I have a '87 big foot truck camper.and the electrical system can run on 12v or 120v.when the camper is parked and plugged in to 120v everything works great.how ever on the 12v the interior lights won't work.there is a bunch of wires at the electrical fuse panel.which has an inverter,batery charger,fusesand a 15 amp circuit breaker.i am looking for a wiring diagram so i know which wire is which. this would be a great help THANK YOU Ron Boileau

you posted camper to cars, moved to RV random
and forgot to say it is a NORMAN camper

check fuses first

* Check 12 volt DC system (may be camper battery or car battery, though most only use the camper battery.)
* Camper may be using 12 volt DC lights so it can be turned on while your on the road or not hooked up to an 120 VAC or 240 VAC outlet.
* If you are using 120 VAC lights then check the neutral line (note; HIGH voltage here. Get help from an electrician or at least the RV park handyman.) The problem may be at the outlet (the RV site's problem) or more likely in your plug or cable (the big cord) as it does get abused, run over, kinked, etc. Need to have it checked by an electrician.
* Check the light bulbs; is it seated properly? Replace if burnt out. Have electrician test if there is power at the socket.
* Final; Be safe and have a qualified electrician service your camper.
Aloha, ukeboy57

usa car, not Renegade or export car. nor DRL lamps.

fuse, can look good but be bad.
use any ohm meter, to make sure they are good. 0 ohms good.
the car can have park-tail relay. yes, it does have a park relay
that feeds 2 fuses (#7&9) then all lamps left and right.
the BCM controls the relay. body brain.

check voltage at all 4 pins of park relay, and bingo know who is messing up,?
pins 86/87 hot 12v all the time( battery)
87a = ground 0v all times.
30 is relay output, 12v park on.
85 pin is relay coil control. 0v park, 12v not park.
if you have 0v on 85 , in park the BCM is working

there is start.
if a fuse is blown to the BCM, it will mess up

Hi

Most of these mobile refrigerators can run on gas, 120v or 12v, your gas option is obviously OK, there should be electrical connections on the back of the unit which identify which cable are 12v and 120v.

Again most but not all units were multi option.

You will need to connect these points to the supply. To run this on mains 120v you will need to switch off the gas and 12v, similarly for 12v, no gas or 120v, and for gas no12v or 120v.

If you get the fridge to run on 12v remember that if it is on overnight it can reduce the battery charge.

The best options for these is gas or 120v when you have a mains hook up

Hope this helps

Gordon

You will probably have to buy an adaptor. Read the owners manual for the generator, the 4 prong should only be for 240V. The 3 prong should be 120V. But READ the owners manual. If it is this way you should be able to get an adaptor at your local hardware/electrical supplier or any RV store.

Usually the power inverters goes on these units, it converts your 120v to 240V

Tony

Btw, I’m available to help over the phone in case u need at https://www.6ya.com/expert/tony_a41fa0b801734e2f

for the heater is not enough power from the 12v battery,becouse it needs 110 or more v becouse the heaters need alot of power for it to work

SOUNDS LIKE A VACUM LEAK,POSSIBLY INTAKE GASKET OR VACUM HOSES,GET SOME BERKIBLE 2+2 SPRAY DOWN INTAKES WHERE MEET HEAD AROND THROTTLE BODY AND ALSO EGR VALVE TO MAKE SURE IT ISN'T PARTAILY STUCK OPEN, VACUM LINES AIR INTAKE HOSE BETWEEN THROTTLE BODY AND AIR FLOW METER,ALSO MAKE SURE ITS NOT DRY ROTTED AND SUCKING AIR,THE ENGINE IDLE SHOULD GO UP OR DOWN DEPENDING HOW BIG THE LEAK

you need to find the propane lines and where ever you have a joint you need to put "snoop" on it. which is basicly soap and water sorry my spelling sucks. anyway you do this with the propane on and whereever you have bubbles you have troubles. you can even check your lines with it. Now yoiur electrical woes can be fixed by tracing your wiring and finding out where you have a short this is when two wires are either touching eachother both of these problems take time and they take some experience. If you mess this up you could blow yourself up. Let me know what you are going to do. I'm worried for you

If you want to get more precise, figure out everything in terms of power (watts).

Basic electrical rule 1, 2 and 3:

voltage x current = power

or re-arranged:

current = power divided by voltage

or re-arranged:

voltage = power divided by current


For example, 12V X 2 amps = 24 watts.

or another example, 400 watts divided by 120 Volts = 3.33 amps

A 55W headlight that uses 12V would draw 55 /12 = 4.6 amps @ 12V

A 55 watt light bulb in a lamp at home would draw 55 / 120 = 0.46 amps @ 120V


As the previous post mentioned, inverters are not perfect when convertering 12V into 120V. If the converter consumes 1000W from the 12V battery, then a 90% effecient converter would generate 900W of 120V AC power best case. The other 100W is lost primarily as heat.

The other thing that gets tricky is that these ratings and the formula above are used for resistive loads, like light bulbs or hair dryers. Anything with a motor or transformer is considered an inductive load and can get much more tricky to calculate.

Consequently you need to give your self a safety margin when figuring out how big an inverter you need.

How does work in a practical sense?

Lets say you want an inverter for TV, DVD and Sat. Receiver. Look at the back of TV or in the manual. It should say how many watts it consumes. Lets say it is 400W. The DVD might be 100W and the Sat. receiver 50W - just as an example.

400 + 100 + 50 = 550 Watts. (just as an example)

You might think, well no problem, I'll use a 600 Watt inverter and have 50 watts left over. Depending on your inverter, that 600W might really be 600 x 90% effecient = 540 Watts of AC, less a 20% margin of error for the inductive transformers in the electronic of the TV, DVD and Sat. receiver 540 - 20% = 432 Watts.

Now you can see your 600 Watt inverter isn't big enough to do the job.

If we really need 550 watts of AC, add 10% to make up the effiency loss, then add a safety margin for inductive loads.

550 + 10% = 605 + 20% = 726 Watts.

Sounds more like an 800W inverter fits the job.

What does that mean in terms of wiring the 12V batteries to the inverter?

from the formula above:

current = power divided by voltage

In our example, we have an 800W inverter that runs on 12V

The current would thererfore be:

current = power divided by voltage
current = 800 watts divided by 12V
current = 66 amps.

That is important info because you can not use light gauge wire to carry 66 amps worth of 12V to the inverter nor could you use a 20A fuse to protect your inverter.

Now that's a lot of science for a guy who just wants to run a toaster on an inverter right?

800W / 120V = 6.66 amps

Using garryp's ratio 11:1, 6.66 x 11 = 73 amps.

That is a good ratio with a good safety margin.

This is all just MHO and should not taken as solid technical advise. In other words, don't blame me if you blow yourself up.