Truck camper electrical issue
Hi, I'm trying to diagnose an electrical issue. I have a 1999 arctic fox 1150 and when I was unloading the camper, the jacks stopped working. I thought it was a jack issue, but now I realize all of my...
Forum Discussion
Ok, let me backup and give some more background. The whole problem started this year when I was unloading my camper. I got my camper up in the air and everything was working just fine. I moved the truck out and went to lower the camper. I got it about 3/4 down and went to get the braces I put under it. I put the braces in and the jacks wouldn't work. I tried resetting the remote and nothing. The jacks were completely dead. The camper had been sitting for a couple of weeks on the truck, so I assumed the battery was dead. I plugged the camper in and everything was working. I let it sit for a while to charge up and came back and the jacks barely worked (plugged into AC), but it was enough to get the camper on the braces. The jacks acted like they were only getting partial power, but it was barely enough to move the jacks down to get the camper on it's braces.
I unplugged the camper and to my surprise, I still had zero power to anything 12v. Again, I more or less thought it was the battery being dead. By accident, I hit the switch on the slide and slide worked. That was my first incling that something wasn't right because the camper was not plugged in at this point. I began tracing power back and completely checked the jack system. All fuses were good. All fuses from the fuse panel were also good and no breakers were tripped. I still was not getting power to the panel when unplugged. That's when I continued to ask questions and began tearing stuff apart looking for a broken wire or fuse or breaker. That brings me to where I am today.
I replaced the 30A fuse and everything is now functioning as it should, jacks included. The jacks are not acting like they are barely getting power, but are operating normally. There is no signs of anything shorted out and nothing working improperly. At this point, the only guess I have is maybe one of the jacks was hung up and was pulling too much juice, which popped the fuse. Maybe the motor in that jack is going south. I see nothing and have no symptoms of something not working or shorting out that would lead me to the cause of the fuse going out, other than me being in the process of unloading the camper when it happened. I am certainly going to keep several spare fuses on hand until something else begins to show signs of issues. At this point, I wouldn't even know where to begin. I'm sure if it is a jack issue, it'll show up in the spring when I load the camper up again.
Does this help? Anything I should check that would cause this under the conditions given? I can't help but think that this has to be related to the jacks, but then again, I've been wrong many times in my life and I wouldn't doubt being wrong here.
I unplugged the camper and to my surprise, I still had zero power to anything 12v. Again, I more or less thought it was the battery being dead. By accident, I hit the switch on the slide and slide worked. That was my first incling that something wasn't right because the camper was not plugged in at this point. I began tracing power back and completely checked the jack system. All fuses were good. All fuses from the fuse panel were also good and no breakers were tripped. I still was not getting power to the panel when unplugged. That's when I continued to ask questions and began tearing stuff apart looking for a broken wire or fuse or breaker. That brings me to where I am today.
I replaced the 30A fuse and everything is now functioning as it should, jacks included. The jacks are not acting like they are barely getting power, but are operating normally. There is no signs of anything shorted out and nothing working improperly. At this point, the only guess I have is maybe one of the jacks was hung up and was pulling too much juice, which popped the fuse. Maybe the motor in that jack is going south. I see nothing and have no symptoms of something not working or shorting out that would lead me to the cause of the fuse going out, other than me being in the process of unloading the camper when it happened. I am certainly going to keep several spare fuses on hand until something else begins to show signs of issues. At this point, I wouldn't even know where to begin. I'm sure if it is a jack issue, it'll show up in the spring when I load the camper up again.
Does this help? Anything I should check that would cause this under the conditions given? I can't help but think that this has to be related to the jacks, but then again, I've been wrong many times in my life and I wouldn't doubt being wrong here.
