No power to furnace or lights

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bchmilar

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Aug 23, 2015
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5
Hi everyone.  I have a 2008 Fleetwood Bayside pop-up.  First few times using it, on both battery and plugged in, no problems.  Then, last trip, I was running my furnace as normal, producing good heat, and a loud bang occurred in the morning after running most of the night (cold up here in Canada)...not sure from where.  I think this happened because I ran out of propane in my first tank.  Packed up the unit and towed home without thinking much of it believing it was just related to the low propane.

Now, I have no power to my furnace or the lights in the unit.  I changed to my full propane tank, all the breakers are "on" and all 4 fuses appear to be fine.  When the unit is plugged in, I have power on my outlets and the fridge runs good on either battery or plugged in.  But either with the unit plugged in or on battery, my furnace fails to kick in at all (no fan either), and the lights have no power to them.

Any suggestions?!?!  Thanks in advance. 

edit: I read somewhere that I need to reset the furnace because I tried to run it with no propane?
 
Fan should run if the furnace is getting 12v power, even if it doesn't light. What model furnace is it?  Is it a pilot light type, or automatic spark ignition (DSI). Atwood or Suburban?

With no lights either, you must have a blown fuse. Did you actually test the fuses, or just eyeball them?
 
No lights along with furnace sounds like lack of 12 volt dc. May have had a bad connection in dc wiring causing loud bang when it decided to let go or maybe converter blew.
 
Ty for the quick responses.  I just eyeballed the fuses (interchanging the 2 15 amps fuses didn't work or result in the electrical behaving differently).  I believe it is an Atwood furnace, not sure the type of pilot.  But I agree, the lack of lights and the furnace working leads me to believe it has to be in the panel...I will buy some new fuses and test. 

Bad timing...it was the first trip with just the kids and the wife and we all froze our butts off (+2 Celsius at night).

Not sure what it means if the converter blew?  I think the fuses is the place to start. 
 
Presumably the pop-up has a small converter/charger to charge the battery and provide 12v when it is plugged to shore power. Since your fridge works, you probably still have at least some 12v power in the camper, so the most likely candidate is the branch circuit(s) that powers the lights and the furnace. If not fuses, then a loose or broken wire.

Does the fridge have a 12v operation mode? If that works, you know the battery & converter are strong. If its just LP or 120v, then the 12v consumption is tiny and may not prove much.

Do you have to manually start the furnace the first time, e.g. set a knob to a start position and trigger ignition in some way, or do you just turn it on and it starts itself up? If the later, it does not have a pilot light system. In a 2008, it probably has no pilot, but I ask it's an important difference in the general way it operates.
 
Unfortunately, he didn't say fridge worked. I'm still thinking he has a converter problem, but I'm asking this out of ignorance, but does 12 volts from the battery have to pass through the converter to be sent to the fuse panel?
 
bchmilar said:
When the unit is plugged in, I have power on my outlets and the fridge runs good on either battery or plugged in.
Click to expand...

OP does mention that fridge works on 12vdc and 120vac.
My furnace does have a resetable breaker at the unit itself. If the converter is on the blink, it's possible OP also has a breaker/fuse at the furnace that has tripped/blown. A 2008 model is more than likely a DSI. When I had my 1994 pop-up, DSI.

Just speculating, but I think I know about the "loud bang" heard. My converter would make quite a bang when plugging the pop-up into shore power. I think the converter has developed a problem which may have blown a fuse or two.
 
denmarc said:
OP does mention that fridge works on 12vdc and 120vac.
Click to expand...
My bad, guess I will have to things twice, well, maybe three times to try to get it right.
 
My furnace "lights" automatically - I do not have to turn any knobs.  There is a switch at the furnace that says reset or off.  I did reset that switch several times with no luck.  It remains in the reset position.

My fridge works when the trailer has power to it and is plugged in - I have never tried to run it off propane but have no reason to believe it would not work. Come to think of it...I am not sure if it has the ability to run off my battery but I assume it would run off the battery when the trailer is not plugged in.

