Interior lighting problem.

[chuman70]

On my 74 Tradewind, the bathroom and 3-way ceiling light in the 2 twin bed bedroom are not working. It just happened over this weekend as we camped last weekend and all the lights worked fine. The other two ceiling lights are working fine and the reading lights above the twin beds are working fine. Does anyone know if these are on a fuse and if so, where do I find it to replace them? I figured that I might have some blown bulbs, but I doubt all 6 in the ceiling fixture and all 3 in the bath would all blow at the same time. Any ideas/solutions?

[tke1230]

Did you ever figure out what the problem was? Ours did the same thing last night.

[imeynstein]

I have a similar problem with my 74 rear bath sovereign....It is the gaucho area and living room area as well as the outside light that is not lighting. The only thing that I have found is that there is a leak around the old antenna and I am planning on trying to remove it tomorrow. I am hoping to track down the problem, but my other problem is that around my antenna, it appears that the PO put some type of roofing black goo on it, and that goo is as hard as a brick!! I don't want to damage the skin...Does anyone know of a solvent that might loosen this up???

[Dan@LED4RV]

Originally Posted by chuman70

Does anyone know if these are on a fuse and if so, where do I find it to replace them?

The fuse panel is most likely the place you need to look. It could be in one of 2 places. It could be on the front wall like in the picture behind this link.

Click here to see the picture.

Or it may be on the converter like in the picture behind this link.

Click here to see the picture of the converter fuse panel.

If your fuse panel is on the converter itself it may be inside a closet (Curb Side) behind a panel.

The main problem I see folks make about fuses is that they look at them and assume they are good. You can not do that with glass fuses. You have to meter them or use some method that makes sure they are good. If you don't have a meter, you can use a straight test light for any fuses that have are suppose to have power on them. You can check one side of the fuse then the other. If the light comes on for one side of the fuse and not the other, you know that is the bad one.

If it is a fuse that is a ground fuse, it will have to be taken out and metered. Those fuses are larger than the others.

Click here to see one of those fuses.

I hope this helps.

Dan

[imeynstein]

Great site!!! I am printing off this information and I appreciate your info.!!!
Oh, I forgot to ask this question---while checking the wiring, I noticed that my 1974 appeared to have aluminum wiring! If so, isn't this dangerous?
Heck, I am half blind these days and can't trust my eyes--especially with the lighting problem!!!

[strmstr69]

Fuses....YIKES!!! They named them "fuse" because all the other four letter words were taken. I had one that metered fine but would work when it wanted too. Who'd have thought of an intermittent fuse!! But it happens..so replace first even if they meter out ok...they're cheap and can be misleading.

As for aluminum wiring, I am against it. It tends to go brittle far too quickly for me, and can over heat fast. Copper too, will go brittle, but has a much longer useful life, and can take the heat alot more before turning dangerous. Having said that, however, if wiring is heating up be it copper or aluminum, best to find out why and correct the problem.

[Lisalynn]

Originally Posted by imeynstein

--while checking the wiring, I noticed that my 1974 appeared to have aluminum wiring! If so, isn't this dangerous?
Heck, I am half blind these days and can't trust my eyes--especially with the lighting problem!!!

The problem with Al is it expands and contracts, and it oxidizes. It ends up working its way loose from devices and wirenuts, thus arcing. You will want to use copper where it attaches to any device (plug, switch...). You can put a 6" 'pig tail' on the wire, using an AL-CU wirenut, which is filled with an antioxidant compound, then hook CU to the device. For the light fixtures, just swap out the wirenuts to AL-CU wirenuts.

[mandolindave]

I have had several lights go out on me. Never was a fuse. Never was a bulb. Always was the ground. The ground for my trailer is just a Philips head screw connecting the chasis of the light fixture to the shell of the camper. I tightened the screw a bit and the problem was solved.
Dave

[vswingfield]

My experience with 3-way lights in my ’67 Trade Wind was that the switches go bad rather than fuses, grounds (always a good suspect), line voltage, or whatever. If you have the rotary switches, they are probably the weak link.

