I have a sudden-onset electrical issue that I cannot isolate. Suddenly, nearly every component in the mid-part of my U300 GV is INOP. It started with the galley overhead above the cabinet to the left of the entryway. No Hall Light, and not a single electrical component in the bath, i.e., fan, fan light, overhead fluorescents or bath vanity lights work. The circuit breakers for these on the engine firewall, are intact.
I don't know where to start running this down electrically, plus the suddenness of it is mighty peculiar.
Check the GFCI outlet in the bathroom - see if it needs to be reset.
Chuck— good point. Should have thought of that. Thanks!
On second thought, the GFCI only kills the other 110V outlets on that circuit when it pops, so that was a bad guess.
Salesman switch by the entry door?
No, salesman switch is operating normally. I did apply 110vac and reset the GFI oitlet in the bath, to no avail.
Check the 12 VDC fuses at the base of the bed.
Are you talking about circuit breakers, or are you referring to the fuses in the 12V fuse panel on bed face?
Do you have power to that fuse panel? You can check with a multimeter by probing the little test holes on top of each fuse to see if they are hot.
If you do not have power to that fuse panel, then you need to check the 90A manual reset curcuit breaker on the main 12V panel in your central storage bay. It is covered with a white fiberglass panel. 3 big round circuit breakers at the top of the panel. The center one is manual reset by pushing a button that is accessed through a hole in the wall from the neighboring compartment.
I checked them, but in thinking through it, I'm not sure that a visual check is necessarily adequate. I will check them with a meter to be sure. That does seem like it would be the logical answer—one DC circuit with the bath and hall on it.
Chuck, thanks. I will test the 12DC fuse panel and then the electrical bay panel per your instructions.
There are two different electrical systems in your coach. One is high voltage, such as 120Volt AC. This is used for your plugs, AC's, TV, battery charger, and other items that use power. This system normally uses circuit breakers.
The other system is low voltage, ie 12Volt DC which is your lighting, power for refrig, if a LP one, furnace, fans, control power for the AC's (yours may be different but the control wiring is mostly 12V in RV's but it takes 120V to operate the AC's) This system can use fuses and or circuit breakers of the 12V kind.
If you do not have 120V and your batteries run down you will not have any power to lights and such.
Open and close every breaker in the box
Guys/Gals,
All the non-functioning systems are 12 VDC, NOT 120 VAC.
I think this is a 12vdc problem, as the services that are out are all 12v, I.e., hall lights, bath lights and bath fan.
Check salesperson switch next to the entry door.
Pierce
Pierce, yes. I did. Some 12 items working, but a whole lot of lights and fan amidships out.
It is difficult to know the actual physical wiring arrangement on any coach, but it sounds like your problem may be due to a broken or loose connection on a main feed wire. If the circuit breaker/fuse hunt doesn't get you there, then start with a signal generator on the main fuse lines and see if you can find an open circuit some where. This is time consuming but may get results that can't be gotten any other way. Have a great day ---- Fritz
If at a loss Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get a signal tracker . Open up a non working light and put the red lead of the signal tracker on the wire that going to the middle of the bulb. Some times you can just leave the black lead dangle some times it helps it helps if you ground it Then you can take the probe and start going around all of the fuses to see if you can hear the tone. If you don't hear anything there you can then try following the wire to see where it goes.
I like the fluke toner generator I seem to have the best luck with that one, but if they do not have that one, one of the other brands will work
If 12V I would look on the back side of the 12V fuse panel. Check the ground connections. What you are experiencing sounds a lot like what happened to me about three weeks ago. On our coach the third set screw down was not locking the bare wires in the hole, but exerting pressure on the electrical tape holding the wire bundle together.
Caflashbob noted that the "folks" at FOT were in a funk because they didn't get a raise and Mr Fore showed up with a new expensive truck. So, some disgruntled employees were reputed to put gremlins or problems in the wiring systems.
Will do this first thing tomorrow. Thank you!
Well, I have had an inordinate array of electrical problems. I'll check this tomorrow. thanks.
Chuck, I believe I may have been looking at the wrong electrical panel. I did not see anything that could be reset. This panel is not accessible from the adjoining bay.
At the bed I have a 12 V fuse box. left side , second from top is labeled bath fan and lights.
There is only one BA (large) input for the entire box. entire12 V coach .
Yes, I have checked the fuses and no problem there. Another post referred to a "90A" panel that incorporated a "reset" function; , however, I do not believe I have located the correct panel as yet.
When you say you are checking the fuses are you just looking to see if it is intact or putting a test light on it to verify it is passing power?
You are looking at the correct panel, but your coach has some differences from mine. The 3 big round devices at the top of your photo are circuit breakers. It looks like all 3 on your coach are
auto reset. You can tell by the part number: on your breakers it says CDLA-80. The "A" in the part number indicates it is a auto reset (80 amp) breaker.
On my coach, the middle breaker is part number CDLM-90, where the "M" indicates a
manual reset (90 amp) breaker.
One of those big 80 amp breakers on your coach probably feeds the 12 volt fuse panel at the base of your bed. I don't know which one. But since you say that you have power to the fuse panel and the fuses are good, it doesn't really matter.
I would check every fuse, breaker, connection, ground, and relay on the 12v bay panel.
There are no breakers after the fuse box. There may be a breaker feeding the fuse box .
There is a blue wire that feeds the missing items.
There also is a green ground wire completing the circuit . The green runs right with the blue up to the fan. Check the fan mounting screw for green and hood ground. Most likely faulty ground Imho
Smart phone my but
As an update to my previous post about a 12vdc electrical outage amidships (Grand Villa U300) today I discovered that, after having been focused on the 12-volt fuse box, the actual problem lay in the nearby breaker switch box for the 12vdc components. Apparently, while working in the engine bay, my shop vac bumped the exposed breaker switch panel. I had not found any of the switches moved, but the "Cabin Lights" switch had been tripped. I reset and—problem solved.
Many thanks to all who provided help and advice in finding the source of the problem.
Thanks too, to Tyler Warman, owner of Advanced RV Mobile Service, in Spokane, WA, who helped troubleshoot this, plus totally overhauled my aft furnace.
Randall
Merged this and the original topic to keep the solution with the problem :)