The interior lights and the furnace do not work at all (no power to them) when I run the trailer off of the battery (fully charged) or when the trailer is plugged in to power - before they would do either.  All my outlets in the trailer do work when the trailer is plugged in.

I will get some fuses tonight and test those.  My panel has 4 breakers (15A-15A-20A-30A) and none of those appear to be tripped (I reset all of them).  I think the loud bang came from the furnace area when the propane tank ran out of propane...

Thanks again...I am in a bit over my head here!
 
but I assume it would run off the battery when the trailer is not plugged in.
Click to expand...

Probably not. Even a small fridge sucks a lot of power if running exclusively off 12v. Most use LP gas mode when no shore power is available. Even that requires some minimal 12v. If you could give the make & model of fridge, we could be more specific.

Your  circuit breakers are not likely involved - they are for 120v power. Your issues are 12v, and in most RVs that means fuse protection.

The reset on the furnace won't work if it has no power, so that is one more indication that you have lost all 12v power on that circuit.

Do you know where the converter/charger is? Sometimes hidden under a booth or drawer.  Can you hear it run - there is usually a noticeable hum when things are otherwise quiet.
 
Loss of 12vdc.
Thinking converter issue or bad house battery. House battery may show fully charged, but has no reserve capacity (old or shorted cell?).
 
denmarc said:
OP does mention that fridge works on 12vdc and 120vac.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the OP understands the operation of the fridge when he says it runs off 12 volt. I think he may be actually saying that it runs off propane which requires 12 volt.
 
I am understanding more and more about these things with every post!  Thank you.

My fridge has nothing to do with my problem.  My fridge runs great when the unit is plugged into 120v power.  Have not tried propane operation but have no reason to believe it would not work.

I think I am now understanding that the furnace and the interior lights operate on 12v power...and plugging the unit into 120v power would not help.  Is that correct?  Last trip...when I tried turning on my interior lights and they did not work (battery operation), I thought they would work for sure once I plugged the unit into 120v power, but they didn't.

I purchased new fuses today and will install them tonight.  Hopefully that is the issue.  The panel makes no humming noises at all right now....in the past, when the interior lights were on and the unit plugged into 120v power, there was a humming noise coming from the panel that disappeared when I turned out the interior lights.
 
Your trailer probably has some means of making 12v power from the 120v shore power, i.e. a 12v converter & charger. It's purpose is to supply 12v power when plugged in, and to recharge the battery as well. So yes, plugging in should make a difference. In particular, even if the battery is dead the converter should be supplying 12v power.

We ask about the fridge only because we are trying to ascertain whether you have any 12v power at all in the trailer. Nearly all RV absorption fridges use at least some 12v power for their control board, so a working fridge might indicate that some 12v is available. So, we asked you to provide information to allow us to determine if that is the case.  You have avoided providing any such details, which make it difficult to be of any help.

The furnace works on 12v plus LP gas. The lighting is strictly 12v. The 12v can come from either battery or the converter, but neither seems to be doing the job. So we suspect a broken wire or blown fuse.

You could also help by identifying the make & model of the 12v converter/charger (should be on its front panel), the make & model of the furnace, and the present battery voltage. Without any real info, we are just groping in the dark.
 
Okay...thank you so much for your time.  I do appreciate your help and I am not trying to avoid the questions...just the answers are all a bit foreign to me.  I will open up the trailer tomorrow night and test the fuses and report back the details (didn't get a chance to do it tonight).

thanks again - brent
 
Understand the "foreign", but the details are crucial in isolating the cause of the problem.  It's a methodical process that requires proving what parts work and what do not. Otherwise it's just guesswork and throwing money (parts) at it until the problem goes away.
At this point we are still at the starting gate, trying to determine whether the entire 12v system is out, or just two major pieces of it (furnace & lights).
 
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