1994 Winnebago Brave- 15 Amp fuse keeps blowing

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gopher52

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Joined
May 22, 2020
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Good afternoon,

We are two weeks into owning a motorhome and the learning curve seems significant- at least to one who is not (yet) very handy.  We took our motorhome out camping for the first-time this past weekend.  Everything went great- however when we woke up the first morning we had a blown 15 amp fuse.  It is the fuse that connects to our control panel that turns on water pump, hot-water heater, and shows levels for holding tanks and propane.  When trying to replace it- it sparks when putting new fuse in and instantly blows the new fuse.  What do I do next?  Would prefer to learn how to trouble-shoot this on my own but if it is beyond me certainly willing to contact an electrician.  Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Divide and conquer, will require some more 15 amp fuses (verify that is what is called for) mark and disconnect each thing on the circuit(so you know how to plug them back in) and replace the fuse. (Start with the control board..) With any luck it will not blow. then systematically plug back in things one at a time and monitor the fuse. when something gets plugged back in that blows the fuse leave it disconnected and continue plugging in everything else. If in fact everything stays on, you have isolated the problem. If with everything disconnected the fuse continues to blow it becomes a deeper problem of either something else on the circuit or a chaved wire or,or,or. Two common and relatively inexpensive tools are a volt ohm meter and a test light. plenty of youtube out there to get the basics for troubleshooting. shorts and grounds blow fuses as the general rule, a 20 plus year old rv... anything is possible. the fact that it as you say worked for a while and then failed.. yep welcome to rv ownership..
 
I would start with the water pump. It is the highest current device. Could also be a direct short some place. The pump may be stuck and drawing more current.
 
Appreciate the feedback thus far.  We disconnected everything, put a new fuse in and it blew.  Acting like a dead short.  We followed the wire to as many places as we could follow it looking for a place where it might be rubbing and thus causing the short.  Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything.  Following the electric diagrams shows that this wire goes all over the places and splits in a couple places so we were unable to isolate the problem thus far.  Any other ideas before bringing it in to an RV service provider to let them figure it out?  Thanks again! 
 
If you can trace various legs of that circuit, start disconnecting (even cutting the wire) each leg and check for a short. If you don't have a multimeter, buy one - better to check for a short with an ohmmeter than to blow fuses. One repair strategy is to bypass bad wiring if practical. I.E., if there's a shorted leg from point A to point B, run a new wire from point A to point B.
 
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