12V Lights in Kitchen 2002 Signature

[Converterjoe]

I'm replacing my rope lights (1/2 or more are burnt out).  In doing so I cut the old wires without turning off power (rookie mistake, I know).  Should have been just a simple fuse but I have checked every fuse on that coach at least 5 times, and there are a ton of them.  I've checked them all in the front bay plus the small box full of them behind the bedroom TV.   Is there another fuse box that I can't find?  This circuit provides power to the kitchen rope lights as well as the kitchen halogens and the fluorescent above the sink.  Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[John Haggard]

I have a fuse box here

Drivers side rear , rear upper cabnet

 

Yours may be as you say 

TV cabnet ???

I have a fuse box here

Drivers side rear , rear upper cabnet

 

Yours may be as you say 

TV cabnet ???

 

Also, check your AC. Breaker boxes ? Just in case 🤔😉

[Onthego]

? Could it be that the rope light is 110-120 volt circuit and you tripped the GFI plug or like mine the gfi is built into part of the circuit breaker.

https://static.graybar.com/content-resource/image/qo230gfi-square-d-schneider-electric-88242797/993056-portrait_ratio1x1-300-300-f0b47af3948cf5a454649b769fe1df7a-RB.jpg

[OhReally]

Joe, if you checked 12vdc fuses by sight you could easily miss a bad one. Sometimes they are broken where the fusable wire welds to the tab and they don't look bad. Take it from someone who spent a lot of time overlooking a bad in line fuse, always use a meter and check continuity.

-jamie

[Converterjoe]

John,  is your coach a 1999?  Is that fuse box in the pic above the headboard of your bed?

[John Haggard]

When we built our houseboat the manufacturers 

Used All AC rope lighting.

 

They said it had more life and was more reliable.

 

That was in 2000.

Its all still working

1 minute ago, Converterjoe said:

John,  is your coach a 1999?  Is that fuse box in the pic above the headboard of your bed?

Yes

It is.

[Converterjoe]

Onthego, the lights are definitely 12 V but I heard a distinct click as I cut the wires. 

Jamie, I checked the continuity of each fuse with a meter. 

John,  I wonder why the fuses aren’t labeled on my 2002

[John Haggard]

Mine are very clearly labelled 

 

Purple

20 amp

On mine

[Converterjoe]

Thanks for the help everybody, as it turns out it is 110V after all 🤦🏻

[John Haggard]

Fantastic 

👍👍👍😁

[Converterjoe]

Well, bummer!  Since I discovered that the rope lights were 120v I assumed that when I got back to the coach I'd reset the GFI and everything would be fine but as it turns out, no breaker was tripped.  I even manually tripped then reset them and still no power to the kitchen rope or halogens, and no power to the halogens directly above the driver side sofa, which is weird because the kitchen ropes and halogens are on the passenger (curb) side.  So I'm back to Square 1.  Befuddled!  The GFI's are built into the breaker.  The front GFI also has the microwave and armrest lamps on it which are working fine.  Is it possible for just the GFI portion of the breaker to go bad while the breaker itself is OK?  

[Guest Cruzbill]

Have you tried resetting the breakers? Forget about if its a GFI or not, just treat as a regular breaker and reset it. Then look for AC voltage on that breaker, in and out. If you find AC voltage on the load (output) side of the breaker, just trace the wire 'till you find the problem. Might be in a J-box somewhere. 

[Converterjoe]

I've reset every breaker multiple times.  What I'm having the most difficulty understanding is how a 12VDC circuit (halogen lights) was taken out at the same time I accidentally knocked out a 120VAC circuit (rope lights)?  I've checked every fuse on the coach with a multi-meter and not a single one is blown.  Even if there's an inline fuse somewhere that I haven't found, it still doesn't explain how a 12VDC circuit and a 120VAC circuit were knocked out by a single short in a two-wire 120VAC circuit.  Here's a pic from the owner's manual showing that the halogens are 12VDC and the ropes are 120VAC.

[Ivan K]

Our signatures are 2 years apart but our rope lights are definitely 12V. I had a loose connection where the bedroom rope connects to switch wiring with a plastic push connector where it comes out of the ceiling. Do you have wiring charts?

I just looked up my Interior Bulb Chart and it shows the same part number as yours. I know for fact that we have 12V ropes and they are fused  the rear bedroom 12V fuse box. Since you checked the fuses, you may want to look at their wire connections as well.

 

[Converterjoe]

Hi Ivan - I pulled the switch panel that has a rocker for the halogens and the ropes right beside each other.  When I saw a jumper wire between the two switches (a common hot I assume, and the halogen is a 3-way) I knew that either the halogens were 120v or the ropes were 12v.  So I dug the rope light string I replaced out of the trash and guess what?  It's very clearly marked 12v; the manual is incorrect about the rope lights 😡 !  So I am back to the drawing board.  I'm going to replace all the switches on that circuit because there is some blackening of the wires at the connectors.  I pulled the switch for the bedroom ropes and checked the voltage; they, too, are 12v and have some charring.  I hope some hardware store in town carries these little rockers.  Ace wants $10 each for a similar one but online they're less than $2.

p.s. - I wonder why, in 2002, they stopped labeling the 12v fuses.  On mine you just have to guess.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Converterjoe

[Converterjoe]

Thanks everybody!  It turns out that I had a bad switch.  I had noticed that the connectors were looking a bit charred so I just replaced all three switches that control the kitchen lighting and that fixed the problem.  I'm further along into the rope replacement now and for some reason Monaco used both 12v ropes and 120v ropes even though all are on 12v circuits.  Some of the ropes are stamped with the same part number as in the owner's manual (120v) while others (the ones that were stapled in place) are 12v ropes.  So if anyone ever asks if 120v incandescent ropes will work on 12vdc, the answer is yes.  Probably not good for them but they worked.  The new ropes look amazing by the way.  Now I just have to figure out how to get to the ropes in the center of the overhead air conditioning cover.  The outer ring wasn't too bad but the inner ring has me stumped.