No DC power?

[richfaa]

It was brought up at the next fall rally in 2007. We were not the only fire. They did insulate the lines going through the frame. From what we could see on this 13 when the weight of the water from the failed tanks pulled one side of the underbelly down it is still a nightmare under there.

[Simpson9508]

I am interested in putting a fuse on my battery similar to the one John Kohl used. They are available on Amazon in ratings from 30 amp to 300 amp. What amperage would be used for the typical Montana installation.

[H. John Kohl]

I feel the fuse on the battery (positive post) is a SHORT PROTECTION fuse so I would put one that is twice your expected maximum current usage.

The best answer is to buy a $200 Trimetric metering system and 500 amp shunt and actually measure you usage and go from there. For anyone really wanting to know the status of their battery it is worth the investment. Especially if you plan to add more batteries in the future and more so if you want to add solar and or an inverter.


Since that is expensive I would say the hydraulic motors for the slides runs about 30 to 40 amps max and the Level up about 80 amps so I would say 100 to 200 amps. Worse case if you blow one of these and there is no short then just increase its size.

My recommendation is a SWAG "Sweet Wild $$$ Guess". However I feel the intention is to prevent a fire from a dead short not protecting electrical equipment from too much current draw.

Protecting electrical equipment from too much current draw is the requirement of the individual fuse on each power drawing line.

[Simpson9508]

Ok. Thank you

[Irlpguy]

I must be missing something here but if the 12V wiring in my unit was protected by a 300 amp fuse link on my battery terminal and "any" of the 12V wiring routed throughout the RV shorts out to ground on the frame, how is that going to protect the wiring from burning or causing a fire.
A 12 gauge wire shorted to the frame would not even tickle the 300 amp breaker and would destroy the wire or cause a fire or cook anything near it before it shorted out that 300 amp breaker.
It takes 4/0 wire to handle that kind of current, I have never seen any inverters wired with 4/0 wire, many use 2/0 which is not even close to being rated to carry 300 amps.

All the 12V circuits are protected by a 15 amp blade fuse in the panel, if any of those wires shorts out it should blow the fuse before causing too much trouble, we would not want to be replacing those with 30 amp fuses would we.

What am I missing and how does this possibly give anyone a sense of safety from shorting wires.

[Irlpguy]

John you further confused my with your last post. If the slides draw 30 - 40 amps maximum how is it possible that the same hydraulic motor draws in the neighborhood of 80 amps when operating the level up. It is the same motor doing a similar job albeit the pressure on the system when leveling might be higher. That is not noticeable by listening to the motor on my RV performing those two tasks.

The hydraulic motor is protected by a 50 amp circuit breaker on my 3402RL no matter what job it is performing, on my RV it has never tripped that auto reset breaker although some have had problems with that actually happening, although I believe it is related to inadequate voltage and voltage drop with related rise in current because of the voltage drop.

What wires are intended to be protected by putting this 300 amp breaker at the battery.

[Jay Bird]

Chris. Sorry to hear about the problems. I hope Keystone does right by you one this. The loose ground we had was on the hydraulic pump, we did not loose 12v dc power. It was a simple fix just reattaching the ground wire to the frame and the pump has worked fine since.

[richfaa]

quote:Originally posted by capn chris

Talked w/Keystone and checked most of the above. RV Mobile tech came and searched for a short (frame was carrying positive power). Traced main power cable to battery switch in the underbelly and found melted cable and hydraulic lines! Pulled battery switch off convenience center and found it had grounded to the frame behind it. Long posts on the switch contacting the aluminum frame. 3 fried hydraulic hoses and wiring! Yikes.

Does that ever sound familiar.. that is what happened to us on our 06 3400 meltdown in Q in 2007 but had no warning just smoke,fire and a meltdown.

[MrRobinGrimes]

Oops posted a reply to wrong thread and can't delete this one... Sorry.

[Carl n Susan]

quote:Originally posted by MrRobinGrimes

Oops posted a reply to wrong thread and can't delete this one... Sorry.

Sure you can delete your post! There is a little icon (last one in the string) at the top of *YOUR* post (only you can see it) that looks like a piece of paper and a trash can. Hover the mouse over it and it should say "Delete Reply". Click on it and your post will disappear.