Just fried the converter charger

[Reidraider]

Hi I have a 1998 winnebago chieftain wfl34wy
Had pluged into the house and flipped all the breakers and sparks started to fly from under the fridge turns our it was the converter charger what would cause this just an old converter or something bigger its very dusty and worked fine yesterday had ac and lights today nothing then flippers breaker on 110 panel and Smoke and sparks any thoughts on upgrading the charger possibly gona do more solar it the motorhome has a small solar panel for maintenance charge any thoughts would be helpful

[Morich]

First step might seem picky but there are actually four basic versions of your RV, year and model!
We could guess that you have the Canadadian model? ?? but better toverify first which set of drawings to look at as there are 30 and 50 in both US and CA!

If uncertain, looking at things may clear it up. This is a link to the drawingsand shows four different versions, so looking at the load cneter may be an easy way tospot which you have?

https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...998/127682.pdf

The four panels have the load center at top left and the labels at the lower right of each panel. With the right info, then you can beging to test a bit to find what is likely to have gone wrong. Just as a guess, I would not think the ocnverter without more checking if I understand which breakers you were flipping as the converter should beprotected by fuses or breakers and it might be a first guess there is a12 volt wiring problem involved, rather than the converter itself. Pure guess there, until we know more??

It could be the converter of course but the wires that go bouncing around are often a good place to have trouble. Any rodents like mice living nearby?

[Reidraider]

Its a 30 amp land line connection probably canadian would be my guess any clue where I would find that info in the rv

[Reidraider]

It was the double 15 amp beside to the right of the 15 20 set

[Reidraider]

The converter was hot when I touched it and can see burnt dust and lint in it

[Morich]

Okay,sounds like you have the drawing at lowerleft. That is labeled 30 amp CSA?
Not sure of the CSA?? Does that say anything to you? Drawings are known to have some odd bits which don't match or mean anything!

Possible to find a label near driver's side that has lots of details like serial number, etc for ID of the RV?

It does sure look bad at the converter but I tend to be slow to change things, until I test them a bit. I'm called tight at times!
But I have also seen things burn off the dust and not really have a problem. Spider webs burn nice and quick!

But I also like to go careful and not make things worse as I test things. This is what I might do.

There may also be a breaker/fuse or switches on the converter to check .
If you have the converter out, there should also be wiring to the batteries and if you find the battery voltage at the converter, then turn it on, that voltage should jump up as the converter will try to charge the battery.
That would say it is working and then you can decide if change is good or not.

Changing the converter is not too much effected by solar but more like just two charge sources, both working to charge the battery.
If you get into going big on solar or changing battery type to lithium, then it takes more study.

Find the breaker feeding the converter through the load shedder as marked on this snip. Kick it off and try letting things go for a while and look at what all other things are okay as a way to be sure nothing else is melted or needs work. This will shut off the frig on AC, so no worry on that point.

If all seems okay, then I might try to get to the plug to unplug the converter and then flip the breaker back on to test the AC wiring from the breaker to the converter plug. How it works out to do that depends on what you find on getting to the plug and such as it may be more trouble than it's worth? Your work, so your decision on what next!

I might want to pull the converter out and pull the cover to clean it and look it over. It may be toast or it may just have been dirty and looks bad?? But then there is also the ouput wiring to charge the batteries and it may/may not havesome problems, so I like to test things one step at a time and put it back together as I test each part.

Small things like ants or mice chewing on a wire next to the converter metal may have caused a short and arcing that set spider webs on fire. Ants can be bad as their loittley juicy bodies will short thing out but they burn off and the short it gone so I would want to look things over for "something" that caused the sparks.
You may want to change out the converter for a newer model but I like to know the wiring is good so I don't tie a new item in and burn it up as well!

[Reidraider]

Yes the plug for the converter is directly in front of the converter thanks so much for your reply that was the breaker that I rest b4 the sparks and Smoke.
So would this stop all lights and ac from working if pluged into 110 v from the house

[Morich]

The converter would not but that gets into what the different systems do for the RV.

One is the plug or generator gives 110AC for the air cond. , microwave, AC outlets and also provides the AC power for the ocnverter to make into 12VDC.

That DC charges the batteries for the coach, also to run the vent fans, inside lights and many of the controls like the thermostat that controls the air.

The third system is the normal car/truck items where the engine running the alternator runs the headlights, horn, etc and also charges the start battery.

Things get complicated when some parts of each system get connected to part of another system. One time this is done is when we have the engine running the start and coach batteries are connected together so the coach gets some charging as we drive but they are disconnected when we stop.

But if you have inside lights and vent fans that are not working, that is part of the coach 12VDC system. Sometimes it is as simple as the coach battery disconnect switch is not turned on or it can be lots of smallish problems in that group. One of the most frequent problem is that the coach batteries are just bad!

Batteries are not watched when folks are selling the RV, and many times we get batteries that are run down too low or too often and they are damaged. If a sales guys has to hit the dash boost or AUX switch to get the engine started, the start battery is suspect as it has to be boosted (jump started?)to get it going.

I'm guessing about half the RV sold have weak or bad batteries as nobody watches them when on the lot!

Do a quick check by starting the engine first, then try the lights and such inside while the engine is running. IF all is working, that says the engine alternator is running the normal car things but also connected to the coach batteries to put "some" charge in them.
But if those things stop when you turn off the engine, it likely say the coach batteries are not charged and possibly not good enough to hold a charge. If you have the engine off and put a voltmeter on the batteries, all of them should be above 12.5 with the power cord unplugged or the converter disconnected. Then when you connect the converter, you should see that voltage on the coach batteries jump up ( maybe 13+) due to seeing the converter charging. That doesn't mean they are charged, just that the converter is putting out the voltage that will eventually get them charged if the batteries are good enough to hold the charge.
Tricky things that seem so simple!

One trick is the way the battery disconnect switch works a relay. We can push the switch and it seems right but if the power to move the relay is weak, the relay stays disconnected! It is called a "latching relay" and a magnet holds it in the last position so we don't have to use up battery to keep it connected! But it can fool us and make us think we turned power on but did not because the relay we can't see did not move!

Try starting the eninge to give more power, then try flipping the disconnect switch to see if that turns 12VDC to lights, etc??

So making SURE we have good battery power can fix a lot of troubles that make us wonder!!

Red and green are where the two batteries get connected together when we push the dash switch or start the engine.

[Reidraider]

Thank you so much I have so much to learn I really appreciate ur time and knowledge I have some checking to do to try to figure this out thanks again for all your help

[Reidraider]

Had power going into the converter fuses were good nothing comming out replaced converter charger and all is well thank you for all ur help I'm learning so much

[Morich]

Good to hear it is back in shape. Life is too short to spend too much time on working!!