No interior lights, No power to AC controllers, Overhead Fans not working, everything else ok

[Patrick]

Yesterday, my first day with my 2002 Monaco Dynasty Baroness, all the interior lights and overhead fans worked fine. I turned off the batteries last night and on again this morning.  Now none of the interior lights work. There is no display on the AC Comfort Control 5 button controllers and the overhead fans don’t work. Everything else works. The step, step cover, shades, awning, microwave, plugins and tv work. I should mention that I am not plugged in to shore power. Inverter is on, batteries now at 93% up from 82% after running the generator.  I turned off the inverter and batteries and started them all up again  

The battery cutoff switch and the Lights switch beside the entry door are On. I checked the Lights switch and jumpered it with no change. I cannot measure any current across it. 
 

No breakers are tripped. I can’t see any burnt out fuses. 
 

I am stumped. Looking for help! Thanks. 

[Patrick]

Ok. Everything works again. Must have been a bad connection with a fuse in the closet panel. I removed and replaced each one and now the lights, AC and fans work again. 
 

whew!

[Gary M]

👍

[Just Jim]

Sounds like a solenoid may be sticking.  Pretty common problem, if it comes back check that out.  Mine is located on the firewall in the back, others are located in the front run box.  Sometimes tapping it will get it to work. 

[Dr4Film]

Highly unlikely it was ONE fuse connection as there are multiple fuses there to protect separate devices that are all powered by the same 12 VDC. There is no ONE fuse that handles ALL of the 12 VDC.

It is more likely to be one or two of your 12 VDC House Battery solenoids that are starting to fail. Most people like myself have permanently bypassed those solenoids eliminating ANY possibility of ever being without house 12 VDC again. My coach only has one Battery Cut-Off Solenoid so it was an easy fix to bypass it whereas some coaches have two solenoids that control all of the 12 VDC.

Those solenoids are high failure devices. Trust me it WILL happen again and when it does it may be the middle of the night while having a torrential rain storm and you will be SOOL until the problem can be remedied.

Another possibility is that the Battery Disconnect Switch is failing. If that happens to be a BEP Switch I strongly suggest replacing BOTH the House & Chassis switches with a Guest, Blue Seas, Perko or a Cole-Hersee switch.

Photos of a failed BEP below.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Dr4Film

[Patrick]

I am thinking,that you are right. Power came back on after I cycled the battery the battery disconnect switches. 
 

I am going to try to locate the solenoid today. Mine unit is a 2002 Dynasty, similar age to yours.

1 hour ago, Dr4Film said:

Highly unlikely it was ONE fuse connection as there are multiple fuses there to protect separate devices that are all powered by the same 12 VDC. There is no ONE fuse that handles ALL of the 12 VDC.

It is more likely to be one or two of your 12 VDC House Battery solenoids that are starting to fail. Most people like myself have permanently bypassed those solenoids eliminated ANY possibility of ever being without house 12 VDC again. My coach only has one Battery Cut-Off Solenoid so it was an easy fix to bypass it whereas some coaches have two solenoids that control all of the 12 VDC.

Those solenoids are high failure devices. Trust me it WILL happen again and when it does it may be the middle of the night while having a torrential rain storm and you will be SOOL until the problem can be remedied.

Another possibility is that the Battery Disconnect Switch is failing. If that happens to be a BEP Switch I strongly suggest replacing BOTH the House & Chassis switches with a Guest, Blue Seas, Perko or a Cole-Hersee switch.

Photos of a failed BEP below.

  Where is this solenoid located. 

[ok-rver]

Wondering if you figured out you power issue?

Mike

[Patrick]

56 minutes ago, ok-rver said:

Wondering if you figured out you power issue?

Mike

Everything is working but I’m not sure exactly what the problem was. 

[Guest Ray Davis]

7 hours ago, Patrick said:

Everything is working but I’m not sure exactly what the problem was. 

Both the solenoid and battery switches share similar symptoms of working then not working.

Like Richard said most of us find the solenoid and bypass it.   The battery switches are known to fail also,  and can be bypassed until a replacement can be done.   Just put both wires under the same screw.

