Classic Winnebagos & Vintage RVs

 So, I have this 73 Brave and last weekend I had it plugged into an extension cord and the kids were watching a movie.They were goofing around on the bed in the back and one of them hit the breaker box with their elbow (I guess). Now I have no power to anything when I'm plugged in. I also can't seem to figure out how to get the lights to work off of the aux battery. Everything seems to work just fine off of the generator. The fuses look fine upon visual inspection, but I have not checked them with a multi meter yet. I'm kind of stumped because everything works fine on the generator. We are leaving for vacation on Monday morning, so I was hopping somebody could give me some ideas of where to look for the problem, so that I can at least have the 12 V lighting working.
Thanks,
  Steve

I'm assuming a power panel is present in the rig.  Tripped circuit breaker?  Maybe a loose wire.  Jogging it could have disconnected a wire (or wires) that were either worn or cold soldered.

Just guesses.

check to make sure u r on shore power at the breakers. maybe they hit the breaker to switch from shore to genny power. if u work on genny u should not b able to plug in and work without first flipping the breaker to shore power.
hope this helps a little.
sal

 Yeah, I've flipped the breakers every which way. I guess I'll have to dig in and look for a bad connection. I got the 12 V lighting to work. I forgot that the key has to be on. Mildly embarrassing.

Key should not have to be on for the 12VDC house lights (ceiling, bathroom, kitchen) to work.  It is a sign something is not connected correctly.
Not sure of how you your rig is setup for generator / shore power selection but in general here is possible options:
Note: Please notice that once past the input selection method, the inside connections are identicle.




Note: At the top of each drawing, ignore the cross-connect between Nuetral and Ground wires on the drawings.  That is not there on an RV.  Grounding in an RV is always back on the shore power side.  If those connections are there in a rig and you connect the shore power cable up to campground that is wired for ground fault protector, the campgrounds ground fault detector will trip.   The ground wire can be connected  to ground, you just never connect the nuetral to ground in the rig.

Some rigs use two circuit breakers that are physically linked together such that only one of them is on at a time.  The linkage is designed such that only one of the breakers can be ON at any time.

LIke I said, once past the selection method, the connectios are the same for all versions.

The relay shown on the output of the converter selects between the 12VDC converter output and the 12VDC house output.  That was the method Winnebago used in the 70's.  Todays rigs no longer use a relay and have the converter output connected directly to the battery.

Dave

check to see if u can run off batteries. if 12 volts work off batts then more than liklely the converter has gone bad. converter changes 120 volt to 12 volt. some also did some batterey charging. i had to change mine to a new one and it works great now.
hope this helps a little.
sal

I changed my old noisy, hot converter to a new Inteli-Power 9200 Series.  What a difference!  No noise, no heat and keeps the battery at peak level.  Best $150 I've spent on the MH.

I replaced mine also (due to i think it burped) Not very hard to do Now it keeps house batterys full and no noise and very little heat Frank

I originally replaced mine with one made by American Enterprises.    I didn't pay much for it and I'm glad, as it only lasted one season before it failed.    After that, for a few years I just used a regular old battery charger keeping in mind I would get around to replacing the converter with a new one.   (Procrastination is my forte)

This year before taking the rig out for the first time I bought a 30 amp onboard charger, broke the piggy bank on it, cost a whopping 50 bucks.  ;)

http://www.12voltpowersupplies.us/

These are pretty popular in the Ham club and they seem to be holding up.  I noticed even with running all my lights and entertainment center it barley gets warm. 

Well, this might not help much.  But, I use a 110V charger when we are connected to shore power.  In addition, I have two 5V solar panels I mounted in one of the windows, and two 1.5 solar panels on the other side of the trailer in a window.  that way, at least, I get sunlight all day if I'm facing either east or west.

The batteries (2) are older ones, but, when I had them tested, they guy said there was absolutely nothing wrong with them.  full charge.

 I just got back from vacation in time for a big storm that knocked out my power for 2 days. We rode the storm out in the Winnebago because the propane fridge was still running and the kids could watch DVDs off of the battery. Well, yesterday I checked the wire from the plug to the panel box and found that it had a splice. I checked the splice and re-did it. I checked and have continuity from the plug ends to the breaker in the panel. My power finally came back on late last night, so I'll try it out when I get home today. I still have to check the breaker itself, so that's where I'll start if it still does not work. Thanks for the great tips and ideas on how to figure this out. I'm more a nuts and bolts kind of guy than a wire nut, so this system is a little intimidating to me.

I totally sympathize.  When it comes to electrical things, I feel like a monkey trying to fly a jumbo-jet.  Dave Bailey will most certainly testify to that truth!   :laugh:

But then again, we do train monkeys   :laugh:

After all I have done the one thing I never really got a chance to look at was just what are the different ways Winnebago wired the AC and DC circuits for the 69 - 75 or so period.  It is simple once they started using Progressive Dynamic distribution/converter systems.  It was before the PD systems that I would love to get more information on.  For the most part, if you understand house wiring, you can figure the RV out fairly easily.

If you think these older systems are difficult, the new ones are absolutely horrrendous.

Dave

 I tried it out and it works now. The converter is working as well. I guess it must have been the splice in the main wire. The Winnebago came with an extra wire and plug that I can run into the panel sometime so I wont have to worry about it failing again. It's a bit shorter, but at least it's in one piece.
Thanks again for all of the great info!

good job. electric gremlins are the worst.
glad it was a simple fix.
sal

Shortly after I respliced the wire and got it working, my converter quit working.When I got looking at it, it was no surprise as there is a hand written label on it that says it's the prototype converter for the 73 Brave. The old thing almost made it 40 years! The build date on my rig is May of 1972. I just thought that was kind of cool that I got an early build.
So, I guess I should ask where to shop for a new converter and how much $ it will set me back.

There are numerous way to replace the old converter.  I choose to go with a new distribution panel  also.
The WFCO panel I got was about $125. I also includes a step down battery charger.

http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/index.php?action=mgallery;sa=album;id=236
They do not come with the breaker switches but do have the 12 volt fuses. I am sure you will get more ideas.to get the 5- 15 amp 110v you will need 3 double breakers.  a 30amp-15amp, (2) 15 amp-15amp.
The 30 amp is for the input, the rest are for the circuits.

It has a lot of 12 volt curcuits. also.
JD

There are several ways to skin this cat.  I too went with a distribution panel and modern converter.
Dave

http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/index.php?topic=5326.0 (http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/index.php?topic=5326.0)

You can also try Sands RV in Ohio.  They have used ones there in really good shape.  Newer ones.  I saw two there which were just like the one I had gotten.  Generally, I'd say Sands has good prices and they only sell stuff that works.