Rear Bedside Light & Plugs Issue - Possible Fire

[Brent Hohlweg]

Hi everyone,

The other day our rear bedside lights on dimmers, and the seperate plugs beside the dimmers on either side of our bed stopped working. Any thoughts on where to look for a possible fix?

1. We were plugged into 50amp shore power for 11days straight at a Lake Havasu State Park (fully renovated, good clean newer hook ups).
2. No other issues at all with any other electrical items.
3. The two bedside LED light bulbs flickered on and off then both dimmers and plugs at bedside no longer worked.
4. Checked LED bulbs in another dimmer at front of coach and they work fine.
5. Tested a lamp in both dead plugs, that light worked up front in another plug but not in the bedside plugs.
6. Other plugs and rear entertainment center all work fine, it's just the two bedside dimmers and the bedside plugs that do not work now.

I'm thinking a GFI switch was tripped or a fuse burnt out somewhere. Or maybe (see picture) the top left fuse might have burnt out where the BigBoy Isolator relay is by the battery bank (the one on the pic in the top left looks a little burnt out?).

Any one have any ideas where to start ?

Cheers Brent

[Dennis Crawford]

Brent,
I am assuming these are 12 volt lights and dimmers.  Have the dimmers always been there.  My AC and DC fuse panel for interior lighting is in the potty room.  Check to see if one of the fuses is bad.

Dennis

[Dennis Crawford]

Brent,

It is Dennis again.  If those are AC bulbs then (on my 2005 Monterey the AC breakers are GFI). Check those.  One of those could have tripped.  They are also on the inverter and sometimes the inverter will cause them to trip.

Dennis

[Brent Hohlweg]

Hi Denis,

Those dimmers and plugs are AC. I should have added I did check the GFI plugs (one in bathroom and one in the bottom of coach by the vacuum). But I never knew the Trace Inverter might have a GFI right on it as well...that's a great idea and will check when back at the coach tonight.

Really wondering if there is a GFI somewhere else that is close to just those two dimmers and two plugs - so strange to just be those two only went out in the bedroom.

Let's see what I find on the inverter :-)

Cheers Brent

[Roy C Tyler]

I have a couple of outlets under the edge of my bed platform, which is my slide.  My DW pointed them out to me.  I did not know they were there as they are hidden by the bedspread when the bed is made.

[Dennis Crawford]

Brent,

I am not sure how many outlets you have in your bedroom.  But all of mine, including the TV is on the same circuit.  If your are losing just a couple outlets then it is not anything to do with the inverter shutting that circuit down.  I am concerned that you mention the lights flickered.  Sure hope  you did not have an overload and shorted something out.  As you know, the outlets and the switches most likely are connected in series.  So if you have an outlet that is working you need to trace the wire from that outlet to wherever it goes.  I would surely get this fixed ASAP.  If there is a short somewhere, you don't want to be using that circuit Let me know if I can help in anyway


Dennis

[Joel Weiss]

As you know, the outlets and the switches most likely are connected in series.  

  

Actually, 120V circuits are never wired in series; every outlet and light in the circuit is in parallel with the others.  It's possible that there's a broken wire somewhere, but that has nothing to do with things being in series.

[Dennis Crawford]

What I meant by series in an AC current is that outlets and switches follow each other in that particular circuit.

Dennis

[Brent Hohlweg]

Gentlemen your comments make me wonder if one of the dimmers or plug terminal connections on the back side has rattled loose. If such a thing has happened would that cause a light to flicker then both plugs and dimmers no longer work?

[Dennis Crawford]

Brent,
That is indeed a possibilty.  As I mentioned in an early post, AC circuits usually are connected to each other.  In other words, the supply wiring willgo to a receptacle, then from there to another, etc.  Did you install the dimmer switches.  I am not sure if Beaver installed dimmers. These may be an after sale install.  If you are going to trace this circuit, make sure you are not connected to shore power, generator, or inverter. Don't want to see you get accidentally zapped.

Dennis

[Brent Hohlweg]

FIRE...

We'll we found the issue. Below our bed is an electrical junction box. When we opened the box you can see the melted connection below in the photos. SCARY!

It was our friends over at www.rvsalesoforegon.com that put us onto checking that box after reviewing things like GFI plugs, the dimmers being replaced by me etc. Shane their fantastic shop manager said he had seen owners overloading a circuit and causing a short. He asked if I had any unusual loads on the circuits before the lights and plugs stopped working. But nothing jumped out at me, until I remembered I had put in a tri extension plug. It was from a dollar store from years back (see photo below)...it was faulty and caused the overload. Thank goodness we were in the coach when this happened and able to diagnosis the problem before a fire had started.

The lesson learned is to NEVER by cheap Chinese made extension plugs. Sticking to name brands going forward.

Thanks everyone for helping us figure this out. All is great now :-)

PS: This is the third time the guys over at RV Sales of Oregon have taken a call from me over the phone and helped me out for free. Amazing service. Rich was an owner over at BCS at one point. They have huge Beaver experience (check out their YouTube videos...you can see their passion and knowledge). Not many businesses do family and customer BBQ Fridays and do the work not just for the money).

[Joel Ashley]

Same goes for adapters often used to get our coaches from 50amp down to 15/20amp for storage.  One commonly-found little black triangular one I had regularly used for years finally decided it couldn't handle things and melted down, throwing things in the coach into chaos;  our Kingdome for example kept dancing back and forth on the roof, and it hadn't even been turned on - the rig was parked on its home pad, plugged in only for battery maintenance.  I scratched my head for quite awhile over that weirdness, fruitlessly fiddling with the Kingdome control pad trying to get it to stop the circus, until a walkaround outside turned up the melted adapter.  I replaced it with a quality ($$) one;  ditto for any other connectors I carry.  You get what you pay for.

Joel

[Brent Hohlweg]

Could not agree more Joel. Well said. Hope this little adventure of mine helps others. Thanks again everyone. Cheers Brent

[Gary Wolfer]

Brent I may have the answer for you. I have a new to me 1998 Patriot Monticello. I have a dark brown slider switch with a on off switch on the end. I have other dimmers in the kitchen on the dining room side and also next to the bed for sconce lights. I purchased regular switches without dimmers and when I decided to change them out I could only two wires connecting the switch without a separate dimmer wire. I was having the same problem when I slid the dimmer in the bathroom vanity it flickered. The slider seemed loose. I looked at the switch close and on one end there was a small screw slot. I first turned it clockwise and the slider got loser. Then I turned the screw slot counter clockwise all the way and the dimmer would not move. I left it that way because I do not like dimmers but there is a happy medium you can tighten it up however you like it and your dimmer should work again. Hope that helps.