2022 Reflection 315RLTS Electrical Mystery

Joined
Dec 1, 2024
Messages
5
Location
27217
I have a frustrating electrical issue that has plagued me for the past year. The issue is the main living room lights, run from the blue switch on the panel, surge from normal brightness to blacking out. It seems to be happening about every minute. What we also realized is the refrigerator lights do the same thing. We've replaced both the converter and battery switch. We had a mobile tech clean and the connections under the front of the camper as the were severely corroded. Our last trip to the camper at the end of the summer had to be cut short due the this issue. We were there this past weekend to check on it and the lights started off working great but after about 30 minutes they started surging. Some additional information, I put a new battery on it at the beginning of the summer thinking that would fix the issue with no change. The battery monitor flashes bright to dim almost constantly but has gotten better since the connections were cleaned. No other circuits seem to be impacted, the bedroom, bathroom, or any other light does not surge. Just the main lights and refrigerator. I read on this forum that the refrigerator is only run off the converter/battery? I'm guessing the same is true for the main panel lights?

We no longer pull the camper as we've scored a lake front spot at a camp ground her in NC.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Does it do it when the converter is turned off? That will be a huge diagnostic.
 
My .02 - Converters can output bad voltage if they are on their way out. But you said you replaced it so two converters doing the same thing is not probable, however was the solid copper ground wire attached from the frame of the converter to the coach frame?

Under normal circumstances with light 12VDC power demand the converter will be supplying all the 12V power to the coach. It does this through it's connection to the distribution /control panel.
The battery should only be getting a light maintaining float charge from the converter through the distribution panel. Under light 12VDC demand the battery is not supplying 12V power to the coach.

The only thing your living room overhead lights and the fridge have in common is the 12VDC normally being supplied by the converter. The fridge needs 12V for the control board if it is a propane/120VAC type or a 12VDC compressor no propane type fridge.
If the fridge is a residential type it doesn't need 12V from the converter at all. But then you would have an inverter.

Since you say nothing else in the coach is affected, no other lights or appliances are doing the bright/dim dance - for the overhead lights I would look for a loose connection (high resistance) connection behind the distribution /control panel where the wires for those lights connect to the overhead light switch.
For the fridge- same thing, go outside, remove the lower panel and check for loose or corroded connections.

There are other owners that have experienced flickering overhead lights and it was caused by the demand pump running. That was because the OEM tied the demand pump 12VDC wire into the overhead light circuit. Lights were flickering about once per second but only while the demand pump was running.
 
the lights started off working great but after about 30 minutes they started surging.
Definitely do as John suggests and check if it happens when the lights are only supplied by one system or the other.

I would put a meter on the output of the converter to determine if it is fluctuating at the source, or connections are causing voltage drop somewhere. You are bound to get some variation at the converter but also compare that variation at the fixture. If there is a voltage difference, it may be just connections.
 
So a quick question and additional information:
1. Can I just turn the breaker off for the converter to test the bad converter theory?

My mobile tech spent an entire day working on the connections at the front of the camper. They were severely corroded and some so bad they broke when he tried disconnecting them. I would have to look to see if the converter is connected to the frame or the bus bar. The refrigerator is a Furion residential model and is the second one since owning. Last time we went to the camper it had stopped working and everything in it was ruined but when I checked on it Saturday it was back working. My intent was to do a hard reset but did not due to is already working. I froze some ice and left a drink tab on it to tell me if it stopped working again. The interesting thing is the lights were working great when we first turned them on. It took a good 30 minutes before they started flickering. I opened the refrigerator door before a cut on lights to see if they would flicker but they never did.
 
My .02 - Converters can output bad voltage if they are on their way out. But you said you replaced it so two converters doing the same thing is not probable, however was the solid copper ground wire attached from the frame of the converter to the coach frame?

Under normal circumstances with light 12VDC power demand the converter will be supplying all the 12V power to the coach. It does this through it's connection to the distribution /control panel.
The battery should only be getting a light maintaining float charge from the converter through the distribution panel. Under light 12VDC demand the battery is not supplying 12V power to the coach.

The only thing your living room overhead lights and the fridge have in common is the 12VDC normally being supplied by the converter. The fridge needs 12V for the control board if it is a propane/120VAC type or a 12VDC compressor no propane type fridge.
If the fridge is a residential type it doesn't need 12V from the converter at all. But then you would have an inverter.

Since you say nothing else in the coach is affected, no other lights or appliances are doing the bright/dim dance - for the overhead lights I would look for a loose connection (high resistance) connection behind the distribution /control panel where the wires for those lights connect to the overhead light switch.
For the fridge- same thing, go outside, remove the lower panel and check for loose or corroded connections.

