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Old 03-28-2010, 06:26 PM   #1
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Electrical Issue

I have a 2010 Forest River SP280 that was used twice in the fall and just taken out of storage. Today I turned on the interior lights from battery power and then turned the furnace on. Without turning anything else on, I plugged the camper into an outlet from the garage. The outlet sparked a bit when I did this. Upon entering the camper, that light circuit was out.

Every other circuit in the camper was working fine. The bulbs are not blown, breakers are not tripped, and the fuse was not blown. Just to make sure, I pulled the fuse for that circuit and switched it with another. No difference. I unplugged the unit from the garage and no change. Any suggestions before I drag it back to the dealer for warranty work?
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Old 03-28-2010, 07:18 PM   #2
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Double check that your battery isn't hooked up backwards. I had that last week. A tell tale sign (that you can easily see) is a) the exhaust fans will spin backwards and b) the reverse polarity fuses in your converter (40 amp) will be blown.
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Old 03-28-2010, 07:21 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschaef114 View Post
I have a 2010 Forest River SP280 that was used twice in the fall and just taken out of storage. Today I turned on the interior lights from battery power and then turned the furnace on. Without turning anything else on, I plugged the camper into an outlet from the garage. The outlet sparked a bit when I did this. Upon entering the camper, that light circuit was out.

Every other circuit in the camper was working fine. The bulbs are not blown, breakers are not tripped, and the fuse was not blown. Just to make sure, I pulled the fuse for that circuit and switched it with another. No difference. I unplugged the unit from the garage and no change. Any suggestions before I drag it back to the dealer for warranty work?
I had a similar incident. I found that the battery terminal wing nuts were loose on my trailer battery. After a 5000 km tow they worked their way loose. Funny things were happening just like your story. Tightening the wing nuts fixed the problem for me, hopefully it is something you haven't check yet...
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Old 03-28-2010, 07:46 PM   #4
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Terminals are tight and not on backwards. I'm thinking something in the inverter fried.
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Old 03-28-2010, 07:48 PM   #5
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I just hooked the battery up today from storage. Connections are tight, battery charged and the only cable the dealer took off was the positive. Negative was left connected all winter. Thinking something in the inverter fried when I put AC to it.
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Old 03-28-2010, 08:58 PM   #6
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I can't imagine good things happen if you plug it into shore power while the furnace is on. I'm betting the coverter is toast.
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Old 03-29-2010, 07:12 AM   #7
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Like some have said your converter is in question BUT---

You say "every other circuit is working but lights???"
Do your 12v exhaust fans run (bathroom and stove vent)?
Does your battery have at least some charge??
Does your furnace still work?
Does your Concertone/radio have power?

Circuit breakers are for 120 volt stuff only.
You can shut off every singe circuit breaker in the trailer
and your lights, fans, furnace should still operate IF your
battery fuse is good and the battery has a charge.
These 12v items should work even if your converter is fried as
long as the fuses are good.

Open the converter and test for 12v at the 2 large connections where the battery leads connect.
Make a list of exactly what's working and what's not.

Need more info!
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Old 03-29-2010, 07:28 AM   #8
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This is why you should always turn off the breaker before hooking up shore power. (Either the main on the converter or the breaker on the pedestal or house). That arc you saw can burn the tips of your plug and socket resulting in a poor connection at best and a power surge that fries your electronics at worse. Military campgrounds REQUIRE that you turn the pedestal breaker off before hooking up and off before disconnecting.
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Old 03-29-2010, 07:34 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschaef114
The outlet sparked a bit when I did this. Upon entering the camper, that light circuit was out.
By saying "that light circuit was out" do you mean only it was out?
If so and you've already checked the fuses. I suspect that there was a loose connection and when you plugged it into shore power the momentary surge was enough to make it open. I'd start at the light fixture and if that wasn't it I'd pull the converter out and check the connections there. That is, if you don't want to take it back to the dealer.

There have been several people on here that have reported having loose connections at the terminals on the back of the converter.
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Old 03-29-2010, 08:20 AM   #10
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Furnace and fan continued to work as normal. When I said all circuits, I was including both 120ac and 12v. My radio, bath fans, outlets, outside lights, slide unit, fridge, etc all work. The lights are on two circuits, front and rear. battery has 3/4 charge.

The unit has a front queen bed with two 12v side lights and two 12v overhead that are all on same fuse. None of them work and bulbs are not blown.

I am not at the trailer to test the circuit but when I pulled another fuse a red LED came on to indicate an open circuit. This is not the case with the troubled circuit. At this point I'm hoping just a loose connection seeing that the cables for my DVD player were hooked up backwards from factory. thanks for the help.
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Old 03-29-2010, 11:58 AM   #11
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IF your converter is anything like mine, you don't need to pull it
out of the wall yet.
You can remove the front and gain access to the connections.
It sounds like you have a loose connection somewhere.
At this point I do not think your converter is bad.
Start by tugging on the wires at the screws next to the fuses
in your converter fuse area.
Tighten every screw connection you can see in there.
If that does not fix anything it's time to start
pulling light fixtures off the wall.
There is a loose wire nut or crimp connection somewhere.
It could be behind any light fixture that's not working.

It's totally up to you whether you take it back for warranty
or try it yourself.
In my case, my dealer was a full 200 mile drive away and I have
electrical experience so I do all my own troubleshooting.

Good luck!!
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Old 03-29-2010, 02:02 PM   #12
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We had a similiar problem in our Keystone Litehouse. Like KyDan pointed out, check behind the light fixtures. Our bath fan and light first were blinking occasionally and then stopped working while all of the other lights and furnace worked. What I found was the neutral [white] wire from the hall light fixture to the bathroom had come apart from the others. This was in the ceiling so anything is possible.
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Old 04-05-2010, 09:11 PM   #13
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Just picked it up from the dealer last night. Work order says they could not duplicate as it worked when they got to it. States they checked all wires and found a few loose terminals. I'm guessing the loose terminals, combined with the ride down there was enough to make contact. Thanks for all the suggestions.
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