Fuses and my fridge

[DennisL]

Please Help!!
I'm about a month into new ownership of my 2017 International Signature 19CB and I've hit a bit of a snag that I can't seem to figure out. I keep blowing 30 amp fuses, and my fridge wont get cold:
For starters, some context:
I bought the trailer from Airstream Adventures in Covington about a month ago and it came with a 1 year limited warranty, which if needed, can likely be leaned on for some help. But I'm a handy guy and want to understand what's going on:

Ive blown my 30amp fuses three times now. When it happens I know because I'm plugged into shore power, and my outlets work, but my battery meter keeps getting lower... 12.8, 12.6, 12.4... at first I had no idea what was going on, then I checked the fuses and changed them, and the meter read 13.6 again... great, fixed (I thought) but now it's happened two more times. I THINK it happens when I'm driving, because if I'm plugged into shore power and I swap the fuses for new ones, they tend to stay good while I'm in one location. So that's the first issue - why am I blowing my 30amp fuses??

Secondly, my fridge doesn't seem to get cold on a standard household shore power or while running on propane. The shore power part sort of makes sense, because when I was plugged into 30amps it worked GREAT, but most of the time I'm at someones house where I'm plugged into a standard household plug with my 100' extension cord... likely pulling off a 15 amp breaker. Enough to charge the batteries but not enough to run the AC... and maybe not enough to run the fridge??

Any thoughts on these two issues? Are they related? What should I do to try and solve?

Thanks so much in advance!

[gator.bigfoot]

Which 30 amp fuse are you blowing? On my unit I have breakers for AC. I'm not sure what you'd have 30 amp fuse for on DC. I only have 20 amp circuits and they are all reset-able breakers as well. Although looking at the diagrams there is one 30 amp but this seems to be for the charge line coming from the TV. Can you take some pictures of which fuses are blowing. It is possible that you have a short circuit while driving, which would indicate this is on the DC side. That would be a difficult one to find as this would indicate that this is an intermittent short. My thought on this is that AS in later years used an integrated panel and that a wire could have rubbed through the insulation. You could open this box and take a look for any signs of that or wires arcing.

Have a look at you manual and see if you have an electrical diagram. In it, it should detail the connections. Take a look at the 30 amp one and see if it also comes from the TV. If so you can disconnect it on you TV or inside the AS. See if this resolve the issue.

The fridge should be fine on the 100' cord. Just measure the voltage on the unit and make sure it is above 110 VAC. Otherwise don't use it. You could plug the fridge into 110 directly from the back side. See if the fridge works then. But as far as I understand it it needs 12 DC to control the circuit. So if you're not getting that then perhaps nothing will make it work. Do you have lights on the fridge when the 12 volts is working?

Personally I would just exercise your warranty and go through that. This could turn into a can of worms. And if you start mucking with it you may void your warranty.

[BayouBiker]

I''m confused just as gator is. The electrical drawings show 50 Amp breakers for both the battery lead cable and the load cable to the 12VDC Use/Store Relay and on the the load center and converter. The lead wire on the +12V bus from the Vehicle +12V is supposed to be 30 Amp, I wonder if they got mixed up. The break away switch is 20A. I have 50 Amp breakers for both the battery lead and load center cable.

The refrigerator requires 12V for the electrical controls and 120V or propane for the boiler heat. Probably the issue here is lack of 12V due to the tripped 30A fuse.

If it is a fuse and it is on the 12V bus, upgrade it to 50A it is there to protect the cable and should be 50 Amp. The converter can provide 40A to charge the battery. The vehicle can provide 12-15 amps to charge the battery and if the connection is loose surge could blow the fuse when combined with other trailer loads.

[Halford1]

check this out.

https://www.protoolreviews.com/buyin...0%202.58%25%20

[DennisL]

Thanks Gator and Brian,
Trying to better understand this - and also read the article below on extension cord length and how it reduces power - truthfully I'm still a bit stumped because over the past three days (We're on the road now using all our systems) things have been ok. Fridge started working again, and fuses are not blowing.

The only thing I changed was that I turned the battery over to "store" mode while driving/plugged into the truck. I know that when I'm plugged into shore power, the systems wont work if I'm on "store mode" including charging the batteries, BUT when I'm trailering, the battery will still be charged by both the 7pin and the solar system. I'm wondering if having the battery on "USE" mode while driving with 7pin and solar, just burned out the 30amp fuses...

Anyway, if the issues keep up I'm going to take it in, I have my warranty until next September, so plenty of time to keep using the trailer and determine what the root cause might be.

I appreciate everyones help - as always.
Dennis

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

I''m confused just as gator is. The electrical drawings show 50 Amp breakers for both the battery lead cable and the load cable to the 12VDC Use/Store Relay and on the the load center and converter. The lead wire on the +12V bus from the Vehicle +12V is supposed to be 30 Amp, I wonder if they got mixed up. The break away switch is 20A. I have 50 Amp breakers for both the battery lead and load center cable.

The refrigerator requires 12V for the electrical controls and 120V or propane for the boiler heat. Probably the issue here is lack of 12V due to the tripped 30A fuse.

If it is a fuse and it is on the 12V bus, upgrade it to 50A it is there to protect the cable and should be 50 Amp. The converter can provide 40A to charge the battery. The vehicle can provide 12-15 amps to charge the battery and if the connection is loose surge could blow the fuse when combined with other trailer loads.

[Oreg52]

What wire size is your extension cord? With a 16 or even a 14 gauge there will be a large voltage drop over 100 ft.
I use 12 gauge wire for a 50' cord and carry two 50' cords rather than a 100 footer. I can run one A/C on the 50' cord but don't think 100' can carry that much load.

[bubba98042]

I am a new AS owner. The tech in Portland OR told me to make sure when I attached the toe vehicle to the trailer that I put my vehicle light switch from auto to manual on. I have a ‘18 F150. He said weird things happen when headlight switch is in the Auto position. Not saying this is the issue with your AS but try it. He said it messes up the systems.