# Electrical Question



## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

Hi All,

I'm camping as I write this down at Goose Point Campground in Southern Virginia. It's a very nice ACE campground, and I have every reason to believe that the the electrical power they provide is "clean".

Every few minutes, the lights get bright and there is a noise almost like a fan noise that comes from the block where the fuses and circuit breakers live. After a minute or two (sometimes just 10 seconds or so), the lights dim and the noise stops. Can anyone tell me what might be the cause of that?

Everything else seems to be working well except for the refrigerator, which will only work on the gas setting.

Thanks for any help!


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## RDS (Jul 20, 2011)

Not sure if the two problems are related without checking the voltage coming in from campground.

If the power coming in is good you could have a battery that is bad or very low on water and the converter keeps trying to charge it. that would make it work harder and cuase it's fan to come on and the lights to change.

If voltage is good try unhooking the TT battery and see if dim/bright lights go away.

If voltage is low that could be both problems.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

When on shore power the lights should be steady in brightness, if they are cycling without you doing anything then you have an issue.

The first and easiest check would be to disconnect the battery. The converter should supply a steady 13.6 vdc and the lights will be a consistent brightness, the cooling fan may kick on depending on how many lights you have on. If it is stable with a few lights then start turning on more and more lights.

You can do this test the other way also and disconnect shore power and if the battery wiring is okay the lights will be a consistent brightness but will dim slightly with every additional light that is turned on.

If you have a volt meter you should check the voltage at the fuse box during both of these tests and let us know what you find.


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

Hi. No voltmeter, but I did disconnect the battery and the bright/dim problem seemed to have disappeared. When I first disconnected I had almost no power at all for a few minutes, but then everything kicked backed in. About 5 minutes later though, the fan came on and now I have no power... EXCEPT the microwave is showing "0".

So then I notice that the light on the TV and the DVD is still on, so there must be some 110 coming in. and now the lights have come back on. I suspect that the fan will come on again, run for a bit and kill everything.

What do you think?


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## KTMRacer (Jun 28, 2010)

you may have a converter problem. The converter has 3 output voltages, 13.2V (when batteries are fully charged), 13.V (when batteries are mostly charged) and 14.6V, (when batteries are mostly discharged). It sounds like your converter (a) may be going between the 13.2/13.6V setting and the 14.4v setting, and when in the 14.4 volt setting, the fan for converter cooling may be coming on. or (







what sounds more likely, is that the converter is cycling on and off for some reason, going between 0v and 13-14V. That is why no lights when battery disconnected, then lights, and dim/bright lights. With the battery connected it's possibly not getting charged enough so lights dim till the converter kicks in for a while, bright lights, then converter kicks out, dim lights.

ALL your lights are run off 12V, not 110


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

I am going to go with a loose ground wire behind the converter on the ground/neutral buss. Easy to check and fix you just need to get access to the terminal strip.


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

_"__ALL your lights are run off 12V, not 110". _That I know, but I assume the converter's job is to change the 110 to 12V which is why they are working without the battery.


As you can probably tell, this is not my prime area of expertise. As far as the suggestion about the loose ground wire, shall i disconnect the 110 and then look around for a loose connection? Any idea what color wire I am looking for?


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

I do see two screws... is that what holds the whole thing in place? Should I drop those screws after killing the power and look for a loose wire?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Yes you should remove the 110 from the trailer once you start checking the grounds.

There should be 4 screws that hold the converter cover on. Once this is removed the converter itself sits below the fuse/breaker panel. The ground buss is typically screwed to the floor behind the converter. The wire color for the grounds in the trailer is white. There may be another access panel to this area that does not require that you remove the converter cover.

Since you have no volt meter I would HIGHLY recommend you spring $10 for a basic one from your local auto parts store.


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

ok. Popped the panel for the refrigerator. That problem was easy: it wasn't plugged in. I had had a recall service done on the Dometic refrigerator last fall and obviously the knuckleheads had not plugged in back in.

I could find no other access to the converter other than taking out the two screws, which did give me access. I didn't see any glaring problems, but didn't tighten every connection, a few of which seemed a liitle loose, but not terribly. Hooked everything back up including the battery. Converter fan still coming on and the bright/dim issue still happening, but it seems that the bright is not as bright and the dim is not as dim. I guess we'll see. I am sitting here with just one light on. Should that fan come on every few minutes?

Thanks for your help. I will go for the volt meter when I'm out.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

It should not cycle that rapidly under any set of conditions.

If you found no issues with the grounds then your converter is suspect. That said have you verified the electrolyte level in the battery? If the plates get exposed you can have issues with the converter.


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

the battery is sealed and is about two years old. I would think that if the fan keeps coming on when I had the battery disconnected, that would lead me back to the converter. Is that the kind of thing I can replace myself, if need be?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

A sealed battery? Not typical to have a sealed deep cycle battery. Battery failure can lead to and cause converter failure.

Replacement of the converter with the same style is a 10 minute job. If you replace the converter if it is the issue you need to make sure the battery is also in good working order.


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

I'm an idiot. It looked sealed, but is not. There is water in there, but i will top it up. Off to find some distilled water.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

Check your battery connections as well. Sounds either like corrosion, or a bad battery that the converter is trying repeatedly to charge.


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## thunderbird (Aug 27, 2006)

OK, topped the battery off, (which was low buy by no means dry). Connections look good, lights still bright and dim, fan on and off. I guess either the now full battery will satisfy the converter's desire to charge after awhile or I'll have to look into swapping out the converter when I get back.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

One last thing to check.

On the tongue by the battery is a 40 or 50 amp auto reset breaker. It is on the positive wire and within 2 feet of the battery. Sit out by it to see if it is clicking on and off matching the dim - bright cycle. If you had a meter we could do some additional checks.

Also recheck the wiring at the auto reset breakers for loose connection.


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