should test with continuity tester to make sure they are ok, or just replace, cheap. they can look fine and not be good. cheap enough and easy enough to just replace. if you can, once the battery is removed use jumpers to connect a battery that you know is good to the coach and see if any of the problems go away. with it going "bad" just sitting my brain says it has to be the battery or connections, after all nothing was being used, maybe a light left on as you mentioned. the air conditioner not coming on is a120v not 12 volt problem. i think most units have a plug coming out of the lower unit that plugs in somewhere, mine plugged in next to it into a receptacle on the ceiling. plug that directly into an extension cord to shore power and check it. if it works then maybe there is a problem with the converter. if you are running the air of an inverter it must be pretty big and the house battery pretty big and powerful. really doesn't make much sense that the fan worked but the compressor didn't come on, unless it was too cold for the thermostat on the air to tell it to come on. the battery, fuse and extension cord to the air are things that you can do that may save a mechanic time if you do need to take it in. good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90toydolphin Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 i had almost the exact same thing with only some of the lights working. changed out the fuses, one was bad even though it looked fine. patience and a deep breath could save you lots of dollars ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Glass fuses are getting a little long in the tooth for good reason. I would take them out give then a good cleaning on the metal end with some steel wool and some rolled up sand paper where they plug in they get dirty and lose contact. Fuses age and what happens the lead actually sags and becomes thinner when it does the amp rating goes down and the fuse blows this does not mean you have a problem just that it can no longer stand the load. They also come apart with age in the very end that you can't see. A very simple tool is a 12 volt test light (any auto store will have them) clip one end to a good ground and touch the other end to both ends of the fuse if one end does not light replace the fuse. You can test your ground by touching a couple of fuses and make sure you get a light some where then your good to check them all. As far as your A/C it was most likely too cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob C Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 If you don't have a good multimeter, now is the time to buy one. They can be purchased for $20 and up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Toyota Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 i would second that glass fuses will get old the ends get lose the fuses will look perfect will show good on an oms cotinuty test. but leave one end in conect a test light acrossto the fuse and the light on a load test will not lite. I had this same problm before i took all the glass fuses out and replaced with new ones and no more problem twenty five year old glass fuses can and do fall apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 A DVM is a valuable tool and any one with an older MH should have one and a test light also. The test light is fast and accurate because it loads the circuit so if there is a bad connection it won't light or very dimly a DVM may show full voltage but carry no load. A test light can not tell you if your system is charging and meter can so with both you should be able to tell exactly what's going on. Cost maybe $30 value, priceless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 RV Maintenance and Repair. Author Bob Livingston. This is the RV repair bible. Find at RV stores, EBay, Amazon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarlover519 Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Update. I pulled the batt out on sat and just "hotwired" a car battery to it and hit the two lights that werent working and they lit. So now i know those two only work on battery, but iam still left with the question of why it wont charge my deepcycle? I wasnt able to see if it was charging the car battery because there was no way of holding the hot and ground wires on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Every thing 12 volts in the coach is powered by the coach battery or the converter/charger when it's plugged in lights, pump, heater, vent fan and possibly the fridge. The coach battery should charge with either the running truck or the power cord. The MH charger will not charge the truck battery. So now is the time to buy a DVM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiter Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I pulled the batt out on sat and just "hotwired" a car battery to it and hit the two lights that weren't working and they lit. You have a broken wire or a blown fuse that is keeping the battery from supplying power to the other 12 volt items. Here is a generic power diagram that is meant to give you an idea of how the different power systems are tied together. You'll need to get a voltmeter and learn how to use it to measure voltage and resistance, OR, you'll pay someone $65 / hour to do it for you. John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wistoy Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I don't think you can hire a competent tech for less than 85/hr At least not in our area, sure theres the guys that will work cheep but take 4 times longer, and then you can take it in and have it fixed the right way. Don't be fooled into thinking "it's only 12v" 12 v can be as deadly as 120v and just as easly start a fire if there are bad, or over loaded conections. Don't be afraid of your own work, but only do it if you know what you are doing. Dale Wistoy You have a broken wire or a blown fuse that is keeping the battery from supplying power to the other 12 volt items. Here is a generic power diagram that is meant to give you an idea of how the different power systems are tied together. You'll need to get a voltmeter and learn how to use it to measure voltage and resistance, OR, you'll pay someone $65 / hour to do it for you. John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarlover519 Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 I have a neighbor with a DVM and a voltmeter, hes a union electrician. Im going to see if i can persuade him to take a peek and show me the ropes on tracing this thing back. I appreciate all your guys help. Im especially hopeless when it comes to electricity... