12 volt help

[catesword]

Hi,
New to this world, so please bear with me.

I was switching out a couple 12volt light fixtures this weekend when I popped a breaker. I was stripping a wire with with a metal utility knife and touched the other wire. I've done this in my house before, just switched the breaker back on and off we go. Not this time.
It seems the manual reset didn't pop out at. I've pushed each one of them hoping something would reset. I've turned off all the power and unplugged from shore power.
So to fix it I need to buy a new breaker? right? What do I buy? It looks like they are riveted in place, how do you get them out? I don't have a meter to even tell which is bad.

The electrician, Mike from DryCampers, who did our solar suggested I replace the whole panel with Chunzehui F-1005 9 Port 40A Connector Power Splitter Distributor Source Strip, 1 Input and 8 Output.

I have no idea how to do that.

Next question, would you hire a local electrician to do it? Should I only trust people who work on Airstream?

thank you for your input!


Cate
2001 31' Excella

[SlvrTwinkie]

I would get a multimeter and then test each breaker to see which on is bad. Maybe there is a fuse between the breaker box and the battery that may have blown if non of them have power. But you will not know until you are able to test each breaker. If you have power at all of them but one, it looks like you have a few empty breakers to were you can just move the wire of the bad one to an empty one. But that is just what I would do if I have that style of breaker system on our 'Stream.

[catesword]

How do you know I have empty breakers? Are the ones with wires attached in front the only ones being used?

[BayouBiker]

Is everything tripped off or does the jack for example still work? If everything is off come back and tell us otherwise the following applies.

So the ones with no wires on the load side (the lead side has the copper bus bar) are spare. These are self resetting thermal breakers. You need to remove power to get them to reset. So completely disconnect all negative battery terminals and disconnect shore power so there is no backfeed from the converter. Do you have solar? If so that must be disconnected also. Then short the copper bus to the neutral bus and chassis metal. then power back up and see if it reset. If not use on of the spares as suggested. Determine which one has no continuity through it.

[catesword]

Not everything isn't working. The lights in the back over the bed where I was working and the lights over the bathroom sink don't work. The lights in the shower and all of the front part of the coach still work.

I do have solar and there is a button to disconnect it. I pushed it, turned off all the power and unplugged from the house. Do I need to disconnect the terminals attached to the breakers?

[Vantair]

Hello,

You didnt mention the rig / related electrical converter used on it that
you have but very likely a single "blade fuse" popped doing its job.

Example in this pic the "amber fuses" simply pull out to replace if blown
so keep some travelling spares yours may be look different. A simple volt meter to read each use zone if alive or dead helps.

Should be some listed referernce as to the zone each numbered fuse serves.

[BayouBiker]

Originally Posted by catesword

Not everything isn't working. The lights in the back over the bed where I was working and the lights over the bathroom sink don't work. The lights in the shower and all of the front part of the coach still work.

I do have solar and there is a button to disconnect it. I pushed it, turned off all the power and unplugged from the house. Do I need to disconnect the terminals attached to the breakers?

No that should do it. if you have a multimeter test for voltage on the bus to trailer chassis and also to the negative bus (bus with the white and black wires on it). Confirm it is reading zero volts and confirm all lights and devices are off. Use the Ohmmeter portion to test for continuity across each breaker, post to post. If they all have continuity, they all reset.

Now reconnect the batteries. See if it trips again.