2016 heartland sundance 5th wheel power converter location

2016 heartland sundance 5th wheel power converter location how to#

Then, what are Watts? A watt is the power the electricity has. The wire will overheat and melt it’s casing, possibly causing a fire. If you try to flow too many amps through a small, or underrated wire, what happens? It gets hot, right? The resistance to flow equals restriction, and therefore heat builds up. The size and length of the wire determine how much amperage there can be. Amperage is the same to electricity as gallons of water flow is to a water system. So how about an Amp? Amperage is the flow of electricity. In comparison, it is like water pressure to a water system. So what is a Volt? Very simply it is the push that electricity has through the wires of your 12 volts or 120 volts RV electrical system. Most RV Electrical Problems occur because RVers don’t understand the relationship between volts, amps, and watts! It is very easy to overload an RV such that you are tripping the breaker in the main panel, or even for the appliance itself.

2016 heartland sundance 5th wheel power converter location how to#

Do you know what these are, and how to figure out what your maximum usage is in your RV? If you don’t, the big purple monkey may visit you! So, let me get the monkey off your back! Most electrical products have labels on them to tell you what kind of electrical requirements they need and use: volts, amps and watts.

House 120 Volt System: just like in a “sticks and bricks” home, 120-volt alternating current is needed to power the air conditioner units, the microwave, the electric heating element in the water heater and refrigerator, the wall receptacles, the converter, and any other 120 volt accessories the RV may have.

In order to keep the batteries charged, just like the alternator does in a car, the RV has a converter that takes 120 volts and converts that to 12 volts to charge the deep cycle batteries.

RV 12 Volt System: these are the deep cycle batteries that power all the 12-volt lights, the circuit boards of the RV appliances, the fresh water pump, the propane detector, the slide outs, and the leveling jacks.

On a motorized RV, this power comes from the batteries that are attached to the alternator, just like in a car. On a trailer or 5th wheel, this power comes through the 7-way pin connector that attaches to the tow vehicle.

Chassis 12 Volt System: this is the power from the chassis batteries that run the exterior running lights, the stop lights, and the turn signals of the RV.

The best way to avoid RV electrical problems is to understand the three electrical systems that you have in your RV and be able to diagnose a problem by learning how they work together to keep you comfortable in your home on wheels. And it climbs on your back and laughs at you while you panic! If you don’t have at least a basic understanding of how RV electrical problems can arise, then the purple monkey may visit you quite often! How to Avoid RV Electrical Problems! What is a purple monkey? It’s a big hairy problem that does not seem to have an immediate answer due to a distortion of the facts. What happened? RV electrical problems may have popped up because of these possible situations: did the water heater kick on and send the electrical system into overload? Did the RV park’s power cut out? Did your EMS unit shut the power down because it detected a problem? Did the AC unit and the convection oven restart together? What should you do? Here comes the purple monkey! Imagine you are enjoying a nice evening in the RV: the AC unit is cranking, the convection oven is cooking the evening meal, the electric water heater element just kicked on because the wife is in the shower, and all of the sudden it gets awfully quiet in the RV.

This was one of the first lessons, one of many in my RV life, that taught me when RV electrical problems arise, I needed a basic understanding of RV electrical systems!

But I missed the fact that there are really two 12 volt systems. Many people do not understand that an RV has more than just one electrical system! I always thought there were two electrical systems in an RV: the 12 volt and the 120 volt.