No power to a number of items

[Rogueakula]

I need to preface this by saying I have zero experience with motorhomes. I am trying to deliver a donated RV from Charlotte, NC to the mountains and give it to a family whose house was destroyed by Hurricane Helene. It is, from what I can tell, a 2003 Workorse W22. I also see the sale receipt referring to a Georgie Boy.

The items I am most concerned with are the power mirrors and the back up camera. Neither are working. I found the inline fuse to the backup monitor and test that and it seems good. I cannot find a decent picture of the fuse box under the dash by the parking break, but I tested them all and they look good too.

Can anyone help me out with where else I can look for issues? I am trying to get the RV delivered tomorrow afternoon and get a family out of the cold. I am attaching a pic of my fuse box for reference. Thank you so much!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Workhorse W22 is the brand/type of chassis and Georgie Boy would be the motorhome body builder that built the complete unit starting from the Workhorse chassis. Power mirrors and back-up camera would be part of what Georgie Boy Mfg designed & built.There are likely to be multiple fuse panels, some for the chassis alone (engine & transmission electronics, etc) and others for the body functions like interior lighting and what not.

Sorry, I don't know much about that brand but hopefully a GB owner will see your post and can help out.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

I don't have a georgie boy but I do have a workhorse, and I know the mirrors and backup monitor are supplied by "body" fuses and not "chassis". The fuse block in your photo is for chassis stuff. I can see another one just off to the right in the photo, that's probably a "body" fuse block. Maybe not the one you're looking for but just offering the kind of fuse block you're looking for. Another hint would be to follow the cable coming out of the wall from the driver mirror and see where it goes. It likely is supplied right there under the instrument panel. My backup monitor is supplied from a "general" switched ignition source, not a dedecated one. That one might be tricker to hunt down without a schematic.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[ferfer]

2004 Georgie Boy owner built 2003 Ford chassis. Agree power to back up camera would be provided Workhorse and likely located in engine compartment. I do not have power windows so could be after market?

If you look behind the driver side curtain (window wall) you should see a sheet with information about GMB model and specifications.

 

[John From Detroit]

I never did find the fuse for the mirrors finally designed my own power feed for it... I used a licence plate light socket (blade type) with a dash indicator lamp (Blade type) to feed the control switch direct from an accessory feed.. had there ever been a problem.. the light would light thus indicating same. it never lit

You have up to 3 fuse boxes that affect chassis systems.. the one near the parking brake pedal you tested the battery control center (If you have the Intelletec one) Under the hood on the driver's side and a plain black box about the size of the BCC under the hood top center. That's in addition to the "house" fuse block which is of course for house stuff you likely know where it's at.

 

[Rogueakula]

Thank you everyone for your reply. I have not been able to diagnose what is happening to my electrical. I tested all the fuses in all three locations and none of them are bad. The wiring itself looks like a rats nest so it is hard to trace anything back. I feel like I have to be missing something. The items that are not working are the radio, the back up mirror, and the retractable steps. When I asked the person who donated the RV, he said that the battery for the steps are bad. Does that come off the house battery? I have three batteries in my engine bay. Two that are the bigger deep cycle batteries which I assume are the chassis batteries and one small battery which would then be the house battery. Is that about right?

Sorry for the switch in questions. I am trying to learn all this so I can deliver this RV in working order. Thank you for all your help!

 

[Rogueakula]

Also is there a way to manually retract the steps? I have tried just pushing them but there is a lot of resistance and I dont want to strip gears.

 

[ferfer]

I have three batteries in my engine bay. Two that are the bigger deep cycle batteries which I assume are the chassis batteries and one small battery which would then be the house battery. Is that about right?

No. The chassis is the frame, engine, transmission etc. The house is the living area built over the chassis.

The two deep cycle batteries are the GBM house batteries and rated by ah (amp hours). They provide power for the 12V house system. However when plugged into 120V/generator power the converter/charger converts 120V to 12V and also charge the house batteries. The single Workhorse chassis battery is the starter battery( short duration high cranking amps), same as a car starter battery.

the person who donated the RV, he said that the battery for the steps are bad. Does that come off the house battery?

The prior owner is correct - the steps power is provided by the 12V system (battery or converted 120V). Unknown is house batteries condition, if the generator works nor if 30A or 50A coach, If non of the above work I suggest using a Electrical Dogbone Adapter down from 50 or 30Amp to 15amp and plug into house socket to check systems. Be aware 15 amp is power limited so check one system at a time.

OR
A temporary fix:

the radio, the back up mirror

As stated in above post the radio and back up camera are powered by the Workhorse chassis electronics but ????
Jennifer

 

[Rogueakula]

No. The chassis is the frame, engine, transmission etc. The house is the living area built over the chassis.

The two deep cycle batteries are the GBM house batteries and rated by ah (amp hours). They provide power for the 12V house system. However when plugged into 120V/generator power the converter/charger converts 120V to 12V and also charge the house batteries. The single Workhorse chassis battery is the starter battery( short duration high cranking amps), same as a car starter battery.


