Another mystery, solved (I hope)

[DutchmenSport]

A few weeks ago I noticed the kitchen house lights started flickering, erratically. I noticed sometimes the lights would be dimmer and other times they would be brighter. I really didn't think too much about it... until....

Today!

Lights dimmed down, really dim. Yet the rest of the trailer lights were nice and bright. We are 550 miles from home, settled into this state park for another 6 weeks and this dimming really got noticeable today. Of course, NOW I'm concerned.

Steps? What to do? Begin trouble shooting the obvious.

Only the middle section of the camper had dim house lights. The front, rear, and outside 12 volt lights were just fine.

I flipped the breaker at the shore power pole. Lights came back on bright once my Progressive EMS kicked in. It lasted for about 5 minutes and then flickered again! RATS!

I'm thinking I might haver a battery problem. Next step, turn off an on the battery disconnect, see if there is any noticeable change when running completely off the converter and then when flipping the battery back on. There was NO change. The lights remained dim! Rats!

Which way is actually off on that stupid turn off switch. OK, one more time. I flipped the breaker at shore power and then turned the cut off switch (key). Again, no change! Those lights are still dim.

I flipped all power back on at the shore power breaker.

Next thought? Maybe my electric cord from the shore power to the trailer is loose causing issues. So I checked all the connections. Everything tight, and no change. Lights still dim.

I'm getting very concerned now. I decided to check the 12 volt automotive fuses in the converter panel. No red lights, all the fuses are plugged in. So, I thought, OK, next step, pull each fuse one at a time and see if one of them might be blown and the red light not coming on for some reason.

I located my needle nose plyers. I've never really messed with these fuses before and they ARE all labeled nicely! Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3, Zone 4, Outside, Awning, Water heater.... and so on.

OK, I went ahead and turned on ALL the house lights in the entire trailer, everything on, but the middle section (the kitchen) still dim, and getting dimmer. Oh, I'm feeling the pain now.

I grab the needle nose plyers to pull zone 1 fuse and the plyers touch the fuse on zone 2 and the light all of a sudden brightened and then went dim! oh yea! Kitchen middle section IS zone 2. I pulled zone 2 fuse and the kitchen went dark. Yep, that's the right fuese!

I plugged it back in ... lights nice and bright! And they have remained bright, no flickering, no diming, just nice and bright again!

Mystery solved! I'm not surprised ..... loose fuse, poor connection, or oxidization causing a poor connection. Pulling the fuse broke the oxidation, or at least reseated the fuse.

Consider these campers experience earthquake conditions when driving down the road, it's a wonder anything stays together. I pulled the other fuses and reset them again. Everything back to normal.

So, this is another new lesson for me! After 5 years, I suppose things need to be unplugged and plugged back in! Lesson learned.

In the future, if anyone has this experience happen to them .... check the fuses. It's these simple things that drive us all batty!

I won't do it now, but probably over the winter months, once home, I'll pull the converter and check all the wires. But not while I'm 550 miles from home. Things are working OK now! No reason to really screw something up .... YET!

[NCFischers]

While you are at it, tighten all the wire connections in the breaker panel, even the ground and neutral wires.

[BB_TX]

We never stop learning.

[JamesDean334]

Thanks for sharing that experience! Good information and as is usually the case, it's the little things that cause us the biggest headaches! Glad you found and corrected the problem!!