2012 Big Horn M-3585 RL, 12 volt to kitchen slide is dead.

[renewal101]

No 12 volts to wall switch just to left of entertainment center (TV) in the kitchen/entertainment slide. Fuse is OK and power from fuse panel measures OK. When I use a long jumper to feed power to wall switch the switch and lights work. There appears to be a open circuit from the fuse panel to the wall switch.

Question.....is there a junction box or intermediate connection between the two? Anyone have a wiring schematic or know where I might get one? Has anyone had experience of slide operation opening up this circuit? The wire is orange with white stripe. The switch provides 12 volts to the slide overhead lights, the radio and lower lights over stove.

Sure appreciate any help
Andy

 

[danemayer]

Look for wires entering the bottom of the slide at the rear. Check for insulation/wire damage. There also may be a junction box further forward under the slide or on the frame.

 

[renewal101]

Look for wires entering the bottom of the slide at the rear. Check for insulation/wire damage. There also may be a junction box further forward under the slide or on the frame.

Hello Dan....I did crawl under the slide and look at that wire bundle. Nothing obvious to me there. I have been all through the forum and some info seems to imply that the slide 12 volts comes from a circuit breaker at the battery instead of the 12 volt fuse panel? Do you have any knowledge of this?

 

[danemayer]

Hello Dan....I did crawl under the slide and look at that wire bundle. Nothing obvious to me there. I have been all through the forum and some info seems to imply that the slide 12 volts comes from a circuit breaker at the battery instead of the 12 volt fuse panel? Do you have any knowledge of this?

The mini-circuit breakers near the battery power the high-current devices that need from 30 - 50 amps. The interior lights all get powered from the fuse box inside the coach - fuses from 5 - 20 amps.

If the wire feeding up through the floor of the slide looks ok, the next most likely area would be where it comes through the frame. The wire bundle at the front of the slide comes through the frame and goes into a hinged, articulating support.

Did you see a junction box? A wire nut may have come off inside.

 

[cookie]

Like Dan said inspect the wire bundle closely. Where the wires enter the slide on that model is bad pinch point and wires may have been damaged. Look closely.
You mentioned that the feed wire is white with orange. Stick a pin through that wire to verify if you have 12 volts to ground before it enters the slide.
Also when you ran you jumper did the switch function or did you just attach the jumper to one side of the switch? It's not uncommon for these switches to fail.

Peace
Dave

 

[renewal101]

Like Dan said inspect the wire bundle closely. Where the wires enter the slide on that model is bad pinch point and wires may have been damaged. Look closely.
You mentioned that the feed wire is white with orange. Stick a pin through that wire to verify if you have 12 volts to ground before it enters the slide.
Also when you ran you jumper did the switch function or did you just attach the jumper to one side of the switch? It's not uncommon for these switches to fail.

Peace
Dave

Good Morning Dan and Dave. Thanks for your help. I will crawl under today and look more closely at the wire bundle. It is a very crowded bundle and tight passage into the slide. I did not see a junction box related to that bundle of wires. When I ran my jumper to the switch, I did touch it to both sides of the switch and operated the switch. The switch did turn the lights on and off. It implies that I have a "open" circuit somewhere and the wire ends of that open must not be touching "ground" or it would blow the fuse? I'm not sure exactly which fuse is the right one. Two of the 12 volt panel fuses have the same orange wire with white wire. The fuse "identification" isn't real clear in describing what they serve......

It seems that Heartland is reluctant to give out wiring schematics or diagrams? Why is that?

Thanks again...I do appreciate it.

 

[wdk450]

You may want to invest in a wire tracer tool. This tool puts a low power radio signal on the wire you attach it to, and you have a handheld adjustable sensitivity pen-type signal receiver. These are used to trace along wires to where the signal ends and the break in the circuit is.
Here is an example of such a tool from E-Bay, although you can get them at Lowes, Harbor Freight tools, Home Depot, or Amazon , too:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Telephone-...392414&hash=item1a3328bbcc:g:WUkAAOSwT75ZlBhh

I would start by connecting the tracer transmitter to the lights +12 volt wires on the slide, then start tracing under the slide with the receiver pen for the signal. Ideally you should be able to trace back to the 12 volt fusebox inside where this 12 volts DC is distributed from. Be sure to check the ground side of the 12 volts in the slide with a ohm/continuity meter to a good frame ground before doing too much troubleshooting on the +12 volts side.

 

[renewal101]

Just as an update: I called Heartland Customer Service hopefully for some help is determining the cable routing and if there are any junction boxes with splices along the route. The service tech really wanted to help and he even talked with other service techs but they didn't personally know and couldn't find any documentation. They did find documentation that indicated two junction boxes under the slide and recommended I start with opening these junction boxes. I did open these and they both contained only 120 volt wiring and splices.....no 12 volt wiring. The service tech told me that it's a Heartland company policy to not share wiring schematics or diagrams because of changes make by customers that might impact units under warranty?

So now I'm in the progress of removing the cosmetic partition in the basement, pass-through storage bay and making an attempt to find the suspect wire and probe for where the "open" might be. What a mess behind that cosmetic partition.....some very poor workmanship with no attempt to bundle or harness wires and pipes. The central vacuum was hanging in the partition without support and rubbing against waste piping. The random, careless routing of wires and pipes makes it darn near impossible to access the rear of the 12 volt fuse panel......crawling through that maze is going to be tough on this old man. I can sure see the reason for the cosmetic partition.....I would want to hide that workmanship too.

Thanks for the suggestion on the wire tracer tool. If I can find the suspect wire, it might help me out. And starting from the switch backwards towards the 12 volt fuse panel is a good idea too. Would the tracer work where the suspect wire is in a large group of wires???

Again....thanks for the help and advice

 

[danemayer]

You should be able to pull the fuse box panel from inside the coach to see the back.

 

[wdk450]

Thanks for the suggestion on the wire tracer tool. If I can find the suspect wire, it might help me out. And starting from the switch backwards towards the 12 volt fuse panel is a good idea too. Would the tracer work where the suspect wire is in a large group of wires???

Again....thanks for the help and advice

Yeah, like I said the transmitter sends a RADIO signal down the wire, and the wire radiates the signal like an antenna. You might note that tracer I linked to does not have a conductive tip - it just picks up the radiated signal. If you are getting signal everywhere you can turn down the sensitivity of the tracker pen so you can find just the wire you put the transmitter on.

 

[renewal101]

Mystery solved! Pulled 12 volt fuse panel out of wall and found #14 blue wire on fuse #3. With help from wife, we traced the wire through the pass-through basement to where it entered the lower frame channel in a bundle of wires. There was 12 volts at the point it entered frame cavity. So the went to where wire come out of frame cavity and up into slide......no blue wire, so decided there had to be a splice somewhere in the frame cavity. I cut an access opening in the underbelly material and immediately discovered a maze of splices (wirenuts) and there was my blue wire with 12 volts on it and not attached to any other wire. Then I saw the orange/white wire with a blue wirenut on it but no other wire under it. The wire it had been wet and had corrosion. I trimmed the wire ends with attached with a new wirenut and all is well. A little gorilla tape for my new accsss opening and wife is very happy to have lights over cooking area

thanks for everyone’s suggestions and help. It would have been easier if Heartland would share routing and slice points.

 

[donr827]

Wives can fix anything, right.

 

[renewal101]

Wives can fix anything, right.

👍 certainly those wife’s can motivate us men to fix anything!