Just blew my breaker on my converter??? - Montana Owners Club

dsprik · 10-10-2006, 04:58 PM

I just rigged by up from my weekly "dumping run". Plugged my 50 amp in about 5 PM. I always plug my shore power in before disconnecting my umbillical. Not sure what difference that makes...

Went to dinner, left my outside scare lights on. Came back about 8 PM - didn't notice any problem with the 12v lights. About 9 PM, Cheryl stepped outside and then stuck her head back in and asked me to turn on the outside lights. They were on. Then I suddenly noticed that the 12v lights were dim. Then, within a matter of a couple minutes - before I could even get out of my recliner, the lights dimmed so dramatically that they almost went out.

I ran to the battery meter and it was just barely at one light. My only thought was to go to the breakers and check. Sure enough... the "Conv" breaker had blown. I threw it and everything immediately came back to full brightness.

Now 10:35 and no problems. This is a concern to me as I have never heard of this breaker going, and I have no idea what I did to trip this and I feel I need to know. Doing OK now. I will check the battery again tomorrow AM - just checked it two weeks ago. Any ideas???

Driftwoodgal · 10-10-2006, 05:57 PM

Dave,

I don't know if this is the same problem that we had, but all of our breaker problems led back to our battery. We had our AC flip off because of the convertor breaker on our first trial run. On the second one the frig kick off. We took the Monty in to the dealership and they replaced the AC breaker and the convertor after the AC trial run. While at the campground when the frig kicked the convertor breaker off, a service tech was there working on an expensive motor home. It turns out he used to be the head service manager at the dealership we bought our Montana from. He told me to check the water levels in our battery. Bob checked them and one of the batteries was low, some of the cells were exposed. The Tech told us that the one good battery would keep us running but would kick the convertor. When you have two batteries they are linked together and if one is weak it will pull the second one down. We haven't had any problems since we have checked the water levels in our batteries.
I don't understand why the dealership didn't check our battery level before they replaced the convertor.... guess they had to eat that warranty problem.

Ozz · 10-11-2006, 03:30 AM

Good post, also check the tightness of the wire connections at the panel, (all of them)

dsprik · 10-11-2006, 11:44 AM

Thanks, Ozz. I have not had a problem since that 24 mile round trip. But it was very rough roads... I will pull the panel and check.

Driftwoodgal · 10-11-2006, 04:56 PM

Sorry Dave I just reread your post and I guess you checked the water level in your battery since you used the Battery meter.

We had dimming of lights as well with our convertor breaker flipping.

Thanks to a MOC member and the tech guy we found our problem was the low level of water in our battery. I hope you find your electrical problem. Glad ours was only the water level thing.

Colleen

ronnilu · 10-11-2006, 07:32 PM

Dave - on our 11,000+ mile trip this spring we experienced our converter breaker flipping off almost every time we plugged in to shore power at different campgrounds. When we took it to the dealer they replaced the breaker with a new one. To be honest I don't recall the rating for the previous breaker, but the new one is a 30 amp. I really feel the original one was not as heavy but I'm not sure. If this new one is the same size then we apparently just had a bad breaker, but so far we haven't had any problem since the new one was installed. Good luck.
Mke

dsprik · 10-12-2006, 07:31 AM

So far, so good. Haven't had time to pull the panel yet, but it's possible the next time we rig down and pull over these rough roads to dump, that we could experience the same problem. My guess is as suggested above, loose wires behind the panel...

Colleen, the water levels are up on my battery. Guess its a good thing in a way that I only have a single 75 amp/hr battery. We would have not noticed the problem for a while as everything probably would have died in the middle of the night, without us noticing. Don't know if that would have hurt anything though...

sreigle · 10-13-2006, 10:42 AM

Dave, it probably wouldn't hurt anything other than your appliances and lights might not work, depending on which breaker popped. It sounds to me like a simple popping of the breaker either because of a short or just an overload. If it's a one time situation I wouldn't worry much about it. If it happens frequently then I'd start looking for the reason. It's possible when you plugged in the rig if the AC, for example, were turned on along with other lights, etc., then you may have just overloaded the breaker and it did what it is supposed to do. A motorized appliance like the AC will momentarily draw a lot of amperage to get the motor started. If that's enough to create a total draw that's more than the breaker's rating then that breaker will pop. In Parrothead's situation it sounds like the breaker could not handle its full rating.

jimc · 10-13-2006, 11:20 AM

I had the same thing happen last March, about a month or so after we picked up our new unit. There was nothing apparent that would have clued me to why the breaker would have popped. The water levels were fine in the batteries (2 golf cart 6Vs). The lights started to dim and the fridge panel lights started to flash. Everything fine as soon as I reset the breaker to the converter, and it hasn't happened since. Early this summer I did go into the electrical panels and tightened all the leads - I found a half dozen loose, and a couple were quite loose. This was mainly on the 120V side with a couple on the 12V panel. I recommend that everybody go in and check the lead tightness in your panels.
I now am in the habit of checking the battery charge lights on the monitor panel to make sure there are 4 lights on when we are on shore power.

snfexpress · 10-13-2006, 02:30 PM

Dave,

I had the same problem with the converter breaker flipping off. The two things that I did which seem to have fixed the problem are these:

1) Checked both batteries by taking them to an Auto Parts store. While both batteries seemed fine (had water, electrolyte, etc.), when put on the big battery checker, one was bad, causing the converter to continuously try to charge, thus overheating the converter. Had dealer replace both batteries with new ones (under warranty).

2) Installed a muffin (12 volt computer fan) in vent cap in washer/dryer compartment. Used a couple of wire ties to secure to vent cap in ceiling and then ran wire to 12 volt panel. When it is hot, I install the fuse (it is usually just turned around so that it doesn't make contact), and then the fan exhausts air from area behind converter and electrical boxes.

No problems so far...

dsprik · 10-14-2006, 02:30 AM

Steve, that may be what happened. Also, when I went to plug in my shore power when I returned from dumping, I did not have it lined up correctly, tried to push and thought I heard a small arc before twisting to the correct position. I haven't looked (it was dark at the time), but that back connector surely can't make a connection on the wrong wires can it?

Jim, I never checked those battery lights. I do now. I am checking my panel wires today. Wonder if there is a way of rigging some sort of audible alarm if that breaker trips??? Ozz???

Michael, Thanks for the heads up on a 2 battery system. That could be a real problem to detect. I only have a single battery to this point, but I sure will keep that info in the back of my mind when I upgrade to 2 batts. Good idea on the muffin fan. I know Rich and some others have put these in that vents, but I really like the idea of a seperate fuse that you can remove or put in to operate the fan...

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