2006 Safari Electrical issue

[Viper]

i am having an issue. No charging, no power anywhere but the outlets. i have changed the 30 amp fuses, and flipped the CB's. Any advice?

[garry]

Sounds like the converter that charges the battery and provides 12VDC is not working and your battery is dead OR you have a disconnect switch that shuts off the 12VDC.

[Silvertwinkie]

What Garry said.

If it is the converter, I would suggest looking at something like this:

55 Amp Converter Replacement Kit

Have had mine installed now for about 2 trouble free years.

[Viper]

Thanks, I currently have a 30 AMP, does this mean I would be changing my amperage? Sorry if I am a novice at this, but I am.

[hohne]

Hey Viper, you will be fine...

Your present converter (Parallax 7355) takes the 110 volt 30 amp power from your elecrical plug and drops that power down to 12 volts, and to 55 Amps max. (You had a 55 amp converter in there originally, now it is a metal brick). When the converter drops the voltage, it can boost the amps without needing more amps from the AC circuit coming into your trailer. It is how electricity works -- you can get more amps than you put in if you drop the voltage at the same time.

It is just like an airplane -- you can trade airspeed for altitude, and altitude for airspeed without putting in extra power into the system. Think of amps and volts as airspeed and altitude in this case. Yes, there is friction and air turbulence, so the trade does cost you some power (in the form of mostly heat, in this case).

In dropping the voltage and converting it to DC, the converter can bump the amps up. It does not mean you need to upgrade the input 110 volt AC current to 50 amps and start pluggin into the bigger RV circuits.

You ordered a 55 amp replacement converter with lots of electronic upgrades to the "bricked" converter (it now is working as well as a brick would). The most important upgrade is that the battery charger in the converter is far better and is less likely to overcook your batteries you keep replacing, and all the 12 volt branches the converter services are now regulated. The other cool thing is that the new one has a replacement main board that is half the price of the upgrade, in case you get fried again.

I am thinking it might have gotten zapped during our recent thunderstorms -- or your boy was playing with the electric jack again or sticking paperclips into your trailer plug or something...

It will bolt right in, too. Very good thing for the nimrod installing it...

Lemme know when it the new one shows up at your house and I'll (nimrod) bring my tools...

[Aviator]

I went with an Iota from Best Converter. DLS-75 75 Amp Power Converter w/IQ4 75 amps is probably overkill, but better excess thrust than insufficient. It too was a simple removal/install.

[hohne]

Viper and I replaced the converter. The old one had a burned spot on the PC board which led us to the transitor on the board that had smoked and disintegrated.

The new one, recommended by SilverTwinkie in this thread, bolted right in. The 12 V distibution panel supplied with the kit was better than the Parallax one, too. Thank you SilverTwinkie!

We saw no food wrappers behind the converter, just some FOD from the installation of the couch, it appeared.

It was about 95 this past Saturday when we replaced it. We were soaked. It took us a bit over an hour, as the wires Airstream left us were a bit short to work with.

My 2004 28W still has the original converter in it. Will be ordering a kit just so my battereis are treated a bit better whilst in the coach.

[Viper]

This is a better job for the winter then the summer!!! I was amazed at how modular this was. The only area requiring the BH (Big Hammer) was the bracket, it was about an 1/8 too short both ways, it was nothing a the BH and the BS (Big screwdriver) (Ha, I know what all was thinking) couldn’t fix.

Again thanks to hohne for the help, one other small bit of advice here, use a camera to take a picture of the wiring as a precaution. We worked with 2 or three lines at a time, installing fuses once completed, but if distractions were to hit, say a 6 and 8 year old fighting over a new Jack Russell, then you have a resource to go back to.

On the electrical panel, Airstream had numbered each electrical connection for what they go to in the trailer, but not what color they are. The electrical lines are not numbered, thus causing some confusion if one was to be affected by an outside temp of 98 with 100% humidity!!!!! And a 6 and 8 year old!!!

Take a picture prior to disassembly.

Thanks to all for the suggestions