Aliner blowing fuse

[airlifter]

When we try to tow our 2003 Aliner with the refrigerator on 12 volts it blows the 20 amp fuse in the electrical panel. The owners manual only shows 4 fuses in the panel and one in the battery box. The panel in our trailer has 5 fuses. The wiring diagram in the owners manual is just about worthless for troubleshooting. I do have 12 volts at the trailer connection.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Pete

[beemerphile1]

Brand and model of converter/power panel? Fuse number on panel? Give us something to work with. :B

[red31]

airlifter , time to label each fuse in your power center!

ye ole power center manuals are available showing which is rev prot and batt charge ... The 12v heater for the fridge should unplug and can be tested with a ohm meter and/or replaced, ye ole fridge manuals are also lurking on the web.

[j-d]

Please post the Make and Model of your Refrigerator.

[airlifter]

Thanks. I hope to get to check it out further next week. I am going to make sure the battery is fully charged and have it load tested.

I will also check out the wiring.

[enblethen]

If you are trying to run the refer on 12 volts DC, the element in the refer stack could be grounding out.
Locate the 12 volt supply to the refer and the wires going to the element. Disconnect the element wires and see if problem goes away.
Elements get grounded where the wires pass through the sheet metal.

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[RoyB]

I would most definitely check your on-borad trailer battery... If it is requiring alot of charge for one reason or another if may be wanting to see alot of DC current... Check the fluid levels and the VDC level... If fully charger it will show 12.6-7 VDC... If it has a shorted cell and only reading 5-6VDC across the terminals then when you hook up it may want to draw alot of current from the truck side enough to blow a fuse...

Does your ceiling lights woprk ok when you are just using your battery

My 2008 popup trailer came with those type of converter/charger unit and that was one of the first things I replaced with a modern converter/charger unit with many circuit breakers and ATC fuses positions... Now everything in my 12VDC Distribution has its own fuse....

Its going to be hard to figure what is doing the short for you when four or five 12VDC circuits are beiing under one larg fuse...

All of my three or four 12VDC zones behind the converter box was twisted together under one of those large YELLOW twist lock connectors... If you can track down which group of iwisted together cables that gets fed by that 20AMPS fuse you can un-twist the yellow connecot and hopefully figure out which is draining the big current...

Will take some digging around for sure...

A clamp around DC CURRENT meter would be a great tool to use for this searching...

Roy Ken