Penthouse won’t raise

[yonan]

Electrical problem here. Just pulled into camp and can’t raise penthouse plugged in to shore or with vehicle running. No interior lights are working. Inverter appears to be working, green light is blinking, but the on/off toggle switch is broken. Will the broken switch cause all these problems?

Of course it is Saturday! If this switch is the culprit can we get one at Home Depot? And how do we not get electrocuted changing it?

Any ideas?

[Scalf77]

If there is no power to the lights , chances are the switch is not the problem. I believe the top is tied into the driver side 30 amp fused circuit. I suspect that if other 12 volt power items are not working, than you have a circuit breaker that may be reset. Need more info on your vehicle, as there have been some subtle differences in the wiring schemes through out the years and locations that it was built.

-greg

[yonan]

2014 Ford e350, converted by Indiana Sportsmobile in January 2015. Magnum 2000 inverter. Blue sky something under a plastic cover next to inverter. Sure power batter separator. All underneath dinette seat, with toggle switch on outside of compartment that broke.

Interior lights on both sides not working, but refrigerator runs when inverter is on.

We did flip all the circuits at the dinette off and back on.

Just got back from Home Depot, bought a #10 thhn wire and held it between the two screws on the switch and got power! Put up the penthouse.

We are going to try attaching the jump wire between the screws.

Thanks,
Nancy

[BrianW]

FYI, your lights run on 12v, while your frig will run on 12v or 110v (via shore power or inverter). Your frig is probably running on 110v. Likely if you unplug and turn off the inverter (or simply turn off the 110v breaker switch to it) the frig will not run. +1 on Greg’s thought that the main 12v breaker is tripped, if none of the other 12v accessories are working. Not sure why the power tip would work, though, unless somehow it’s on a separate circuit (my top is manual). Under your dinette should be a fuse box for the 12v system. It should have plug-in fuses and smaller gauge wire than the 110v breaker box. Try to find what looks like the main feed hot wire into this box, and there will likely be a small resettable circuit breaker inline there. My 12v breaker is a small black box with a VERY small reset button that’s easy to miss.

Home Depot/Lowe’s should have 12v switches. I think they may be in the hardware aisle in the small hardware pull-out boxes, but I may be wrong. Times like this I miss Radio Shack!

[BrianW]

Also, take a few photos of the wiring and boxes inside your dinette and post for us to see.

[Scalf77]

What on off toggle switch are we talking about? I first thought you were talking about the penthouse switch, I see that must be wrong.


-greg.