[imeynstein]

Well, I replaced all of my fuses on my univolt as well as all of my bulbs, but I still have the same problem...The bathroom as well as the gaucho area will not light, nor will the outside light beside the front door. Do you think that if I replace my univolt with an intellivolt that this may alleviate my problems??? I just don't know what else to do...

[alanakers]

Check your ground!

[tke1230]

Do all three fixtures have an individual ground or will one fixture have the main ground for all 3?

[imeynstein]

All three are properly grounded. I did remove the front interior light in the gaucho area where the fantastic fan is located--it is so fantastic that it does not work--then I noticed the wire is exposed!!! I am going to have to remove the fan itself. I will send photos as soon as my replacement charger comes in the mail for my camera...Hopefully photos will help with the problems I am having....They say a picture is worth a thousand words!!

[VIKING]

Imeynstein, if you found the exposed wire after you changed the fuses you should re-check them to be sure they didn't blow from that wire grounding out. If you have a volt ohm meter you can check the voltage at the fixtures to see if there is power to them. Probably not, since you have multiple fixtures out of commission. Were any of the old fuses blown when you removed them? That would indicate a short in a wire or fixture on that circuit, and narrow down your search. If there is no blown fuse on yours there is probably a broken or disconnected wire somewhere on that circuit that is not grounding out, or the fixture that comes first on that circuit may be disconnected, keeping power from going any further on that circuit. If you can you should pull the light fixtures out one at a time and see if they are connected. that should be an easy check to do yourself. The only electrical problems I have found on my safari were loose connections, which are probably the number one cause of electrical failures
Good luck, Rich

[Dieselgrin]

I always keep a 12v needle tester in the trailer. You can check if there is power on both sides of the switch by just poking the tester into the hot wire. 12v trailer light problems routinely come from the ground.

[imeynstein]

So far, there is power to most of my outlets...I will do further investigation next week...I honestly think that most of my problem is stemming from my univolt as I have noticed there are wires spliced and those wires appear to have burned!!! I don't know what the P.o. was thinking!!! Anyway, I have taken down some of my 12V lights as I want to replace them with either led's or flourecent light strips...I tried splicing the fluorescent lights, but now the lights are not working!!! What did I do wrong???

[imeynstein]

I guess that I will have to post photos as I have found several wires that have been taped with electrical tape that 'dead end'....I noticed that were my oven as well as the 'missing' water pump were connected are taped off as well at the kitchen light fixture...There is a red wire with a white strip on it as well as a white wire that is 'capped off' in the overhead kitchen compartment that is supposed to lead to a kitchen light over the sink...The kitchen light is no longer there and I want to replace the original kitchen light over the sink with a flourescent light....Has anyone else done this??? If so, how was it done?? Also the front gaucho light area had an old fan in it that was no longer functional---so it was removed---has anyone placed a flourescent light there??? I am beginning to suspect that my problems may be stemming from my old univolt as there is a purple wire as well as an orange wire that has electrical tape on them...The purple wire appears to have had a 'short' in it and has the outer wire insulation with what appears to be burned or charred....I am hoping to remove the tub this week in order to 'see' what the wiring situation is all about as these wires are the ones that are all taped....Do you think I need to replace these wires and if so, where do I get them???

[BoJo]

Ok, so today we plug in to get ready for our maiden voyage with our 2005 Bambi Safari. All seems well until we try the bathroom lights, light over bathroom sink, and the hood light over stove. It seems like this just happened!?? So, obvious first step, change the bulbs. With new bulb, the hood light over the stove works just fine, but nothing from the other two lights. Read some of the threads here, and this seems to be a "not-so-uncommon" problem. Tomorrow, will change the fuses and hope that does it before our trip. Am I missing something else that might be relatively easy to deal with or check other than bulbs, fuses??? At least all the others work, including the fans! Thanks, BoJo