Coleman/Fleetwood Electrical issues...

Hello everyone, 8)

New guy here, been lurking for a while. I joined the site in need of help and thought it was cool to see how helpful and knowledgeable everyone was. A little about myself if i may. I have a 2002 Coleman Fleetwood camper, Pop-up, got it about a year ago...Love it!....most of the time... . I am also into vintage Volkswagens and have been for nearly 20 years... I have a lifted Toyota Tacoma Pre-Runner that i tow the pop-up with. Tows very well. My wife and child and I love cruising up and down the Florida coast camping and riding bikes... Lots of time spent in the Keys and at Disney... Anyhow, enough about me... on to the camper.

When we bought it, the guy that sold it to us was really nice, and very knowledgeable about the camper, however, it came with problems that maybe he didn't mention or know about...

When i popup and set EVERYTHING up, all is well. I plug into sites with "shore" power, problem is, the lights and little gas/smoke alarm randomly come off and on... like it has a mind of its own. All the while, the fridge works, AC works and outlets work.
I have not charged the battery since we bought it.
Sometimes the lights work for several hours and then they shut off, and sometimes just a and hour after i plug in. ALWAYS with a little beep from the alarm, possibly low voltage?
I already changed the breaker out and checked the connections in the "control center".

Any help would be GREAT, I can give any detailed info needed, i consider myself a very handy guy, but i am at wits end, trying to enjoy a pop-up and random beeping in the middle of the night wakes up baby :-\... Thanks so much Folks!

Anthony

Sounds like you may have a battery with a dead short and the converter is trying desperately to charge it. Try disconnecting the battery hot lead (White wire). If you still have a problem, it may be a bad converter but it could also be a bad ground or a corroded fuse holder. Keep in mind, that converter is not intended for battery charging. It's really only meant to maintain a fully charged battery. It's best to fully charge the battery with a 3-stage "Smart charger" before every camp-out and at least once a month in between.

There have also been reports of a bad positive wire between the battery and the converter on that year/model. Take it one step at a time.

Generally, it's a good idea to figure on buying a new battery, 3-new tires and packing the wheel bearings when buying a used pop-up.

That's a great camper by the way.... I had that same year Coleman Tacoma and loved it. A close friend of mine now owns it and it's still like new.

Thanks Wavery! We love the camper and after reading the comments on here as well as what you posted, i will look into this and get into it today, i'll get back with an update and if i need more advice...lol. It makes perfect sense too, all the lights and the charger and all that, i will get a battery and charger today.... Where can i look up the "bad positive wire thing", or can o just literally trace it out myself and replace it, looking to get many years out of this thing!.... Thanks again for your help.

Ant

eastcoast63 said:

Thanks Wavery! We love the camper and after reading the comments on here as well as what you posted, i will look into this and get into it today, i'll get back with an update and if i need more advice...lol. It makes perfect sense too, all the lights and the charger and all that, i will get a battery and charger today.... Where can i look up the "bad positive wire thing", or can o just literally trace it out myself and replace it, looking to get many years out of this thing!.... Thanks again for your help.

Ant

Click to expand...

I'd take it one step at a time. The positive wire issue was not that common but it was brought up several times over the years on a pop-up forum that I frequent.

You may well find that installing a new "Deep cycle" battery will resolve the issue. Although if you just disconnect the old battery, the converter should provide enough power to run your lights, water pump and furnace fan without a problem. If you still have issues (with the battery disconnected), the next step is to remove the ground wire connector from the frame (just under and behind the tongue), clean it, clean the frame with some emery cloth and reinstall.

Be sure to check the inline fuse holder on the positive cable. I would recommend just cutting it out and replacing it with an ATC fuse holder. Those old glass fuse holders corrode badly.
http://www.amazon.com/In-line-ACT-Water-resistant-Fuse-Holder/dp/B0002KR88A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361897019&sr=8-1&keywords=ATC+fuse+holder
Be sure to solder it inline and use heat-shrink tubing.

The other nice thing about the ATC fuse is that it is easy to remove it when the camper is in storage. That disconnects the battery from parasitic loads.

One step at a time, got it. Thanks again, I took into consideration all the advice you gave, very helpful!
I have so far...
Purchased a new "deep cycle" battery, turns out the P.O. put in a "starting battery"...not to mention it was from '08.
I got underneath and cleaned ALL the ground wires with a wire brush and also cleaned and wire wheeled the ground contact (and screw terminals), looks like a shiny penny now! Additionally, i cut off any corroded leads and installed new ones with fresh cut wire as to have hopefully eliminated any corrosion issues.. I am charging the new battery now, as that it what the battery guy said to do...
The camper also did exactly what you said, the converter had enough juice to run the lights, even with the battery disconnected.
Does that sound correct? My guess, is what was happening, with my VERY limited experience and going off what you mentioned, because the old battery was dead, the converter would only power for so long, then once i turned on more lights or what have you, it would quit or give up, so if the battery is now the correct one and the charge is good, and all the connections are cleaned or new, then i should be okay?  ;D

Oh, forgot to mention, the fuses are NOT corroded and they are the newer style clear colored ones i.e. (yellows, blues) and they have the "S" link inside them...Hope i explained that to where it makes sense...

Oh, forgot to mention, the fuses are NOT corroded and they are the newer style clear colored ones i.e. (yellows, blues) and they have the "S" link inside them...Hope i explained that to where it makes sense...

Click to expand...

Those are called blade fuses.  The color coding is for amperage rating.  The old style tubular glass fuses were a type of cartridge fuse.

eastcoast63 said:

One step at a time, got it. Thanks again, I took into consideration all the advice you gave, very helpful!
I have so far...
Purchased a new "deep cycle" battery, turns out the P.O. put in a "starting battery"...not to mention it was from '08.
I got underneath and cleaned ALL the ground wires with a wire brush and also cleaned and wire wheeled the ground contact (and screw terminals), looks like a shiny penny now! Additionally, i cut off any corroded leads and installed new ones with fresh cut wire as to have hopefully eliminated any corrosion issues.. I am charging the new battery now, as that it what the battery guy said to do...
The camper also did exactly what you said, the converter had enough juice to run the lights, even with the battery disconnected.
Does that sound correct? My guess, is what was happening, with my VERY limited experience and going off what you mentioned, because the old battery was dead, the converter would only power for so long, then once i turned on more lights or what have you, it would quit or give up, so if the battery is now the correct one and the charge is good, and all the connections are cleaned or new, then i should be okay?  ;D

Oh, forgot to mention, the fuses are NOT corroded and they are the newer style clear colored ones i.e. (yellows, blues) and they have the "S" link inside them...Hope i explained that to where it makes sense...

Click to expand...

The fuse that I was talking about is on the positive wire, right where it attaches to the battery. On the later 2002 models, they used a time delay circuit breaker like the one pictured below. If that's what you have, you may want to consider changing to the ATC fuse that I mentioned above. There is nothing wrong with the circuit breakers (if that's what you have). The ATC fuse is just handy so that you have a way to disconnect the battery while in storage.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417MKo8xEVL._AA160_.jpg

Gotcha, yeah i like that idea, i may actually do that, its a damn shame because i replaced it with new today!...lol. Now i understand the time delay also, wow, i'm learning a lot.

Thanks for clarifying Ned, also helpful...