Lights Going DIM - Then Bright

[John Hagen]

Ok, have an odd one for you to ponder..

When I turn on my Living Room or Kitchen lights, the lights on the curb side of the circuit may/may not be dim while the lights on the street side of the circuit are bright! Turn the light switch off, then on and it works okay. May then go dim on its own and back to bright without us touching the light switch. Doesn't flicker, just changes.

Noticed today when we turned on the bedroom lights the same thing happens up there. Street side lights are bright and the curb side may/may not be dim and then go bright. Oddly enough, when the lights in the bedroom went dim on the curb side, the lights in the living room did the same thing at the exact same time.

Since the light switch usually supplies power to the circuit, I am thinking maybe a ground wire, that may be common to the curb side of the house, is at fault, providing some resistance and causing a voltage drop instead of a solid ground.

I have sent a message to Matt but won't hear from him until after the holiday. If it I not a grounding issue, I'm at a loss. Sure wish I had a set of schematics for my Trilogy.

Comments or suggestions?

John

[Bama Rambler]

It certainly sounds like a negative side issue. Have you pulled the converter and power distribution panel out and checked the cable connections for tightness? I'd probably start there.

[kwoodrg]

Sounds like a bad common ground. If you locate the ground block and retighten everything in it properly I'd bet the issue goes away unless something is something is slightly grounding somewhere it shouldn't--say due to a grazed shielding on a positive wire somewhere. I'd go with the ground block first.

[John Hagen]

Bama & kwoodrg,

Thanks for the input. Guess I will dig into this in the next few days I wouldn't think it would be hard to find. Glad it seems I am on the right track.

John

[jftrombley]

Most likely a loose ground terminal

[clr]

Well I had much the same type of problem with my 2015 Sanibel. In my case it first started with the outside welcome home light and then the overhead lights in the dining and living room area. I also thought I had a ground issue, but with a voltmeter on the switch I noticed that I had 12v with the lights off and only about 5v when the lights were on. To make a long story short it turned out that many of the 12V fuses were installed improperly. The top couple and bottom couple of fuses were installed correctly but all the fuses in the middle of the row were properly plugged into the left side of the fuse but the right side was plugged in below the socket and only making light connection. With time and bouncing down the road that connection became very light and caused the lighting problem. I removed all the fuses cleaned them up and put them back in correctly and that cured all of my lights problems.

[robert.beck.7737]

I would put my money on a bad power converter. I would guess you have two power converters, one of which is bad. They are easy to replace. Take the old one out and get the model number. Camping world carries power converters.

[John Hagen]

I don't believe it would be the power converter since it doesn't affect all of the 12v systems.

A little time to troubleshoot today. I pulled the fuse for the living room lights. When I turned on the light switch (with fuse removed) the curbside lights came on dim. Same intensity they go to with the fuse installed, when they intermittently dim.

More troubleshooting to perform. I think the next step is to pull all fuses and see if that totally kills the lights. If so, will put them back in one-at-a-time to determine the suspected circuit. If none of that works, I'll open up the fuse box and start checking the ground wires.

John

[jftrombley]

Sounds like it would be a good idea to inspect any accessible wiring for chaffing, rubbing or short. With the fuses removed check the hot wires for a ground fault using a multimeter. Also, remove the wall switches in the affected circuit and swap with good switches.

Good luck


Are these 3ways? If so verify wired correctly.

[robert.beck.7737]

I agree that wires and fuses should be checked. I have a 2011 Forest River 41 ft XLR TH. Recently the lights began to dim. I first checked fuses and breakers and found everything to be ok. My next thought was the on board battery since it was about five years old, so I bought a new deep cycle battery. The lights seemed to brighten back up, but then began to dim again very soon after the battery was installed. I then checked both power converters and found one of the two felt overly hot. I purchased a new power converter and proceeded to replace the one that felt hot to the touch. Voila! No more dimming lights.

[robert.beck.7737]

I have a new problem. The quartz lights on a dimmer switch in the living room slide out suddenly stopped working. Checked breakers and fuses to no avail. Then went outside and checked wiring under the slide out and everything looked ok. Then noticed a running light on the outside of the slide out that had somehow been crushed. It appears that the wires going up the slide are the same wires that go to the running light. Haven't had time to pick up a new light. Anyone have any other thoughts?

[crunchman12001]

Originally Posted by robert.beck.7737

I have a new problem. The quartz lights on a dimmer switch in the living room slide out suddenly stopped working. Checked breakers and fuses to no avail. Then went outside and checked wiring under the slide out and everything looked ok. Then noticed a running light on the outside of the slide out that had somehow been crushed. It appears that the wires going up the slide are the same wires that go to the running light. Haven't had time to pick up a new light. Anyone have any other thoughts?

Replace crushed light?