Community Forums

melon · 09-22-2005, 09:23 PM

(RANT)
Is it just me, or do these new trailers have more fuses than they know what to do with? Let me ellaborate. We are going to Neport Dunes this weekend for Sammies 2nd b-day. I pulled the trailer out onto the driveway to load her up. Well, what's one of the the first things we all do before we pack for a trip? We start up the reefer. I come back 5 hours later to find the check light on. After checking all the known fuses, breakers and connections, I pull the panel off the back of the frig and find a little black box with the words, "Check all fuses here." on it. More fuses? Come to find out the problem that was keeping my frig from getting cold was a tiny 5amp fuse on the acuator that changes the power from 12v to 110v.

Now don't get me wrong, I know fuses have their place, but the doulble and sometimes triple redundancy that I have to go through is a little much. Maybe someone can explain this to me.

And what if this problem continues? Do I change it to a 7.5amp fuse and hope for the best? I sure dont want it to go out when I really need it, like out in Dumont or Glamis.

There, I have said my peace. i say good day to you.

Rod

melon · 09-22-2005, 09:23 PM

(RANT)
Is it just me, or do these new trailers have more fuses than they know what to do with? Let me ellaborate. We are going to Neport Dunes this weekend for Sammies 2nd b-day. I pulled the trailer out onto the driveway to load her up. Well, what's one of the the first things we all do before we pack for a trip? We start up the reefer. I come back 5 hours later to find the check light on. After checking all the known fuses, breakers and connections, I pull the panel off the back of the frig and find a little black box with the words, "Check all fuses here." on it. More fuses? Come to find out the problem that was keeping my frig from getting cold was a tiny 5amp fuse on the acuator that changes the power from 12v to 110v.

Now don't get me wrong, I know fuses have their place, but the doulble and sometimes triple redundancy that I have to go through is a little much. Maybe someone can explain this to me.

And what if this problem continues? Do I change it to a 7.5amp fuse and hope for the best? I sure dont want it to go out when I really need it, like out in Dumont or Glamis.

There, I have said my peace. i say good day to you.

Rod

Vette Racer · 09-24-2005, 06:36 AM

Rod, Better a fuse than a circuit board. Even if there's more than one in the same circuit.

melon · 09-25-2005, 06:03 PM

Blew another fuse this weekend in the water heater. It was actually a thermal fuse.

Rod

Randy the sly old fox · 09-25-2005, 06:31 PM

Fuses dont just blow for the fun of it. There must be an underlying cause. Perhaps there is some insulation that has rubbed off a wire - or several of them somewhere in the unit and they have been shorted to ground momentarly (enough to blow the fuse) Fuse blowing also means that the circuit is drawing more current than in should. You should be investigating this before there are more problems down the road. As for redundend fuses, it is less of a problem than you would think but it is probably brought on by safety standards (UL and the like) The refer and hot water heater must be able to stand alone in order to get their UL stamps so they must provide fusing. In additon the mfg is providing more fusing at a circuit level above this (closer to the source). I suggest that you get out the manuals on all the appliances and review them for additional fuses and maybe write them in on the overall wiring diagram.

melon · 09-25-2005, 08:32 PM

Thanks Randy,
The problem is the redundancy invloved and chasing the problem back to the source. Usually when you do find the problem you can't believe what you are looking at.
For example, the fuse to the fuel pump, the isulaton was rubbed off the wire at a hole through the frame where they didn't protect the wire from the hole and because of this, the vibration of the trailer going down the road caused the steel frame to rubbed the insulation off, causing it to ground out.
Who knows about the fuse in the frig, it was for the 110 volt relay and it was only 5 amps. I would have liked to have known that there was a fuse there to even go out so that when I came back and my frig had not turned on, I would know where to begin.
Then there was there thermal fuse in the water heater. Apparently I had a flair up last time I was out and that blew this fuse out.
My whole point in my complaining here is to;
A) blow off some steam
B) Ask what I came do to fix this.(BTW you replies are always welcome)
C) Let other people know this cr@p has already happened to someone else other than them, so when they have been in the desert for three days and it's 8am and their wife wants to take a warm shower but the hot water heater wont work, they can maybe remember my ranting and remember what to fix and how to fix it so they don't have to look like a dumb @ss in front of their wife and kids by saying they don't know what the problem is.

I just remember both times that I did the walk through on both of my trailers they only mentioned one fuse bank for the 12 volt and one for the 110 volt. I think it would help if they told you that ALL your appliances hava fuses as well. I dont know, maybe it would be too much information for the average RV owner to have to know.

Thats just my $0.02

Rod

FatDog · 09-26-2005, 01:06 AM

The fuse situation DOES need to be documented. I was going to say 'documented better' but i just left it with 'documented'.
The same thing happened to me at Glamis in the wee hours of the black of nite. I had to determine where a hidden fuse was. In my case it was for the Onan. It then (or still does) had one in the gen area, as well the the breaker(s).
It would be great to map them all out. There are a LOT of people with LE models that would gain a lot by knowing this, although probably all WW are wired similar, probably all RV's are wired similar.

Skip298 · 09-26-2005, 02:47 AM

I liked the posts and I learned something from them..so if, and when, I have the problem I can do the trace knowing that until I get to the end of the line there might be another source interruption.......as far as fuses go, had it not been for a fuse I would be toast right now...I had the water heater element fry itself and then ground out thru the frame...we all got zapped...