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarlover519 Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 ill update once he has been thru, im also buying the glass fuses today. And im going to look into new inverters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boots Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 taking it to an electrical shop could add up fast on the cost side, takes time to trace things. i would start by making sure the coach battery is ok. take it out, check the water level and refill if necessary, check main connections, clean real well. if battery is dead put it on a charger and bring it up to full charge out of the motor home. many auto parts places will test the battery for you free. as for the fuses, you should test with continuity tester to make sure they are ok, or just replace, cheap. they can look fine and not be good. cheap enough and easy enough to just replace. if you can, once the battery is removed use jumpers to connect a battery that you know is good to the coach and see if any of the problems go away. with it going "bad" just sitting my brain says it has to be the battery or connections, after all nothing was being used, maybe a light left on as you mentioned. the air conditioner not coming on is a120v not 12 volt problem. i think most units have a plug coming out of the lower unit that plugs in somewhere, mine plugged in next to it into a receptacle on the ceiling. plug that directly into an extension cord to shore power and check it. if it works then maybe there is a problem with the converter. if you are running the air of an inverter it must be pretty big and the house battery pretty big and powerful. really doesn't make much sense that the fan worked but the compressor didn't come on, unless it was too cold for the thermostat on the air to tell it to come on. the battery, fuse and extension cord to the air are things that you can do that may save a mechanic time if you do need to take it in. good luck. Hi, Good advice from the other fellow. Do the basics, don't assume anything, and be methodical. First off take the coach battery off of the rig, take it to a battery store, have them load test it (even if it costs you a service fee) and that will tell you how much life is left in that battery, record that and report back to us. If you can find out from them the specifications of the battery and post them here for us to see. If you demand too much from a battery it may survive for a while.and then it will begin to fail (prematurely) and may need replacing. IIt may be the battery is not sized correctly for your needs. In addition if you can give us the specifications for the air compressor, we can see if tthere is too much demand on the battery system. As an example, if the a/c draws 12 amps AC, the demand on the battery (when it is in good condition and fully charged) will be in the order of 100 amps DC. If your DC system is using too small of wires, the internal resistance of those wires may not allow all that current to flow and the amperage will rise (and consequently the voltage will drop) - a number of things can happen, first you may over heat the wire conductors and they can fail (either fully or partially), second the invertor input voltage (nominally 12 volts DC) will drop below the safety design levels and consequently shut down, or not allow the full load to operate and lastly you may damage the battery system. By the way, all air conditioning systems, are very demanding on start-up. A typically a/c unit will run at, say, 13.5 amps AC, but to start it, the "inrush current" (the startup current) may be 4 to 6 times that of the operating running current. If the invertor cannot handle that inrush current, the compressor will not start. So if you do not have a sufficiently large capacity invertor, say 2500 watts (which is capable of sustaining high inrush currents for say 30 secs to a minute, you may want to consider the upgrade (with the subsequent increase in battery, cables and fuses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Running an A/C with an inverter has been pretty well abandoned by just about every one in the RV bizz even monster motor homes with huge alternators and 4 6 volt batteries gave up on that ideal years ago. Motors typically draw 220% more power just to start turning that's not considering high head pressure in the A/C on a restart so at 13.5 amps 120 volts that's 29.7 amps or 3564 watts translated to 12 volts that's 297 amps start and 135 amps running at 100% efficiency . Add a 60 amp alternator and you end up with a 70 amp deficit with out running any thing else. Most of the Toy homes A/C's are not as big as a 13.5 amp one but you'll still end up with more current draw then you can replace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarlover519 Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Update, im going to try to get some pictures up.... I took the panel off the converter just to see if there were any loose wires or anything visible by eye. What i am discovering now is if i keep the screw out for the charging module the charging light comes on when the campers running.... But here is the weird part now... It stays on when I turn the truck off! im starting to be done with this converter and looking into others, but anyone have any ideas why the charge light would stay lit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Yeah pictures would be good. That why we might be able to figure out what you have for a converter/charger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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