Community Forums

aden · 10-22-2019, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aden

I’ll check

I tried it and it didn’t make a difference

aden · 10-22-2019, 08:41 AM

The only thing that gets hot is the hot wire terminal that comes to the switch and only when the headlights are on, not when the running lights only are on

Dav L · 10-23-2019, 06:49 AM

A wire terminal that gets overly hot is either carrying too much current (wrong load amperage), or a bad connection.
Or it's normally warm as it will always increase in temp when carrying current.
Not sure how warm warm is from over the Internet.

If a relay is doing the job of switching the current from battery to bulbs, then the switch is only applying current to the relay's coil which is a relatively tiny amount of current.

A schematic would sure help to know if any of this is the case. It's all guesses.

Sherpa Vern · 10-23-2019, 07:54 AM

It would be helpful to know what the voltage is at the headlights and if the headlights are the original equipment. My previous motorhome only delivered 9 volts to the headlights through the headlight switch.

A typical stock headlight 55 watt low beam draws 4.6 amps at 12 volts, but draws 6.1 amps at 9 volts. This increase in amperage was causing my headlight switch to overheat and trip the internal circuit breaker.

After adding a relay for each headlight that provided a direct battery connection to the headlight via a 10 ga wire, 13 volts were delivered directly to the headlight and eliminated the overheating of the headlight switch. The same 55 watt low beam at 13 volts draws 4.2 amps, nearly a 50% reduction in amperage.

This modification also resulted in more light output from the headlights. Many people change to higher wattage bulbs to increase light output, which only makes the increased amperage worse, without adding relays to increase voltage.

This situation was on a Freightliner chassis with a Ford headlight rated for 15 amps.

aden · 10-23-2019, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dav L

A wire terminal that gets overly hot is either carrying too much current (wrong load amperage), or a bad connection.
Or it's normally warm as it will always increase in temp when carrying current.
Not sure how warm warm is from over the Internet.

If a relay is doing the job of switching the current from battery to bulbs, then the switch is only applying current to the relay's coil which is a relatively tiny amount of current.

A schematic would sure help to know if any of this is the case. It's all guesses.

Trying to get a schematic.

Dav L · 10-24-2019, 08:23 AM

I believe all RV owners should find the full schematic for their RV. Even if they don't DIY. If you bring your RV to a place to repair, the odds are they won't have the schematic and will then either guess or reverse engineer the wiring which can take hours of your paid for time.

I forgot to take a picture of the battery wiring, removed the batteries and then had to take almost a full day to reverse engineer the 12volt wiring just to rewire the batteries (a very basic job). No, the wires weren't labeled. Just a dumb mistake caused from working too fast that slowed me way down. I thought I did have that picture before pulling it apart. At that early time of ownership I didn't have a wiring schematic that would have greatly reduced the time. Just that one time would have costed hundreds of $ in time. I have since found a diagram that is close to mine and so far, close enough.

aden · 10-24-2019, 09:11 AM

I think I have found the problem, I think the dimmer switch

aden · 10-24-2019, 12:54 PM

I have cleaned grounds and clicked dimmer and occasionally the terminals does not get hot, I think that the dimmer switch is the culprit.

SAMPL · 11-03-2019, 03:42 PM

Your headlight switch should be warm but not hot. I revised the headlight wiring on a 2011 Tiffin Breeze to eliminate using the low beam headlight as a daytime running light. I use a different lamp for that. I used a blank rocker switch position and installed a Bluebird school bus light switch. Works fine.

MillerDE45 · 11-03-2019, 03:45 PM

I carry a heat gun just for this when I fuel up I hit each wheel with it to see any difference in temp, use the same way with wiring to chase any hot spots.

SAMPL · 11-03-2019, 03:46 PM

I should have added that I also installed an old fashioned foot operated dimmer switch as the directional signal multi stalk on the 2011 Tiffin was sloppy and awkward to use for dimming. Besides the left foot gets very little exercise with an Allison automatic.

T12 · 11-03-2019, 04:24 PM

I believe in checking the easy fixes first. First unplug and inspect bulb connections for oxidation. A pencil with an eraser makes a cheap tool for removing oxidation. Inspect any wire that could be chewed by a mouse. Try unplugging one bulb at a time see if that makes a difference

dan680fl · 11-03-2019, 04:27 PM

Had this problem when I replaced standard bulbs with high wattage ones. Went back to standard bulbs, no more problem.

Diesel-Lover · 11-03-2019, 05:23 PM

The rig needs better grounding of parts to the chassis including the batteries to the chassis. On our bago the headlights were not providing full operating light levels before the ground issue was taken care of, relied heavily on driving light addition! The same ground issue left us dead on the road one dark night. Rolled the rig off the road after scouting a place, in the morning looked at the ground wires and cleaned and tightened the cooling also restored function.

The diagnosis was that we were driving slow and steady on that mountain road and electrical system must have gotten overheated to a point of adding too much resistance.

Every thing started, directly added more capacity to all connections as to ground wires specially the battery box, engine etc to frame. There was no need for ancillary driving lights after that those became optional!