Rest assured the problem will reappear at a particularly bad time.

[ok-rver]

Many of the house devices that would not come on for you are controlled on my MH by a relay under a black cover in the driver side forward basement compartment. The circuit board has switched and un-switched circuits. Should be fairly easy the "next time" it quits with a multimeter to do some trouble shooting. Is it lack of power going to the solenoid coil or if powered, burn contacts in the solenoid.  I like being able to turn off the power using the switch next to the door and would probably repair/replace the solenoid if it went bad. 

I replaced my engine battery bank manual on-off switch yesterday. Located just above my two starting batteries.  Mine did not burn. An internal plastic divider managed to pull loose from the knob, and the internal brass bar lost contact with the two bolt heads used as the contacts.  I knew a couple of days ago when I switched it that it was going out due to the funky feel when rotating. O'Reillys had a 300 amp Duralast that was the same size as the original on special for $21, normal around $30. I think one of the issues causing mine to fail is that the cable from the + terminal battery and the continuation cable into the engine compartment for the starter were both connected to the input of this manual switch.  Both very big cables. Lots of weight pulling down on the plate that broke. The output cable was only half the size.  I made the decision to reloacate the starter cable and connect directly to the positive terminal of the battery bank. Half the weight at the switch and one less terminal connection in the cable going to the starter. Wife picked up a Blue Sea from West Marine as a spare. I then got to looking at the house switch and it has already been changed to a Guest.  The boat industry has a tendency to be very conservative about electrical wiring and connections. When at sea, it is very wet stepping off a burning boat. The ABYC standards limit any post type connection to only 3 lugs. Some of mine have 5 or 6. Many of the functions, maybe all, on the dash and those that are controlled by the ignition switch go thru the engine manual on-off switch.

Next time it happens, if all 12V house type devices are not working, I would look at the house manual on-off switch. If some are on, maybe the house relay is not conducting current. Good luck in finding the issues.

 

[Dr4Film]

By the way you described the Battery Disconnect switch that failed I would bet that it was a BEP switch which has been identified as a possible coach destroyer.

The Blue Seas Battery Disconnect is a great switch.

 

 

[ok-rver]

The one  I replaced was the same as the picture above. Just feel apart instead of burning.

[Dr4Film]

Yep! Just what I thought,  BEP.

[ok-rver]

I bit of additional info on the House Battery Cut-off Switch at the entry door. My switch has some sort of slider button on the rocker. I do not know the function.  The relay in the driver side front compartment has a circuit board "attached" to the coil terminal. It appears the function of the circuit board is to convert this solenoid to being a latch circuit. Rocking the switch up on my switch sends power to the solenoid and changes the solenoid to the opposite state (on/off). Other coaches may have it set up differently.

[Gary M]

4 minutes ago, ok-rver said:

I bit of additional info on the House Battery Cut-off Switch at the entry door. My switch has some sort of slider button on the rocker. I do not know the function.  The relay in the driver side front compartment has a circuit board "attached" to the coil terminal. It appears the function of the circuit board is to convert this solenoid to being a latch circuit. Rocking the switch up on my switch sends power to the solenoid and changes the solenoid to the opposite state (on/off). Other coaches may have it set up differently.

Slider is usually for dimming lights.

[Dr4Film]

11 hours ago, ok-rver said:

I bit of additional info on the House Battery Cut-off Switch at the entry door. My switch has some sort of slider button on the rocker. I do not know the function.  The relay in the driver side front compartment has a circuit board "attached" to the coil terminal. It appears the function of the circuit board is to convert this solenoid to being a latch circuit. Rocking the switch up on my switch sends power to the solenoid and changes the solenoid to the opposite state (on/off). Other coaches may have it set up differently.

I don't believe it left the factory that way. Cam you post a photo of the switch and bezel?

Also, I believe that the solenoid you are speaking of is a Latching Solenoid versus a Constant Duty solenoid. Some coaches may have come with Latching ones especially the later ones but most of the earlier ones like mine came with Constant Duty solenoids which were HOT all the time unless turned off. Those type of solenoids have a high failure rate.