1973 Overlander electrical doing strange things.

[Lothlorian]

It all started when I realized my galley light was not working in my 73 Overlander. The voltmeter was not getting a reading from the light and I did not have my drill or rivet gun with me to fool with my switch.

I went into the compartment where the converter was and started checking fuses. Everything seemed fine. I took wires off and made sure they were clean and had good contact and put everything back together again. When I went back to the inside of the trailer I noticed my control panel and radio were not working. My electric hitch jack and water pump were not working. I decided to turn the generator on to give the battery a little boost and everything came on. Now I thought my issues were solved but almost everything kicked out again with the generator running. The control panel kicked out and so did the bathroom lights. I went back to the converter and touched a fuse and it was smoking hot. I turned off the converter and ten minutes later everything worked again. I did smell a musty smokey electical smell by the coverter when I was checking it.

Later that night when the battery was running the camper for several hours I started the generator again and everything worked and the fuses did not get hot. I have no idea what was going on and I would like to know. My trailer is up on jacks in a barn and I won't have access for awhile. Any thoughts?

Brian

[azflycaster]

One possibility is that the fuse that was hot had a bad connection to the board, most likely caused by corrosion. The high resistance caused it not to work and when it did work, the high resistance generated a lot of heat.

[Lothlorian]

Asflycatcher:

Thanks for that info because I pulled most of the fuses and I might have put one back in that had dirt on it. When I get back to the trailer I will clean all the wires, fuses and connections. My converter is only a few years old. I have an Intel and I have read they are pretty good.

Brian

[Lothlorian]

All the fuses were very hot. I am wondering if it was from pulling the A.C. fuse and putting it back. Maybe I have a bad ground connection

Brian

[mello mike]

Brian,
Are you still using the original fuse block with the glass fuses or did you upgrade your system with a new fuse panel and blade fuses? I upgraded the panel in my Sovereign with a Parallax fuse panel and love it. I like it so much I bought an identical one for my Overlander.

[WineStream]

I had a problem similar to this last summer. In my case, we suddenly lost all power. We assumed it was the battery dead since we had been boondocking for 4 days at that point. We (reluctantly) started the generator and everything was going. But, as soon as we shut off the gen, all went dead again. Long story short, there is a 12V 50A main fuse on the ground side of the 12V system. In mid 74 Overlander, this fuse is on the wall near (what's left of) the Univolt. I am still using the old glass fuses. I replaced this fuse (although it was not visibly blown) and everything has worked fine since. One note: I have since found the same fuse at Advance Auto Parts in gold-plated format. I bought one of these as a spare.

[Lothlorian]

I am using the original fuse block with the intel converter. I will try to replace the 50 amp fuse because things started getting crazy after I pulled it out and put it back in.

Brian

[WineStream]

I could "spin" the bad fuse in it's holder and have the power come & go. I even cleaned everything up with fine sandpaper and used a little dielectric grease. The problem was still around. A $2 fuse took care of all my issues. The gold fuse (spare) was more like $8.

[Lothlorian]

WineStream:

Thanks for the great advice. I will do those electrical techniques when I get back to my trailer. I take it you like wine? I will be moving next to a winery when I retire. One was just built where I am moving in a few years. There are 16 vineyards near my futrue home. We had some of the neighbors wine with our turkey. Good stuff.

Brian

[WineStream]

No guarantees that what worked for me will work for you, but it's cheap and easy to try. The most perplexing part for me was finding out that the fuse was bad because it didn't LOOK blown.

Yes, we tend to drink a little wine. We as well live near many wineries and often visit them during our trips in the Airstream.

[TG Twinkie]

There are times especially with old fuses that they corrode in the holder. But more importantly they corrode inside where the element attaches to the end caps. When this happens they tend to slowly cook themselve to death. It's a sloooow death and can create weird problems. If the spring clips that hold the fuses get too hot they will lose the tension; add corrosion to the mix and wah lah. Voltage Drop! I'd say spring for new fuses every 5 or 10 years, but if the trailer is new to you spring for them now.

[Lothlorian]

twinkle:

Thanks for the tip. This I will definitely do. Nothing more frustrating when you do systems check before camping and find out when you are boon docking problems pop up.

Brian