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AlbertWesker's avatar
AlbertWesker
Explorer
May 01, 2017

Heater Turned on in Cab, Motor Home engine shut down.

Hello everyone, I am new here. My name is Christopher and it is good to meet you folks. I bought my second R.V. recently. This is a 1988 Fleetwood Southwind. It has been running great with no issues since I purchased it last week. However, something odd happened this week. I went to start it up, I turned on the cab heater for the first time, not the furnace but the regular heater, like in a truck or car, and the blower and engine shut off. I was not to concerned at first, but I noticed I had no power at all to start back up. I tried to turn the R.V. engine back over, and it gives me no power. I have nothing, just dead. I cannot even turn the key to the left for accessory mode, there is just no power. Everything else in the R.V. works great. This summer I would love to get out on the road and travel, but it looks like I am stopped for now. Does anyone have any idea as to why turning on the heater would shut off the engine. I checked the fuses and they all seem to be good. That is, I checked the fuses in the cab, and then also under the hood. I am puzzled, thanks for any help good folks, and god bless my friends. Happy hauling and travel to you all! :)
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  • fcooper's avatar
    fcooper
    Explorer II
    May 01, 2017
    By turning on the heater blower, you added a slight increase in electrical power required, and some connection, fuse, or relay could not handle the load. Since your battery did crank the engine before you turned on the heater blower, I would assume your battery is ok.

    As BILL1734 suggested above, I would start by cleaning and tightening all battery connections. While cleaning battery connections, look for internal corrosion within the ends of the battery cables also. If no joy, then I would clean and tighten all grounds, followed by checking fuses, etc.

    Good luck, and let us know the solution.

    Fred
  • K_Charles's avatar
    K_Charles
    Explorer
    May 01, 2017
    Old chevy had a useable link between the battery and the firewall. It's a hard to find fat spot in the wire harness. If it blows none of the fuses or the ignition switch have power. As said above, you have no power to acc or ignition so it most likely is not a fuse.
  • MrWizard's avatar
    MrWizard
    Moderator
    May 01, 2017
    sounds like you blew the ignition fuse

    the heater blower circuit should be on the accessorizes side of the key switch, NOT on the ignition side

    start by checking the fuses under the dash and under the front hatch drivers side

    all of the 'automotive/truck' stuff is just like any other car or truck

    the rv house electrical is different
  • Bill1374's avatar
    Bill1374
    Explorer
    May 01, 2017
    Try checking your battery connections and make sure they are clean and tight. Also check the ground strap at the engine. Check the battery voltage too.

    Good luck.
  • doxiemom11's avatar
    doxiemom11
    Explorer II
    May 01, 2017
    First of all, I would suggest that you actually test all the fuses. You cannot tell by looking at them for sure if they are good or not. We had something like that happen in our Jeep. DH checked all the fuses and thought they were good, so sent Jeep to shop. It was a main fuse that was blown - everything shut down - no power to engine, radio, lights,wipers,heater, nothing. It could be just a coincidence that when you turned on the heater the fuse blew - maybe not. My daughter had a vehicle that would do that if you turned on the rear defroster. If you didn't all was good. If you did - blew the main fuse.

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