SOLVED: Lights and Awning Not Working

We've been living in our Oakmont OM390MB full time since we bought it about a month ago. EVERYTHING worked fine when we bought it (both in the walkthrough and onsite). A couple of days ago we tried to turn on the lights over the dining table and chairs (on the slide). The two over the loveseat flickered then went out, the light over the dining room table wouldn't come on at all. Same behavior this morning - couch lights came on dimly, then went out, other light not at all. We also tried to put the awning out this morning and it wouldn't move at all, as if it was getting no power.

What should I be checking?

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

Hello Dweeks. I moved your tread to the 12 volt section where you will most likely get some good advice.
There are a couple of things you can check.
There should be a metal electrical box located outside under the slide. You can look for loose connections there as it sounds like your problem is a loose wire somewhere.
You could also check for a loos wire or fuse on your 12 volt fuse panel.
You can also take a look at the neutral buss bar and make sure that all of the screws holding the wires are tight. The neutral buss bar should be located near your battery. It is a metal bar with a pile of white wires screwed into it.
Is that awning on a slide?
Do all the other 12 volt items work properly?

Peace
Dave

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

Is it just that slide ? I would start by making sure you have 12V or more at the batteries before you start anything else.

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

jesstalkn said:

Is it just that slide ? I would start by making sure you have 12V or more at the batteries before you start anything else.

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We are parked and plugged in, facing the West. There are two different lights on the north slide. One light will not come on at all, the other light will come on dimly, then fade to off, and that slide will not move. I haven't had a chance to try to the other ideas on the loose wire yet...

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

dweeks said:

We are parked and plugged in, facing the West. There are two different lights on the north slide. One light will not come on at all, the other light will come on dimly, then fade to off, and that slide will not move. I haven't had a chance to try to the other ideas on the loose wire yet...

Click to expand...

Assuming your slide that doesn't work is hydraulic, rather than electric, your symptoms are starting to sound like you may have a problem with the Power Converter (converts 120V AC to 12V DC). When plugged into shore power, it should be providing 12V DC to all of your interior 12V devices, as well as exterior 12V lights and the awning. If it fails, the battery may keep things running for a while, but as the battery runs down, eventually everything will stop working.

Along with your other controls, there should be a test panel that shows the level of water in your holding tanks, as well as an approximation of your battery charge. When plugged into shore power, the battery indicator is actually reading the combined output of the Power Converter and battery. It should be showing a full charge when plugged into shore power.

If not, you should check the main circuit breaker panel. There's a dedicated circuit breaker for the Power Converter. Flip it off and back on and then recheck the test panel.

If still not working, you'll need to locate the Power Converter and make sure it's plugged into it's outlet. On many rigs, it's located behind the rear wall of the pass through basement storage. If it's not plugged in, plug it in and tie the plug so it can't vibrate out of the socket.

If it's plugged in, you may have blown fuses on the Power Converter. This usually happens if the battery cables are removed and momentarily put back on in the wrong polarity. Or perhaps the hot was allowed to short to ground.

If you have, or can purchase an inexpensive volt/ohm meter from a local hardware store, our 12V Block Diagram and Diagnostic Guide may help you troubleshoot.

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

Thanks to all who replied. Problem is solved. For those that care:

I found the power converter, and both the positive and negative wires were loose. I tightened them both, but this resolved nothing. I found the electrical junction box under the troubled slide, and all of those connections were good. I found the fuse that feeds that circuit - it tested good, but I was confused. After testing the fuse and putting it back in, the lights worked well for 15 seconds then went super dim again, then out. I took that fuse out again and check it both with the tester and visually. It tested fine, and looked fine... but still... I got a new 15 amp fuse and put it in. the lights worked fine, the awning works fine, all is good. So it appears to be a defective-but-not-blown fuse.

Thanks for the help all!

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

Nice glad you found the problem, and sounds like you fixed a few other along the way.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Re: Lights and Awning Not Working

I had a similar issue with our 2016 Road Warrior. I went through all of the fuses removed each and did visual check then reinserted. Never found a bad fuse but did notice that when I pulled some of the fuses I got a red led next to it and others I didn't. After I went through all of the fuses the lights worked. I wonder if maybe the fuse was not plugged into the panel completely/correctly. Haven't had any more issues. The night before we noticed the trouble we had a thunderstorm. I keep our trailer plugged in to ac all the time at home don't know if maybe it had something to do with the trouble.