1993 Kit companion. I took out the stock 1993 tape deck, and purchased a used Alpine CD player. The stock radio worked fine, and when I went to install the new deck, it kept blowing the small 10amp fuse in the back of the deck. I thought it was a wiring issue, so I double checked everything, replaced the fuse, and the second I hooked up the ground, it blew the fuse. After trying everything I could think of, and 6 fuses later, figured the deck was bad. I unhooked everything, and just to triple check, put in a new fuse, and hooked it up to an old Radio Shack 120-12v converter. The deck powered right up. I am at a loss here. Does anyone have any ideas for me?
Ground/Electrical issue with onboard CD player.
- Thread starter JMcG
- Start date
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John From Detroit
Well-known member
Deck has positive ground.. Afraid no easy fix.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
Is that a guess, John, or do you know that Alpine used a positive ground? I can't imagine why any unit designed for a vehicle would have a positive ground - vehicles ceased using positive grounds about 70 years ago. But if the player was extracted from some other Alpine equipment, not a vehicle system, all bets are off.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
It's possible the fuse that blows is part of a reverse polarity protection and the hot & ground in the RV wiring is reversed. [Maybe that's what John was trying to say?] A reverse polarity protection circuit often involves a diode and fuse that shorts to ground to cause an open circuit (blows the fuse). That prevents more extensive damage if the circuit board is polarity sensitive (as many digital circuits are).
Try testing the RV's hot wire with a VOM, using an actual battery negative terminal or chassis ground for that side. Make sure the hot wire is truly +12v. If the RV's wire harness has negative where the + side should be, and the + on the ground side, the Alpine will very probably blow a fuse.
Try testing the RV's hot wire with a VOM, using an actual battery negative terminal or chassis ground for that side. Make sure the hot wire is truly +12v. If the RV's wire harness has negative where the + side should be, and the + on the ground side, the Alpine will very probably blow a fuse.
Something else I failed to mention. One of the things I tried as I was burning through fuses, was leaving the hot plugged in, and then running the ground down to a 120v wall outlet (shore power is not hooked up). This also burned out the fuse. My way of thinking is that the 120v ground is completely separate from the 12v ground. I am at loss. Thank you to everyone who replied. I will continue my quest, and I hate electrical. Give me plumbing any day of the week.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
Not really independent, especially with no shore power plugged in. The RV chassis is connected to the ground lug in the 120v load center, so the two systems have that in common. Did you connect to the 120v neutral (white wire) or ground (green/bare wire)? If you have a genset or inverter onboard, those will also have a chassis ground.
Since the Alpine works on an independent power supply, it's pretty clear there is a wiring issue in the RV. Just gotta figure out what it is. Get some DC and AC voltage readings on the RV hot wire. Take readings across that hot and ground wire, and also between that hot and an authentic chassis ground or the negative battery terminal. Let us know what you find. Repeatedly blowing fuses isn't telling you/us anything new.
Triple Slide Jayco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2017
- Posts
- 357
Simple terms. The red on the back of the radio (which should have a fuse on the line as well) once touched to a 12v vehicle battery post (+) and the black wire on rear of radio touched to the same 12v vehicle battery (-) should power the radio up. Put in a CD or plug in the antenna wire and it should function. Hook up the speaker wires to the radio and you should get sound. You can do all of this outside the vehicle to eliminate in vehicle wiring, so some of the issues can be sorted out.
OR
I would either take the vehicle and radio to a stereo shop in town or wherever and have them quickly guide you if they can OR ask one of the install kids if he wants to make a few bucks in the evening and come by your house and install it for you.
OR
I would either take the vehicle and radio to a stereo shop in town or wherever and have them quickly guide you if they can OR ask one of the install kids if he wants to make a few bucks in the evening and come by your house and install it for you.
After much testing, I believe the hot wire to radio is grounding out somewhere. The wire runs up in to the ceiling, so there is no way to follow it back. Next step is to run a 12v hot wire independent of that circuit in the trailer to the 12v TB outlet and see if that works. Again, thank you to all who have replied. Will update with the results.
