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mikeyp's avatar
mikeyp
Explorer
Feb 19, 2015

12 Volt Power Problem with Bounder

Have a spooky new problem - my Fleetwood Bounder is plugged in here at the campground for the month. The 110v current is solid and house batteries fine and pretty new. About on average once a day, totally intermittently and with the regular 12v stuff running (frig, hot-water controller and 1-2 lights) when we switch on a new light (12v) the entire 12v system stops. Everything goes dark. Except the 110 v (TV, computer, etc) lines. They stay lit. So its not the shore line. The converter seems to keep humming though I have not been quick enough get outside around back and to check it. The outage last varyingly 5-30 seconds. Then for no reason - everything comes on, fine and all systems go. No brown-in - just instant spontaneous start. Anyone have any ideas? I did buy a back-up converter with the expectation of needing it to swap in - but don't want to if this is coming from something else. PS - it always happens exactly when we turn on a 12v lamp - different ones each time. Thanks. Mike P.
Class A
  • PUCampin's avatar
    PUCampin
    Explorer
    Feb 19, 2015
    It could be corroded connections, certainly easy to check. My car would do something like this. Turn the key to on and the lights and stereo come one, try to start and the car instantly went dead. Was corrosion between the battery clamp and post. If that doesn't fix it, it could be the converter starting to fail. When mine failed, it would support a 12V load up to about 1A. The next thing I turned on going over that threshold would cause it to crash. Shutting everything off would bring it back until I exceeded 1A again.
  • jhilley's avatar
    jhilley
    Explorer
    Feb 19, 2015
    I would check the 12 volt ground to the chassis, maybe remove and clean the bolt and all connectors and make sure all connections are tight. Check to make sure the battery connections are clean and tight. Measure the converter output voltage, should be at least 13.3 VDC.

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