I have a sports mobile, Ford EB-50, which I purchased directly from Sports Mobile in September 2011, which has the following electrical problem which I am hoping you can offer me some service advise on.

When I turned on the AC Inverter the other week, I heard a rapid clicking sound (probably from the Blue Sea charging relay), and then lost all power in the AC outlets except for the AC power to the microwave oven. I checked all fuses, but can not find any which are burnt out. In addition, it now appears that the van’s house battery is no longer charging.

Summarizing the current status:
1) With Inverter turned on there is power to only one outlet in the van - the outlet for the microwave oven.
2) With the Inverter turned on, there is NO power to any AC outlets in the van other than the microwave oven.
3) The van’s “house” battery is no longer being charged by driving the van.
4) I can charge the house battery by connecting to external AC.

Thank you in advance for any advise.

- Steve Saroff

Hard to say without being there. You might have a couple things going on. I'd first check the GFI and AC breakers. If one of the battery systems is low the separator is designed to open but should close when it sees the alternator charge. I saw this on a members van and I had to jumper the separator until SMB could replaced it. His separator also refused to close when the engine was running. Also make sure the separator is set to the correct operation. Does the separator in your vehicle have a big yellow control knob on it?

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2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer

Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures..........On and off road adventures

I am slightly confused by one & two, I expect your trying to say with either the inverter turned ON or OFF there is only power to the microwave. So what are the other things that have no power, just the outlets? If so I would think Dave is right on the money and you need to reset a GFI plug.

Now on the second thing of not being able to charge from van (alternator). I assume that SMB did not include the switch with the ACR, or that you have no LED indicator for the status of the ACR. What is the voltage of your house battery? The house battery needs to be above 9.6 volts or it would lock out, since you did not mention voltages that is a possibility. Also as Dave said you could turn the yellow knob to manually engage the ACR.

Other than that, we probably need more info on AC circuits in the van, which ones you have a breaker for. Microwave, Outlets, anything else? What type of inverter/charger and voltage readings.

-greg

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-greg
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"Goldilocks" 2020 Ford Transit High Roof Extended 3.5 EcoBoost AWD Homebuilt

Much thanks for the pointers. Turns out there are two separate issues: I found the problem with the AC electrical outlets: the hot wire from circuit breaker box to the line in on the gfi had completely come out of its connection! The hot wire was just sitting there in the gfi outlet box. Still trying to figure out the reason that the van battery does not charge consistently. Sometimes the relay clicks and charges correctly, other times it chatters. I will talk with SM and see what they say. Again, thank you.

Check your batteries. If a battery is too low or has a bad cell, the separator will do that but generally not rapid clicking. Good luck with the repair.

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2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer

Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures..........On and off road adventures

I would also check the ground connection on the ACR.

greg

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-greg
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"Goldilocks" 2020 Ford Transit High Roof Extended 3.5 EcoBoost AWD Homebuilt