No power to lights switches

So we were camping and plugged into shore power and our main lights started flickering. Then they just stopped altogether. I started investigating and found that not only did the the main led lights stop working but so did the outside welcome light and the awning lights. I found that the 3 switches at the door appear to be daisy chained. I’ve checked fuses, seem good. I’ve remove the panel cover and saw no loose wires. Where do I look or how do I trace down this issue without tearing up my camper?


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Do you have other lights in the RV that are working perfectly ?

Check the battery level monitor (on the tank level monitor panel). When on shore power it should show 4 lights. If not, your Power Converter is not working correctly. When that happens, your lights will work until the battery is depleted.

If it does show 4 lights, then re-check the fuses using an ohm meter. If good, with switches turned ON, take a voltage reading on each side of each of the switches. The ground lead of the meter needs to be on a known good ground.

All other lights in rv are working properly. Just the three circuits that are at the door on three switches. All thre are getting 12+ volts and the wire to the first led in the series is getting proper voltage. I’m not an electrician but does this indicate a short in the neutral? If so, can it test for that? How do I find it?


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It does sound like the ground path may be open. You might test this theory by running a temporary wire between the ground side of the light fixture and the ground buss at the fuse box. If the light works normally, there's a ground problem. Just make sure you don't ground the power side of the fixture. That'll blow the fuse.

I grounded it and all three came on. Inside lights (4 in a row) outside welcome light and awning light! So where/how do I look for bad ground? Keep in mind these lights flickered first 15-20 minutes so could be short in wire but where does the ground wire for this circuit start? Is there a nut there?


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If the switch is just in the wall there will be white ground wires there in the wall. Check and make sure the wire nut is tight and all the wires are in there.

Next place is the ground bar near the fuse box or behind the main control panel.
Tighten all of the jamb screws

Jerrod

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I know on the backside of the control panel there a ton of connections that are wire nutted together. I know that bundle of wires gets the crap bounced out of it during transport, as it is mostly un-supported. I would would bet you find the issue there.

Michaellallen said:

I grounded it and all three came on. Inside lights (4 in a row) outside welcome light and awning light! So where/how do I look for bad ground? Keep in mind these lights flickered first 15-20 minutes so could be short in wire but where does the ground wire for this circuit start? Is there a nut there?


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Each light fixture has a hot and a ground. Since all 3 are a problem, it's likely that the ground wires are tied together on the way back to the fuse box, which is where the grounds attach for the stuff powered from the fuse box.

As suggested, check for loose wires at the fuse box ground buss and also check wire nuts near the switches.