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Old 11-16-2020, 07:11 PM   #1
Cobra13
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Living room lights

2011 343rl hc, I turn on the switch and get 3 Kitchen/hall lights. However I have not found a way to turn on the other lights in the living room. There is a black switch on the panel that says living but doesn’t appear to do anything. Not sure if I am stupid or what the deal is.

New here, thank in advance
 
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Old 11-16-2020, 07:25 PM   #2
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See if there is a small switch on the fixture itself that may have been turned off.
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Old 11-16-2020, 07:36 PM   #3
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I have checked all of them, 4 in all. Haven’t been able to make any of them work
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Old 11-16-2020, 08:38 PM   #4
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The switch that says living that “doesn’t appear to do anything” may be the switch for those lights.

First off, with all power off, I would check tightness of all wire connections in the 12 volt fuse panel. And while you are at it, check all those in the 120 vac panel, hot, neutral, ground. Loose wire connections are a not uncommon problem.

Have you checked for a blown 12 volt fuse? Turn that switch on and see if there is a red light on any of the fuses. If so, that fuse is blown.

If no blown fuse indicator, then time to do some trouble shooting with a voltmeter to see if you have power into and out of that switch. That will tell you which direction to go next
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Old 11-16-2020, 08:58 PM   #5
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On our rig, the ceiling lights in the livingroom and a couple of puck lights in the bottom of the cabinets above the rear window are controlled by a couple of rocker switches on the wall in the right rear corner, behind the last window on the right side. The ceiling lights also have switches on them, and we had an issue a couple years ago, after several teenage girl grandkids stayed with us, and I guess we forgot to educate them how to operate the lights. Well, after they went home the next day, we couldn't get the ceiling lights to work. I finally got a ladder in so I could check the lights, and that's when I noticed all the fixture switches had been turned off. I guess they got a broom out of the closet and used it to turn off the lights. So, that's also a thing to check for.
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Old 11-17-2020, 08:43 AM   #6
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Bob beat me to it again! It would be my choice to check the switches on the back wall by the window to see if they are what you are needing to turn on your lights. Ours control both the lights above the cabinet and some of the living room lights. If not that, the blown fuse may be the problem also.
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Old 11-17-2020, 08:54 AM   #7
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I don’t think I have those switches in my unit. Anyone have a picture of what they are talking about.

Only switch I have is this one
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Old 11-17-2020, 09:41 AM   #8
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Our HC has the same pannel as yours and we do have switches on the back wall for the other lights as well as switches for the light over the desk and the one over the stove.
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Old 11-17-2020, 10:26 AM   #9
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Well I may be dumb or this thing doesn’t have them. Has a switch for the island/sink overheads and that’s all I have found located next to the stove

Just wondering their ideas when they wire/switch these things!
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Old 11-17-2020, 10:56 AM   #10
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Just pulled the switch panel apart. Switch that goes to living is a single pole with one wire and the switch doesn’t even move/rocker. Got me confused now
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Old 11-17-2020, 10:56 AM   #11
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Close one with the single red wire on it
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Old 11-17-2020, 02:37 PM   #12
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Now that is a head scratcher. A switch that doesn’t move. And has a single wire on it.

Almost like they put in a wired place holder for some anticipated future addition.
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Old 11-17-2020, 08:44 PM   #13
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Up for ideas at this point
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Old 11-18-2020, 08:31 AM   #14
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I would not think the living room lights would be on the same switch as the kitchen and hall lights, but you never know. And you would think there would be a switch in the living area for those lights as noted above. But since you can't find any, I guess my next step would be to drop those four lights down to see how (or if) they are wired. Don't disconnect the wiring. It may be that they put in that dummy switch and forgot to go back and wire in a real switch.

I would think the lights would be wired daisy chain; a wire from a power source to one light, jumper to 2nd light, jumper to 3 light, jumper to 4th light. That would mean two wires on the positive terminal on 3 of those lights and a single wire on the last one.The first light having two wires should be the one with one of those wires going to power somewhere. Maybe if you can tell the direction that power wire goes to see if there is a switch somewhere in that direction. If there are two lights in the daisy chain with only one power wire, then that would indicate they did not wire in a power source to them.

Have no idea how they wire ground to those lights. They may have a ground wire from each light to frame ground. Or they may do like the positive wire and have a daisy chain back to the 12 v ground bar, or frame somewhere.

While you have the fixtures down, you can check with a voltmeter to see if you happen to have 12 volts to the lights. It is possible you actually are getting power, but the ground path is broken. You would need to run a long wire from meter ground lead to a good ground source to check for that power.

Good luck.
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Old 11-18-2020, 09:20 AM   #15
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I have a power probe and long leads. Just procrastinating.

Only other thing I can think of, this is a 50amp unit but I have never hooked it up to anything but 30amp. Dont think that would matter but another option to check I guess
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Old 11-18-2020, 10:09 AM   #16
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340BH high country-my living room lights are in the control panel and the switch is not marked
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Old 11-18-2020, 10:21 AM   #17
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Assuming the lights are 12 volt then it would not matter if you were hooked to 50 amp or 30 amp, or even 15/20 amp. I suppose it is possible those are 120 vac, but not likely I don’t think. I have an older model and do have some 120 vac overhead lights in one of my slides. You could pull a bulb and see what voltage it is. Should be marked.
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Old 11-18-2020, 11:02 AM   #18
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They are all 12v I am just running ideas through my head. About to go take it apart and figure it out. Was hoping someone on here had the same model as me and some insight.
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Old 11-22-2020, 01:40 PM   #19
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Did you check the bulbs ?
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Old 11-22-2020, 03:06 PM   #20
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That could be an issue. When we bought our 2014 only a few of the lights worked and when I took them apart the connectors were burned from overheating. Turns out someone wanted brighter light, or didn't know any better, and put tailight bulbs in the ceiling fixtures. I mentioned that to an RV tech the other day and he says he sees it on older rigs often.
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