Heater and charger just died

[TBeery]

Hello all,
In Pennsylvania and just travelled across country with no problems...till now.
Heater would not turn on the other night. Fuse was blown and now it blows as soon as you try to replace it. Traced the purple wire which looks to be the blower as well as lights in closet, bath and kitchen. I found it junctions at the AC unit...I think.

Really need a wire schematic to verify what's going where.

Also, maybe related, the charger is no longer charging the batteries. I just replaced the charger 2 months ago with a Progressive Dynamics PD4655V. It's showing that it's charging (solid green LED) but nothing to the batteries.
Any help would be great as it is getting quite cold here!
Thank you in advance:-)

[dkottum]

You most probably know, but the Battery Disconnect switch must be in the "USE" position for the charger to connect to the batteries. Or could the batteries be so poor they simple will not take a charge; is there charging voltage at the battery terminals?

[cwf]

Check battery levels and switch. Let us know !!

[J. Morgan]

First I would unhook the 12V power wire at the furnace and see if the fuse blows with the furnace out of the loop.

This way you will know if the furnace is an issue or something else along the circuit.


Brevi tempore!

[Foiled Again]

Something you may not know about circuit breakers - if they pop "open" you have to push them all the way to OFF, then reset them to ON. If you just try to turn them ON, they pop back into OPEN immediately. (That would be too easy but it got me for a bit the first time it happened to me too.)

Then go down the list as suggested by others.

You didn't say whether you were heading west or east - or where in PA you were located. If you're near Philly, go directly to Colonial Airstream in NJ - it's close, If you're in western PA headed west,... well Jackson Center isn't that far away either.

Good luck and let us know what you find out.

Paula

[paiceman]

If you are in Western PA head to Greensburg PA, KOA not far away. Airstream of Western PA, Carl or Alex, over 60 years of Airstream combined experience. Or call them, Carl will answer.

[TBeery]

Thanks everyone.
I know about the battery disconnect switch and just replaced both batteries in August.
So far it looks like a ground fault on the wire from the fuse bank to the furnace. When disconnected from the furnace and the fuse bank it still shows continuity with ground. The issue is I don't know how this wire routes through the trailer. It also goes to 3 different lights so finding the short is very difficult.

The charger may have died from this short I suppose, but I thought the fuse would have protected it.

I'm near State College PA so maybe heading to Colonial. Good idea!

[cwf]

As JMorgan suggested above, try disconnecting the durnace control Panel power ... Recheck Ground fault. You may find the shirt where wires enter furnace and can patch..

[Silver.Sanctuary]

Originally Posted by TBeery

Thanks everyone.


The charger may have died from this short I suppose, but I thought the fuse would have protected it.

The PD should have protective circuits to keep you from burning it out... at least mine claimed to have them.

[ijustlee]

I killed my switching power supply just the other day using a 5KW generator. Unknown to me at first, one 120v leg of the generator was grossly overloaded and the voltage sagged to 89 volts for a few minutes until the 220v breaker popped. That was the leg powering the converter so I think that is what ruined it. However, I recently added a fuel filter to the generator that was causing an air lock in the fuel line, so the generator would quit at random and while spinning down was dropping the voltage and frequency before I could hit the shut off switch on the converter. It is my understanding that switching type converters don't like to be too far off on frequency or it can shorten their lifespan. It's advised to let the generator stabilize at 60 cycles before turning on or off switching power supplies, at least the older ones. Were you on shore power or a generator when your charger died? Do all the light fixtures still work normally? Wiring problems are usually at connections but vehicles can chafe insulation from movement. Leland