No 12 volt power

[scope]

New camper, first time out this past weekend. Palomino Solaire 147x. Everything worked fine. Got home and the power jack wouldn't work. Further investigation revealed no 12 volt power in the trailer, either plugged into the TV, unplugged from the TV or connected to shore power.

All breakers and fuses good.

2 inline fuses by the tongue good.

Inverter troubleshooting according to the one page "manual" shows inverter outputting 13.6 volts when shore power is hooked up. (I did notice the heat sink was very hot and the fan not running on the inverter)

Located a non-resettable circuit breaker on the inner frame rail and suspected it. Bought a new one, swapped it out, no change. As I was sitting there scratching my head, I could hear the circuit breaker snapping internally about every 15 seconds though. Like it was setting itself and snapping over and over.

Additional info: I am new to campers; when I left the campsite I opened the water drain to dump the leftover fresh water. I may have left the water pump on; can't remember specifically turning it off. Could that have shorted something? Why wouldn't it blow it's fuse or blow it's breaker on the 3 1/2 hour drive home?

[Flybob]

If the water pump was on, it probably drained the battery. If you plugged into shore power with a dead battery, you could blow the two reverse polarity fuses in the distribution panel. They are 30 or40A fuses. You also need to check the resettable breaker under the tongue near the 12V junction box.Put a meter on the battery to determine if it is dead.

[scope]

The battery shows a green eye, but I didn't check voltage. Unit is new, including the battery; was the first trip out after purchasing 2 weeks ago.

reverse polarity fuses are good; 2 40v blade type fuses.

The breaker under the tongue is not resettable; I suspected it, went to auto parts store and bought another one (12 volt, 30 amp). Swapped it in and still no power. I could hear it click about every 15 seconds. It was also a sealed circuit breaker, non-resettable, like this one: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b.../4414291?pos=9

[bubbles]

The water pump can run dry without issue and did you find the pump switch still on when you got home?

[scope]

That's the thing, I can't remember. When I discovered the power jack wouldn't work, I went in the camper and started flipping switches and checking things out. I can't say for sure if I left the water pump on or not.

[scope]

@Flybob - reverse polarity fuses are good. Circuit breaker on frame rail is non-resettable. I replaced it anyways with one of these while troubleshooting yesterday: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b.../4414291?pos=9

No change, though as I was sitting there, I could hear the new one clicking about every 15 seconds.

[scope]

typed a reply to flybob, but it won't post until a moderator approves it. Probably because it has a link to the circuit breaker I tried to replace the frame rail breaker with.

[scope]

Was basically a 30 amp, 12v non-resettable circuit breaker I got at O'Reilly's. Didn't change the situation, but I could hear the new one clicking about every 15 seconds.

[HONDAMAN174]

If your battery is dead, the converter may be trying to push its max of 35 amps thru the circuit breaker thus tripping it over and over.

Disconnect the battery and check it’s voltage. If it’s dead, see if you can borrow a stand alone charger from a friend to put some juice back in it.

Check your 12v coming from your TV to make sure it is sending power. Then check the 30 amp fuse in the junction box by the tongue/ a frame. I chased that one for 2 days before.

[scope]

I'll try gettting a charger on it tonight when I get home.

[scope]

Wouldn't the truck be charging it on the way home though? Just not as much as it is drawing?

Another piece of info: I couldn't get the jack to do anything, which kicked off this whole ordeal of realizing I didn't have any 12v power. The circuit breaker on the frame rail has 3 wires coming in from the tongue and 2 wires on the "trailer side" post. One of those two wires was running back up front to the power jack. I had 12v on the truck side of the CB, nothing on the trailer side of the CB (which is why I went to O'Reilly's and bought another CB). I removed the jack wire and put it on the other terminal (so it went to the tongue side) and was able to operate the jack and get the camper off the truck. Wouldn't this argue against the battery being dead? or at least dead enough to cause all these issues?

[Scrapper]

quote, "Wouldn't the truck be charging it on the way home though? Just not as much as it is drawing?"


Not enough to charge the battery if you left the wp running.



Just looking at a fuse can be deceptive. You will be better off using a multimeter to test them.

[scope]

I did test fuses with a meter.

[scope]

Battery is fine, 12.8 volts. As it sits I have disconnected the shore power cord. Am getting no power beyond the frame rail mounted circuit breaker. Am going to pick up a new one at a camping supply place today and see what replacing it with that one does. closest Forest River dealer to me was not help; once he found out I had not purchased the unit from him he told me his soonest appointment for warranty work was end of July.

[Scrapper]

Is this camper brand new or used, new to you?
You say the auto reset 30amp breaker keeps resetting itself. You may have a wire shorting out where it has rubbed on a frame member. Even if new, the wire could have been pinched during construction. Remove the positive wire from the load side of the breaker and test it with a meter set to continuity or ohms to the frame.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

Is this camper brand new or used, new to you?
You say the auto reset 30amp breaker keeps resetting itself. You may have a wire shorting out where it has rubbed on a frame member. Even if new, the wire could have been pinched during construction. Remove the positive wire from the load side of the breaker and test it with a meter set to continuity or ohms to the frame.

X2
That 'snapping' noise you heard was likely the auto-reset circuit breaker trying to reset itself until it finally burned out. Replacing it without looking for a short will likely cause the same issue.

[scope]

This camper is brand new, but has been sitting on the dealer lot for awhile. It is a 2019 Solaire 147x. There are three wires coming to the circuit breaker post closest to the battery. on the post farthest from the battery there are two wires; one goes back to the camper and one goes forward to the power jack.

You are saying remove the three wires. Then test continuity with the meter between lug #2 and the frame. I should not have any signal. If I do it indicates a positive short to ground somewhere. Correct?

[boondocking]

No, not lug #2, check each of the 2 wires (past the breaker) individually for continuity.

[HONDAMAN174]

And it’s odd that your jack doesn’t work cause typically it’s directly wired to battery. Check the fuse on it.

[scope]

The jack wire is going to the "downstream" lug of the 30 amp circuit breaker mounted on the frame rail. I was able to move it to the "upstream" or battery side lug of the breaker and it worked to get the camper unhooked from the tow vehicle.