My soffit lights on the driver's side, along with a wall sconce light, dining table light and kitchen fan would intermittently blow a fuse. Intermittent problems are the worst and cost a small fortune to have a service center diagnose with such diagnosis fees rarely covered by any insurance.
I was first puzzled since the soffit lights are controlled by the same dimmer as for the ceiling lights. This would lead one to believe that they all are on the same fused circuit. I found out that the dimmer goes to the ground side of the dimmable lights and therefore allows the 12 volt side of the lights to go to different fuses.
I figured that since the soffit lights were on a slide, there might be a pinched cable when the slide moves. I however could never capture the moment when the fuse blew do to movement in or out of the slide.
With the slide out and when inspecting from beneath the slide, I traced a cable coming out of the slide's wall and running along the bottom inside of the slide to where it crossed over the rear slide rail. At this point the cable was crushed and I could see a shiny portion on the lip of a metal tunnel that the slide's rail slides in.
My theory is that when the slide was in with the cable pinched, it didn't always short. But when travelling, the slide even being tightly in does move. This creates a sawing action.
I placed a gob of plumbers putty by the cable and brought the slide in and then out to see just how far the metal lip went into the cable.
My fix was to adjust the slide's end stop bolts two turns and placing a plastic protector in front of the cable.
I agree with all that commend the Forest River Customer Service, but I cannot say the same for the manufacturer workmanship. That cable should have been routed under the slide's rail and not on the top. This isn't the first workmanship problem that I have had.
Here are some pics of the problem...................
Hank