Popup roof winch, no power

[dakranii]

Trying to troubleshoot why my winch isn't doing anything. I thought maybe it was the switch, so I replaced it. I checked the 50 amp fuse, which had been an issue in previous years, but it's good.

The 30 amp fuse running off the red battery line is bad, but it has been before and the winch worked, so I'm not sure it's that (I can't get to the store to get a replacement at the moment).

I don't know what the silver boxes on the red battery line are. I'm assuming they are also fuses. Can those be opened and checked? I can't see a way to open it.

It's a pretty simple setup, black/red lines run off the battery directly to the middle two nodes on the switch. There are few links in the chain to go bad, so I'm thinking maybe the issue is those silver boxes.

Is this a normal setup I have here? Why isn't the red line attached directly to the red battery node?

[raspivey]

The silver things are self resetting circuit breakers. Mine did much the same right before I traded it in several years ago. Come to find out, I had left the battery box open in direct sunlight and they over heated. Covered them up and they started working again. Yours may be bad. Your 30A (and that may be too much..mine was 20A) is to everything on the inside of the trailer. I would first get a multimeter and check to make sure you have voltage downstream of the silver breakers. If not, they're probably bad.

[dakranii]

Thank you for the reply.

Looks like I found replacements at O'Reilly auto parts, which is nearby: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/se...0227/C0335.oap.

I'm guess I've just got two side-by-side on my battery, joined by a short stretch of metal underneath.

I'll give that a try.

[raspivey]

Those are the ones. Grab a cheap $10 multimeter from wal mart before you start replacing just to make sure that's the problem. It could also be a loose ground. The good thing is that the winch wiring is short and doesn't take much to trace.

[dakranii]

I've got a multimeter in the camper, can't get to it. Dumb move on my part.

[raspivey]

Or....take them off and connect directly to the battery just long enough to see if the motor turns without them. If it doesn't, you know the problem is in the winch wiring and not the breakers.

[f5moab]

Mine had a single circuit breaker on the power wire to the motor and NO inline fuse for the motor. (I did have the inline 30A from one battery to the converter, and anothe 30A from battery to battery). Have to say, that circuit breaker never failed. The rest of the unit was a POS.

[raspivey]

Originally Posted by f5moab

Mine had a single circuit breaker on the power wire to the motor and NO inline fuse for the motor. (I did have the inline 30A from one battery to the converter, and anothe 30A from battery to battery). Have to say, that circuit breaker never failed. The rest of the unit was a POS.

I don't guess they could make up their mind how to wire them, lol. I had the Rockwood version (2280BH). I had two breakers and no inline. That whole winch system made me nervous for some reason.

[dakranii]

Well, hooking up the red wire directly gives it power and it works. So the circuit breakers are the issue. I went to NAPA and bought two (with the help of the staff there) that looked identical. The bad ones were 25A, I bought 30A as they didn't have 25A.

Put them in an identical setup and the winch won't work with them on. So...did I get the wrong circuit breakers? Do I even need the circuit breakers?

Maybe I should try the single breaker setup that Moab has/had?

[raspivey]

Hooking up directly only verified that the motor works and it isn't a wiring issue. That would leave either bad breakers or...good breakers that were tripping as intended. My guess is that your motor is pulling too many amps for some reason. Do you hear a click from the breakers when you throw the switch?

[dakranii]

Not sure if I heard a click or not. I did a single breaker just now and it works. I might just stick with that setup. Maybe I did the setup of the double wrong, but I don't think so.

[raspivey]

I'd leave it like that then. You've got a 50A inline between that and the winch, so you should be ok. I'm pretty sure the double setup was just redundant. Mine was double, but I didn't have an inline fuse on mine.

[hillsdaletc]

Looks to me like the positive cable with the two breakers and red wire are on the negative terminal?

[hillsdaletc]

Wrong, sorry red is correct. Black should be positive and white is negative.

[hillsdaletc]

They are tripping because you have the black and white cables on the wrong terminals. Look at the other photo sent in closely.

[raspivey]

Originally Posted by hillsdaletc

They are tripping because you have the black and white cables on the wrong terminals. Look at the other photo sent in closely.

Probably not based on the following.

Originally Posted by dakranii

I did a single breaker just now and it works. I might just stick with that setup. Maybe I did the setup of the double wrong, but I don't think so.

Also, it's hard to go by color coding wiring on these things as they're hit or miss depending on who wired it. I think all of mine have been Red + and Black - on the 12V side from the battery back with one exception that used white instead of red, but used all black and white (black +) on the inside for everything 12V and 120V once it hit the fuse block.

[dakranii]

I don't think the wires are wrong, it's worked fine for the 3 years I've owned the camper. And it works now, but...

The circuit breaker keeps tripping when I raise the roof. It raises a foot, trips, resets after a few seconds, then repeat. I raised enough to get out what I needed, then lowered it. It lowered fine without tripping.

So I think the whole system needs to be greased up. I'm guessing it's stressing the system, drawing too much power, and tripping. I'll grease it up next week and see if that helps.

Thanks all for the comments, I appreciate you taking the time to help.

[f5moab]

Originally Posted by raspivey

I don't guess they could make up their mind how to wire them, lol. I had the Rockwood version (2280BH). I had two breakers and no inline. That whole winch system made me nervous for some reason.

It made me nervous only when raising it at a campground; never when raising it to clean out the trailer in the driveway. I never trusted it after the gear shattered and the roof dropped.