12 volt problems

Well I fixed my problem. Thanks for all the help everyone. The little black plug was actually a fuse holder. If it had a blown fuse in it, I would have realized it was a fuse holder. I pulled the wire loom down and started following the red wire from the battery. Turns out the red wire ran into this plug and then back out. Well on the back of the housing it says red 10 fuse. I put a red #10 fuse in the plug and voila, everything works on 12 volt power.

darlingtontrio wrote:

katysdad wrote:
You should not have to disassemble anything to find fuses or breakers. Most manufacturers use a circuit breaker near the tongue. You may have to lie on the ground and look behind the front crossmember to see it.

circuit breaker

Check and see if it has a reset button on one end. If it does it is a manual reset type. Try pressing it, if it was tripped you should feel a small click.

If no breaker or fuse holder is found outside check converter protection fuses. If your converter is built into the power supply there should be a pair of fuses beside row of fuses for the circuits.
In most cases the fuses are green 30 amp or orange 40 amp, for a trailer of your size but may be rated higher or lower depending on your setup. They are available at any auto supply store if needed.

If it is mounted seperate they will be on the converter itself. Usually on the end the battery cables connect to.
hope this helps

I will look for this in the morning and see what I can find.

that's what i was talking about in my post.
either a blown fuse or this gray resettable breaker are the most common causes of this.

Since we are in a lull time here did you identify your Converter/charger unit on here. I may have missed that...

With only one battery and the older trailer age you may have only a 30AMP converter/charger system.

Have you located the brand and model number of the converter.

We will need to also find out what type of 12VDC Distribution Panel you may have.. The older systems didn't have a multi-power distribution panel. My 2008 model only had two 120VAC Circuit breakers - A main and air conditioner circuit breaker. All of the 120VAC items were all hard wired to the 30AMP circuit breaker haha...

Then I only had four ATC fuses. Three was for 12VDC circuits and one was a REVERSE POLARITY fuse.

All of my 12VDC circuits were grouped into three bundles which was controlled by only three ATC fuses.

I threw all of that out and put in a WFCO 8900 series Power Distribution system which now has one full size 30AMP circuit breaker and eight 15AMP half size circuit breakers. On the 12VDC side it has eleven ATC fused positions. It wasn't hard to change over as all of the AC and C wiring was already routed to this area.

Not sure what your 2001 year trailer has... Most converters in that time frame was the ELIXIR 15A/20A/30A models.

Once you post what the model number is we can bring up some photos from google search of it... Maybe can show you where the two REVERSE POLARITY ATC fuses are located... May not even have them in that year vintage.

ALso finding photos on google search for the older trailers is not as easy to find photos of new ones haha... You probably have heard of the 10-year rule thing. Some camp grounds won't allow a ten year old trailer to setup there.

Roy Ken

katysdad wrote:
You should not have to disassemble anything to find fuses or breakers. Most manufacturers use a circuit breaker near the tongue. You may have to lie on the ground and look behind the front crossmember to see it.

circuit breaker

Check and see if it has a reset button on one end. If it does it is a manual reset type. Try pressing it, if it was tripped you should feel a small click.

If no breaker or fuse holder is found outside check converter protection fuses. If your converter is built into the power supply there should be a pair of fuses beside row of fuses for the circuits.
In most cases the fuses are green 30 amp or orange 40 amp, for a trailer of your size but may be rated higher or lower depending on your setup. They are available at any auto supply store if needed.

If it is mounted seperate they will be on the converter itself. Usually on the end the battery cables connect to.
hope this helps

I will look for this in the morning and see what I can find.

RoyB wrote:
There is another quick thing to check...

Goto the battery case and find the marked word "NEG" or the symbol (-) on the case and make sure this is the battery lead that goes to FRAME GROUND on your 12VDC Battery hookup. I would give you battery cable wire colors but they can really get off in left field since two worlds are at play here. The RV WORLD and the AUTOMOTIVE BATTERY WORLD. They use different color schemes.

I am assuming you have a single 12VDC battery in use here...

If the battery is connected wrong this would blow these three FUSES we have been talking about and if not corrected it blow them again as soon as you replace them... The NEGATIVE (-) terminal cable should go to FRAME GROUND close to the battery and the POSITIVE (+) terminal cable should got to an IN-FUSE HOLDER and then on to the 12VDC Power Distribution Panel where the converter/charger chassis is installed.

This needs checked out and get back to us with results...

When you get done here from all of this you will be a certified RV mechanic...

Woo Hoo huh...
Roy Ken

Yes I do have a single battery. I remembered reading somewhere that someone had 2 wires on one of the battery posts. I checked mine, I have 2 white wires going to the negative. One of the wires is grounded to the frame. The other white along with the red disappear into the wire loom with a bunch of other wires.

You should not have to disassemble anything to find fuses or breakers. Most manufacturers use a circuit breaker near the tongue. You may have to lie on the ground and look behind the front crossmember to see it.

circuit breaker

Check and see if it has a reset button on one end. If it does it is a manual reset type. Try pressing it, if it was tripped you should feel a small click.

If no breaker or fuse holder is found outside check converter protection fuses. If your converter is built into the power supply there should be a pair of fuses beside row of fuses for the circuits.
In most cases the fuses are green 30 amp or orange 40 amp, for a trailer of your size but may be rated higher or lower depending on your setup. They are available at any auto supply store if needed.

If it is mounted seperate they will be on the converter itself. Usually on the end the battery cables connect to.
hope this helps

I'll pass along a simplified 30AMP RV Wiring Configuration block diagram. Although this won't show point to point readings it will help you identified the major pieces of equipment being used...



Roy Ken

If you are reading 12VDC at the battery and nothing to frame ground on the end of the harness then it must not be connected between those two points. Thats a clue...

Hope the battery terminals are in good clean order...

a good place to stop for day light haha...

Roy Ken

There is another quick thing to check...

Goto the battery case and find the marked word "NEG" or the symbol (-) on the case and make sure this is the battery lead that goes to FRAME GROUND on your 12VDC Battery hookup. I would give you battery cable wire colors but they can really get off in left field since two worlds are at play here. The RV WORLD and the AUTOMOTIVE BATTERY WORLD. They use different color schemes.

I am assuming you have a single 12VDC battery in use here...

If the battery is connected wrong this would blow these three FUSES we have been talking about and if not corrected it blow them again as soon as you replace them... The NEGATIVE (-) terminal cable should go to FRAME GROUND close to the battery and the POSITIVE (+) terminal cable should got to an IN-FUSE HOLDER and then on to the 12VDC Power Distribution Panel where the converter/charger chassis is installed.

This needs checked out and get back to us with results...

When you get done here from all of this you will be a certified RV mechanic...

Woo Hoo huh...
Roy Ken

RoyB wrote:
PITCH - I wouldn't mind if you would take over here. I did becaUse it didn't look like he was getting anything answered. I'm probably TOO LONG WINDED to really help him haha...

With bunches of us all hitting him with different things to check is probably really confusing him big time...

I was thinking maybe one thing at a time until he answers back then go to the next item to check???

Roy Ken

Roy I was actually reading and then going and checking. Being long winded does not bother me at all. Right now the more info I can get the better.