There are other owners that have experienced flickering overhead lights and it was caused by the demand pump running. That was because the OEM tied the demand pump 12VDC wire into the overhead light circuit. Lights were flickering about once per second but only while the demand pump was running.
We had to replace the relay for our water heater this past summer. Got three bad ones in a row. Went to a different brand and the first one was good. It was driving me crazy thinking it must be something else but that was impossible. It is always possible to get a bad one even though you bought it new and was supposed to be from a reliable source.
 
So a quick question and additional information:
1. Can I just turn the breaker off for the converter to test the bad converter theory?

My mobile tech spent an entire day working on the connections at the front of the camper. They were severely corroded and some so bad they broke when he tried disconnecting them. I would have to look to see if the converter is connected to the frame or the bus bar. The refrigerator is a Furion residential model and is the second one since owning. Last time we went to the camper it had stopped working and everything in it was ruined but when I checked on it Saturday it was back working. My intent was to do a hard reset but did not due to is already working. I froze some ice and left a drink tab on it to tell me if it stopped working again. The interesting thing is the lights were working great when we first turned them on. It took a good 30 minutes before they started flickering. I opened the refrigerator door before a cut on lights to see if they would flicker but they never did.
Yes, or just unplug from shore power.
 
I made it out to the camper today to try a few things out. Before turning anything on I checked the battery display and I am showing a solid 12 volts and minimal draw. I cut the living room lights on and waited for the dimming to occur. It didn't take long for the lights to go through the dim cycle and brighten. I flipped the breaker for the converter which caused the lights dim and the did a fast flicker. Flipped the breaker back on and the lights brightened back up and then dimmed almost out and brightened back. I checked the volts coming out of the converter and it showed 14.40. I have suspected the refrigerator may the be cause so while I was in the floor neck deep in wires I laid down and put my head on the refrigerator, weird I know. I could hear when the compressor kicked on and off. When it kicked on the lights would dim and right as the compressor kicked off the lights would almost go out and a thumping noise could be heard from the refrigerator. I have the 16 cu ft residential model in my camper. Below are some pictures of what I was seeing. My thinking is the fridge is drawing too much current for some reason?
 

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I made it out to the camper today to try a few things out. Before turning anything on I checked the battery display and I am showing a solid 12 volts and minimal draw. I cut the living room lights on and waited for the dimming to occur. It didn't take long for the lights to go through the dim cycle and brighten. I flipped the breaker for the converter which caused the lights dim and the did a fast flicker. Flipped the breaker back on and the lights brightened back up and then dimmed almost out and brightened back. I checked the volts coming out of the converter and it showed 14.40. I have suspected the refrigerator may the be cause so while I was in the floor neck deep in wires I laid down and put my head on the refrigerator, weird I know. I could hear when the compressor kicked on and off. When it kicked on the lights would dim and right as the compressor kicked off the lights would almost go out and a thumping noise could be heard from the refrigerator. I have the 16 cu ft residential model in my camper. Below are some pictures of what I was seeing. My thinking is the fridge is drawing too much current for some reason?
My suspicion would be bad wiring resulting in voltage problems when the refrigerator load cycles.
 
Out of curiosity what is the purpose of the converter? Is it to generated 110 power for the refrigerator while connected to the truck? From my research the fridge is powered by the truck or shore power and that's the only thing the converter supplies power.

My camper is permanently setup at a campground on piers much like a single wide. Since it is not being pulled any more could I do away with the converter and use the converter breaker to run the fridge? Furion tells me the model fridge we have has issues where the compressor pulls too much power and had us do a hard reset on it. We followed the procedure with no change to the power fluctuation. I looked into the cost of replacing the Furion with the same model and it's like $2,700.00 where I can get a similar home model for around $1,000.00 - $1,300.00.
 
Out of curiosity what is the purpose of the converter? Is it to generated 110 power for the refrigerator while connected to the truck? From my research the fridge is powered by the truck or shore power and that's the only thing the converter supplies power.
The purpose of the converter is to convert 110v AC power to 12v DC to charge the house battery(s) and power all the lights in the trailer.

note: moderator edit to move the reply from the quote area to the response area.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Out of curiosity what is the purpose of the converter? Is it to generated 110 power for the refrigerator while connected to the truck? From my research the fridge is powered by the truck or shore power and that's the only thing the converter supplies power.

My camper is permanently setup at a campground on piers much like a single wide. Since it is not being pulled any more could I do away with the converter and use the converter breaker to run the fridge? Furion tells me the model fridge we have has issues where the compressor pulls too much power and had us do a hard reset on it. We followed the procedure with no change to the power fluctuation. I looked into the cost of replacing the Furion with the same model and it's like $2,700.00 where I can get a similar home model for around $1,000.00 - $1,300.00.
I think you have the inverter and converter confused. The inverter converts 12V DC power to 120V AC power, the converter converts 120V AC power to 12V DC power.

From what I've read there are cheaper, and better, alternatives to the Furrion refrigerators. The Samsung gets mentioned pretty regularly, and if you're permanently onsite, there's no real drawback to a residential refrigerator.
 

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