Interior Lights Not Working!

[MarknShana]

My husband installed a 220 outlet to plug our 2005 Sunline T-2363 into, we had been using 110. When he plugged the camper into the 220 outlet all of the lights, the refrigerator, and the radio stopped working The microwave and all of the outlets and the a/c are still working. He checked the breakers and fuses and said one breaker had flipped and he reset it and none of the fuses appeared to be blown. Any ideas? We are supposed to go camping tomorrow. Thanks for any suggestions!

[MACK C-85]

The standard RV outlet is not 220V!!! It is a 30Amp, 110v outlet. To put it simply, the three prongs on a 110v are "hot", neutral, and ground. A three prong 220v has two "hot" and a ground. The 110v "neutral" on your trailer is grounded, so when you plug into the 220v outlet the second "hot" is shorted to ground, hence tripping the breaker.

Plugging into a 220v outlet can burn out the 110v appliances, including the 12v convertor. Hopefully, you haven't damaged the 12v appliances as the lights, the controls for the refrigerator and the radio are all 12 volt.

Mack

[JohnB]

Hi Mark and Shanna

The mistake that was made is like Mack stated. The camper is a 120 VAC system. It is not a 230 VAC system. The “Camper Plug” looks similar to the older day 220 VAC dryer plug that use to be in older homes but it is not. This mistake has happened before.

Now to your 12 volts. I see you have a 2005 camper which I believe is still an American Enterprise CS6000XL convertor.

And I’m assuming it looks like this.







If your 12 volts is not working at all, it can be maybe 1 of 2 things.

• The power surge fired the convertor. Hopefully not but may have.
• If your lucky then maybe you blew the on board fuse on the convertor main board. See here. Take all power off the camper and turn the switch off on the battery.

I cannot remember out of my head where the fuse is on the CS6000XL but it may be a small glass tube type fuse. You may have to remove the PC board to get to it. You can get the fuses at the auto parts store it that is what is wrong. It will be on the PC board near where the 120VAC wire attacha to it. Look at the bottom where the black and white wire goes on the PC board. Make sure all power is unpluged including the battery when you go in looking.



This is the prior model American the CS6000. This is not your model but sows what I’m talking about. The fuse is near the incoming AC


If the glass fuse is blown, try changing that. If it blows immediately again then your convertor has issues.

Now it is Thursday before a holiday camping weekend…..now what??? Well here is an option to maybe salvage the trip. If the convertor is dead, unhook the 12 VDC wires and the 120VAC feeding the PC board. Now all you have is a fuse strip to the camper and wiring to your battery on the A frame. When you turn on the battery it will power the camper 12 volts. The AC roof unit will work once plugged in to shore line power, the fridge will work, the water pump will work the lights will work. The only issue the battery will get drained. If you have a battery charger you can put the charger on during the day, take it off at night and redo the next day. Bring an extension cord to go from the power post to the front of the camper.

If your convertor board is shot, you can buy just the replacement PC board from American I do believe. Here is there web site RV Power Converters, Parts and Accessories from American

Good luck

John

[MarknShana]

Thanks so much for the responses! And JohnB my husband said to give you a big thank you for the pictures and your expertise!!!! You really helped alot! We did end up buying a new converter box which fixed everything. The only problem we had on our camping trip this past weekend was the hotwater heater wasn't igniting on gas and the electric worked spasmodically. The water would get hot then lukewarm and then hot again without us even using it. Any ideas as to what is causing this?

[JohnB]

Hi Shanna

Well good, glad your all powered up again.

Now to the HW heater, from what little you described it sounds like the likely cause, corrosion on the terminals.

I’ll ask a few questions, you said it will not light on gas all the time and the electric is sporadic too,

While on gas and the heater is cold enough to want heat added, when you flip on the switch listen for a Clunk (the gas valve) followed by click, click, click. (the igniter). Did you hear any clunks and clicks? It will do this restart pattern 3 times before it goes out on safety and you get a red DSI light fault inside. But if no clunk and clicks your not even trying to fire off.

If you have no clunk and clicks at all, odds are your safety circuit may not be working right. That same safety circuit holds out the electric element as well. And on electric you do not hear anything normally, it just plain does not work and 40 minutes later it is, where it the hot water??? Have to listen to the noises these things make to help trouble shoot.

If you just flip on the gas portion within a few seconds it should clunk and start clicking. If it does not do that at all then try this:

Shut off all power to the camper including the 12 volts DC at the battery.

See this pic


In the middle on that brown foam are some push on terminals. Says ECO and T Stat. The connections get corroded and do not make the safety circuit and that holds out the firing sequence. While holding the foam firm to the heater, pull off the connections clean them up and put back on. Ideally get some Dielectric grease at the Autoparts store to stop this problem from reocuring.

http://www.permatex.com/products/Automotive/specialized_maintenance_repair/electrical_system_maintenance/auto_Permatex_Dielectric_Tune-Up_Grease.htm

That grease helps stop the corrosion and the circuit from not making. Also pull off and clean up the push on connection on the PC board as that area can do the same thing.

Since the heater wiring is sort of outside it is exposed to moisture rather easy. This corrosion on the terminals is a common problem.

Hope this helps

John

PS if this is not the issue, let me know what it does on gas or not. There is more digging we can do.