2008 25' Safari,...BuZZziNg!!

[Mihoff]

Hi everyone,

I just bought a used,...our first in fact,...Airstream. It happens to be an 2008 Safari,...pretty new! I notice that there is this ferociously annoying buzz sound when I turn on any light,...I thought it was the halogen lights themselves but I have just confirmed that it is in fact the 'converter'. Any tips to fix this,...should I soak something in varnish or should I just invest in a new converter????? Any recomendations would be super helpful.

Thanks so much everyone!!

Mark

[tpi]

It normally will make a fan noise that can be heard in the trailer, but not a loud buzzing noise. The fan runs as needed like you describe-lights and other loads will make it come on.

Is any of the sheet metal vibrating or buzzing? Maybe you can tighten screws and stop the noise. Could some wiring or debris be interfering with the fan blades?

Do you have the Parallax 7355 converter? I replaced the power supply portion of the converter because the fan simply didn't work. It looked like the fan could be replaced as a part, but the circuit was tight and I wasn't sure if it was the fan or the control for the fan which was faulty.

[dkottum]

We had the buzzing converter when lights were turned on as well. Converter trouble was confirmed by a significant d.c. voltage drop at the outlets, going lower (near 10 volts) as more equipment was turned on. The converter was replaced under warranty by Oasis RV in Tucson, and all is well.

[Silvertwinkie]

The OEM converters are POS, IMHO. At least they were. If you have the same as most, you should replace it with one of these, at the bare minimum:

55 Amp Converter Replacement Kit

I did and did for one reason: OEM did not have 3 stage charging. My OEM delivered constant voltage to the batteries, thus eventually cooking them. Additionally, I read recently that an owner and forum member (Crazylev) of an 04' 19' CCD was out at his campfire and heard a loud pop coming from inside the coach. Ran into the CCD to find the OEM converter (same as I had) and it caught fire.....

If it's not covered under warranty and you have a Magnatek or Paralex (forget which I had), replace it. If yer in any way mechanically inclined, it's about a 25 minute swap out, no fabricating brackets or anything. Fairly plug and play.

[Wabbiteer]

Battery health (presence?) is an important issue, unused trailer + low battery + Alberta = frozen & possible damaged battery. Have the battery cooked, err, charged and load tested then proceed from there...

[dlb435]

Are you sure it's the inverter? I had a similar noise and traced it to the fan for the refridgerator. The fan is on a thermal switch and will run almost all the time in hot weather. I mounted mine on a rubber insulator to get rid of the noise.

[Silvertwinkie]

Originally Posted by dlb435

Are you sure it's the inverter? I had a similar noise and traced it to the fan for the refridgerator. The fan is on a thermal switch and will run almost all the time in hot weather. I mounted mine on a rubber insulator to get rid of the noise.

Late model Airstreams that have single door fridges (typically with two vents doors on the outside) are the only units that I am aware of that have OEM installed fans. Since this is a 2008 25' Safari, odds are this unit has a double door fridge and a roof top exhaust with only one outside access door, and should have no fan, at least that the factory or Dometic would have installed.

[crazylev]

Yup. That wuz us with exploding converter. We didn't have any warning "buzzing" sound though.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f449...ire-62810.html

Replacing is fairly straight forward if you are inclined to do it yourself.

Good luck.

Jonathan