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Thunder_Mountai's avatar
Thunder_Mountai
Explorer II
Apr 12, 2015

Flickering interior lights - Problem Solved!

I'm the person who posted a couple days ago about loosing all 12v in my unit. Now, I have another 12v question. Occasionally my interior lights will flicker. This includes incandescent and florescent lights. The start of this issue predates my 12v failure this week. There seems to be no pattern nor does it happen all the time. I've tried turning on different combinations of lights and singular lights.

No issues with 110v and no faults with the surge protector.

I checked all cables in the battery box and checked the line where it comes into the 12v house distribution/fuse panel in the closet. Everything was good and tight.

Ideas?

30 Replies

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  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Apr 13, 2015
    Joebedford RIGHT ON! :)

    Neutering the converter is an excellent troubleshooting tip.

    It may be a good idea to disconnect ALL RIGS whether they have a problem or not and access the wiring inside the breaker panel. Tighten every single screw with a correct size screwdriver. Check for overheated wire ends. How many accounts of this loose wire syndrome have I read on this forum? Way and far gone too many.

    Do the check and maintenance work BEFORE it screws up a trip. How hard can this simple maintenence chore be? Can you be trusted with a screwdriver?

    DISCONNECT SHORE POWER AND SHUT DOWN AN INVERTER IF YOU HAVE ONE.
  • joebedford's avatar
    joebedford
    Nomad II
    Apr 13, 2015
    When I posted a while back about my 12V lights flickering (NOT brightening) when using the generator, someone suggested checking connections. I found a loose connection in the AC leg feeding the converter. When I tightened that up, the flickering stopped immediately.

    Now 5 months later, on my way home from Florida I noticed flickering again. Being on the road I didn't want to troubleshoot but I did flip off the breaker for the converter. Flickering stopped. So the converter is going psychotic or there is another loose connection.

    It's a simple test - turn off the breaker that feeds your converter and see what happens.
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Apr 13, 2015
    If every single light and 12-volt battery load is switched off and a small incandescent 12-volt lamp and it flickers the same, my gut hunch tells me the converter is going psychotic. Bad connections or bad batteries act WORSE as more load is added. Tinker around with adding and subtracting the 12-volt load on the converter and see what happens...
  • Thunder_Mountai's avatar
    Thunder_Mountai
    Explorer II
    Apr 13, 2015
    midnightsadie wrote:
    I,M with 36 on this one, start by having those batteries checked, you did check the water level.


    Gave them a drink with distilled water about 10 days ago. Will see if I can find a hydrometer in this backwater Mormon town in Utah.
  • midnightsadie's avatar
    midnightsadie
    Explorer II
    Apr 12, 2015
    I,M with 36 on this one, start by having those batteries checked, you did check the water level.
  • westend's avatar
    westend
    Explorer
    Apr 12, 2015
    That could be the symptom of a failing solenoid relay. If the connection inside the solenoid is tenuous or there is material inside the cylinder, it could act like that.
  • horizon36's avatar
    horizon36
    Explorer
    Apr 12, 2015
    Have you checked your battery conditions via hydrometer. If you have weak or dead cells in one or more batteries and your converter could be kicking on, which is the brightness, and then cycles off, which is the dim portion, AKA flicker.
  • JetRichard's avatar
    JetRichard
    Explorer
    Apr 12, 2015
    Ranger Smith wrote:
    Sounds like the converter is kicking in and charging maybe and thats why the lights are getting brighter


    Have to agree it does sound like extra load coming online. If that's the case you'd need to rewire your converter(or whatever it is that's causing it for that matter) to run directly of your batteries instead of the same wire as your lights.
  • Thunder_Mountai's avatar
    Thunder_Mountai
    Explorer II
    Apr 12, 2015
    Ranger Smith wrote:
    Sounds like the converter is kicking in and charging maybe and thats why the lights are getting brighter


    They are not getting brighter but dimmer and it is about the speed of an eye blink.
  • Ranger_Smith's avatar
    Ranger_Smith
    Explorer
    Apr 12, 2015
    Sounds like the converter is kicking in and charging maybe and thats why the lights are getting brighter

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