New owner, need help on 12v

[BobbyT]

Just purchased a 2000 Paolmino Pinto and am outside cleaning it etc. and have a question...probably a stupid one but not being at all mechanically gifted, need advice. The interior lights work fine on shore power but I can not get them to work on 12v. The battery is only a year old, very clean and seems to be well maintained.  The fuses look OK. The fridg. works fine.
Question? What do I need to do/check next to get my 12v lights working?
Thank you so much for the help.
Bobby

[tlhdoc]

Welcome to PUT.  Does the battery have a charge on it?  If it has been left to sit for a while it may have lost its charge.  Are you running the fridge on 12 volt power?  If so it will drain the battery in just a few hours.  If the 12 volt fuses are ok, the battery is charged and connected properly, the next thing I would check is if the cut off switch is working.  I am assuming your PU has one.  It is usually on the bottom section of the galley and the galley has to be in place to depress the switch.  The switch is a safety device to make sure the ceiling lights are off when the trailer is popped down.  IF the switch is depressed I would check to see if there are any wire connections going to the roof.  On my Coleman/Fleetwood trailer the rear roadside zipper between the bunkend and the main box has 2 electrical connectors on the outside of the trailer.  They take the 12 volt power to the ceiling.  On Fleetwood's they are often the problem when the ceiling lights go off.  I am guessing you have similar wiring, but I don't know where it is.  I hope this helps.  If not let us know and we will try and figure it out for you.

[wavery]

Make sure that your battery is connected to the power supply.

My PU has a quick disconnect plug, right near the battery. If it is unplugged, you will have no 12v to the converter.

If everything is OK there. Get a 12v test light. Pull the 12v fuses from the converter. Put one lead from the test light on each side of the fuse socket. If the light lights-up, you have 12v to the converter and the converter is OK. Now, put the fuses back in and follow the 12v wires from the converter to the cut off switch (usually under the galley counter). Touch your test light to either side of the wires going in to that switch. If the test light goes on, you have power there. Next, depress the switch and see if you have power coming out of the switch.

If the test light does not light up at the fuses, you either have a loose wire between the battery and the converter or the converter is bad. Go to the back of the converter and find where the 12v wires go into the converter. Put your test light probes right into the black wire and the white wire. If you have power there, the converter may be bad. If you don't. work your way all the way back to the battery, probing the wire about every foot for a broken wire.

[rccs]

I see in your post that your lights work on shore power so much of the suggestions given you so far may not make any differance since the cut off switch also cuts off the power to the lights with shore power and the plug going to the roof for the lights would have had to been plugged in in order for them to work with shore power. Also your fuses would have to be good since they are the same fuses used with battery or shore power. My suggestion would be check your battery first and see if it has enough charge in it, then make sure it is hooked up properly and then check to see if you converter has a switch on the front of it to select battery, off, and AC. If so you need to have the switch in the battery possition in order for the lights to work on battery power.

[aw738]

I had a similar problem 2 years ago. It happened to be the wire that fed power from the battery to the converter. A multimeter showed 12 volts at the converter but it was not enough to light a test light. I replaced the wire and fixed the problem.

[Steve-o-bud]

I would bet that the problem is an open circuit between the 12volt charger/power supply, and the battery. The fact that you interior lights work when pluged in to shore power means that the cutoff switch is OK.  
The battery and the charger/power supply are wired in parallel(sp). If everthing is connected properly, you should be able to run on shore power, pull the plug, and everthing should continue to work, although you should be able to detect a slight diming of the lights as the plug is pulled. This is because when you are plugged into shore power, you are delivering a higher voltage to the system to charge the battery, and when you disconnect, your voltage goes down to the voltage of the battery itself.
 
To diverge a little:
This little test is handy when you are plugged into shore power, but you're not sure that you are actually running off of shore power or the battery. I've been at a campsite, and didn't realize I was running off the battery because everything was working. Causes for this could be that you may have a tripped circuit breaker at the camp site's power pedestal, or the circuit breaker on your trailer which feeds the charger could be tripped, etc.
 
Good luck, let us know how this goes...

[BobbyT]

Got it fixed. It was a bad spice job on a wire between the battery and the converter. Thanks for all of the help.

[wavery]

I'm glad that you found it .

I'm a firm believer in soldering all wires in the trailer connections and using heat-shrink tubing instead of electrical tape.

Another acceptable splice (IMHO) is to use these crimp style butt connectors with built in heatshrink:
http://cgi.ebay.com/65-HEAT-SHRINK-BUTT-CONNECTORS-TERMINALS-USA_W0QQitemZ7590810682QQcategoryZ48716QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

You can find them at any marine store (like West Marine) and some automotive parts stores. I always keep a supply of them in my toolbox for emergency repairs.

[tlhdoc]

Another acceptable splice (IMHO) is to use these crimp style butt connectors with built in heatshrink:
 
You can find them at any marine store (like West Marine) and some automotive parts stores.

Farm supply stores have them too.