Electrical Question - Lights and Fan Circuit

[yayus]

Hi Folks. Hope everyone enjoyed a great vacation season and maybe can squeeze in a little A-Framing in the Fall!

May have an issue with the 12V circuit for the overhead fan and upper lights in our A122. My wife went camping with her girlfriends this week and noted that neither the fan or lights would come on. Our trailer has no other electrical problems. On first blush, definitely sounded like a fuse issue. I have a couple of related questions for the Circuit Doctors in the community ...

- Can the lights and fan operate with the roof partially raised? We store our A122 cozily in the garage, which works fine for just about all maintenance activities. (The way our house is situated, we have to hook up the A122 and move it out on the street to raise it all the way up. Bein' lazy, I know.)

- Symptoms (again, with roof partially raised): When we replaced the 10 amp fuse (F4) for the circuit, there was no joy. Fans and lights didn't come on. Also, the red light does not illuminate on the circuit board next to the F4 fuse, as I would expect, if the fuse/circuit had an issue.

- According to electronics basics, even if the light bulbs were fried, the fan should still operate if the circuit was good. The fan's separate fuse is fine. Wondering if I'm missing something here, or we just need to put up the roof! Hehe.

Worst-case scenario is that we'll have the dealer look at it in a few weeks when the A122 has a couple of other problems corrected under warranty.

As always, thanks much for any input. The forum continues to entertain and inform! Regards ...

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by yayus

Hi Folks. Hope everyone enjoyed a great vacation season and maybe can squeeze in a little A-Framing in the Fall!

May have an issue with the 12V circuit for the overhead fan and upper lights in our A122. My wife went camping with her girlfriends this week and noted that neither the fan or lights would come on. Our trailer has no other electrical problems. On first blush, definitely sounded like a fuse issue. I have a couple of related questions for the Circuit Doctors in the community ...

- Can the lights and fan operate with the roof partially raised? We store our A122 cozily in the garage, which works fine for just about all maintenance activities. (The way our house is situated, we have to hook up the A122 and move it out on the street to raise it all the way up. Bein' lazy, I know.)

- Symptoms (again, with roof partially raised): When we replaced the 10 amp fuse (F4) for the circuit, there was no joy. Fans and lights didn't come on. Also, the red light does not illuminate on the circuit board next to the F4 fuse, as I would expect, if the fuse/circuit had an issue.

- According to electronics basics, even if the light bulbs were fried, the fan should still operate if the circuit was good. The fan's separate fuse is fine. Wondering if I'm missing something here, or we just need to put up the roof! Hehe.

Worst-case scenario is that we'll have the dealer look at it in a few weeks when the A122 has a couple of other problems corrected under warranty.

As always, thanks much for any input. The forum continues to entertain and inform! Regards ...

Time to see if you have 12 volts at the battery?
If you have a fully charged battery check with the voltmeter at the light.
If you have no idea how to do this find someone that can verify you have 12 volts to all circuits.

[thehamguy1]

There's a switch out of sight under the cloth strip that covers the roof hinges. Its job is to shut off all power to the roof sections when the roof is closed. I bet the partial roof opening isn't enough to let the switch make contact. Or it may be sticking in the off position. I think there's a switch for each roof section, at each end of the camper, but I don't remember for sure; been a while since I looked. Too, if the 12v wiring from the converter/fuse panel has become disconnected somewhere after leaving the panel, the panel wouldn't show it. Check the connections around the roof switch(es). They're crimp connectors; one of them may have come loose.

[yayus]

Thanks much for your feedback, Hamguy and Iggy.

Yes, a stuck or non-op roof switch seems to make sense, as the circuit behaved like an 'open' when my wife had the roof up. I can crawl to the front end of our trailer with the roof partially raised, but the other end would require some Houdini moves! Of course, we won't know for sure if it's a fuse, wiring or switch issue until this can be troubleshot with the roof all the way up. I'll definitely have the dealer check out all possibilities on the A122's upcoming repair visit.

Thanks again!