The prior owner is correct - the steps power is provided by the 12V system (battery or converted 120V). Unknown is house batteries condition, if the generator works nor if 30A or 50A coach, If non of the above work I suggest using a Electrical Dogbone Adapter down from 50 or 30Amp to 15amp and plug into house socket to check systems. Be aware 15 amp is power limited so check one system at a time.

OR
A temporary fix:

As stated in above post the radio and back up camera are powered by the Workhorse chassis electronics but ????
Jennifer

Jennifer, thank you so much for the reply and the video! I actually found one of those electrical dogbone adapters in the electrical bay. I turned off all of the breakers and then one by one turned them on and took a look in the cabin. When I turned on the lighting breaker, the radio turned on and off along with a very annoying alarm. It also sounded like a relay was cycling inside the engine compartment. Any idea what might be happening here? Below is a link to my Google Drive. I put a couple of videos for reference. Please excuse the saw noise in one of the videos.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MkG-ymCVl1CY2WAFUjW59hputmrweClB?usp=sharing

I think that those two GBM house batteries are dead if not completely shot. I put a voltmeter across the two of them and I was getting 4.6 volts. Not a good sign. I will replace those and see what happens.

Thank you so much for your help!

-Josh

 

[John From Detroit]

Also is there a way to manually retract the steps? I have tried just pushing them but there is a lot of resistance and I dont want to strip gears.

In theory yes.. But I'm not sure how easy.
Under the steps (DO THIS CAREFULLY) you will see the linkage. you can pull a pin and they swing freely.

Have support under them so they do not hurt you when you pull the pin.
Then strap them up wiith some king of strap and use portable steps to get in and out.

I DO NOT recomend this.

Steps may be on House battery or Chassis. Depends on the builder or in some cases the person who hooked 'em up.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Were you plugged in to shore power during this breaker testing? You have a voltmeter - you should see north of 13v on the house batteries and at the fuse panel. That'd be what I'd look at first.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[ferfer]

I turned off all of the breakers and then one by one turned them on and took a look in the cabin. When I turned on the lighting breaker, the radio turned on and off along with a very annoying alarm.

I do not know what the 120V lighting breaker powers so more info needed. This breaker might be assoc. with converter since the radio is 12V. Our coach has a Sony radio and will not come on without both the chassis starting battery and 12V power. The Workhorse custom chassis diagram location G9 shows radio/battery fuse #19 10 amp and the Firewall Electric diagram shows engine compartment Relay #9 for Dash Radio and Jack Control and perhaps the cycling relay?

Agree the 12V batteries likely dead. House batteries are based on amp hours (ah) and the number of ah is dependent of power source. If the coach is going to be primarily connected to 30 or 50 amp shore power (not dependent on batteries and generator recharging) then lower ah batterys will work. Two 6V Golf cart batteries are true deep cycle and must be wired in series (positive to negative).

You have a voltmeter - you should see north of 13v on the house batteries and at the fuse panel.

Josh, Mark is very good at trouble shooting. Now that you have 120V power you can check systems. Mark is suggesting you see if the batteries are seeing a charging voltage of approx. 13.6V. If so that means the converter/charger is working and the batteries may accept a charge but state of charge TBD.

If the converter is working you will have 12V systems. Turn on ceiling lights.

FYI There is a Battery Disconnect Switch which disconnects the batteries to house for storage. Often accidently flipped. Look around entry way for a toggle switch labeled Store/Off or similar. If 120V power likely Store bypassed.

Please give us a status report.

Jennifer

 

[John From Detroit]

Jennifer, thank you so much for the reply and the video! I actually found one of those electrical dogbone adapters in the electrical bay. I turned off all of the breakers and then one by one turned them on and took a look in the cabin. When I turned on the lighting breaker, the radio turned on and off along with a very annoying alarm. It also sounded like a relay was cycling inside the engine compartment. Any idea what might be happening here? Below is a link to my Google Drive. I put a couple of videos for reference. Please excuse the saw noise in one of the videos.

Lighting.. Most RV's the lights are 12 volts so yes it turned on the CONVERTER which then either powered the radio with batteries disconnected or powered the radio with the house batteries dead... Starting the RV should also do that But might not if disconnected.

THe alarm.. there are several alarms.

 

[Kirk]

We owned a 1998 Cruise Master by Georgie Boy for 14 years and I did nearly all of the maintenance on it. The entry step was powered by the chassis battery so that it would work, even if the coach batteries' isolation switch was open. If you measured only 4.6V across two batteries, they are dead and if the RV was plugged into 120V power at the time it means that the converter probably isn't working either. The radio that is in the dash on ours was powered from the engine/chassis 12V system and was not effected by 120V power at all. Remember that the RV has 2 separate 12V systems that are only connected at all if the chassis engine is running. When the engine is running it should also supply 12V to the RV but if the RV batteries are bad enough, they could drag things down.
The backup camera and monitor on our GB was powered by the chassis electrical system as were the power mirrors. Neither worked with the ignition key off. The backup camera turned on automatically when the transmission was put into reverse and there was a switch on the monitor that could turn it on manually but only if the ignition key was on.