5ver Electrical woes, a short (very long) story

We went on vacation a while back which started the Dave's to do list. 1st thing starting the truck. No oil pressure, sending unit decided to crap out at that moment. Determined I had oil flow and off we go with 5ver in tow. We arrive at our destination and get 5ver in position and start lowering landing gear when I notice I am still plugged into the truck. I prefer to not be plugged to the truck, one of my just in case scenario's so I unplug and no landing gear operation. So now after the oil fiasco I am thinking what the he** is going on and looking for any black clouds over my head. Next step was to get the cord out and hook up to electric. Viola, Landing gear works and finally start the unwinding process not touching any of the problems for the duration. After the R&R vacation was coming to an end everything gets packed up and disconnected. Just before leaving I was in the 5ver with interior lights on then turned on the water pump. No water pump and lights went to a glow, great. After we get home I put a volt meter on the batteries, I have two 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series and the meter shows 6 volts. Wonderful, the batteries are shot is the thought. Roll forward a few weeks and I put the charge wizard on boost and check voltage at batteries. Voltage checks at 13.2 even on boost, seems low to me so I get out the portable charger. The batteries charge with no problems. Ok, eyeballs are now staring at the Progressive Dynamics Converter. So this morning I check battery voltage with 5ver plugged in, 13.04 volts, unplug 5ver, 12.7, good. Reach inside turn on lights, a warm glow greets me, SH^T. I go back to the battery, 8 volts, yikes, what the heck is going on. I leave the meter attached and in about 30 seconds I have 12.7 showing and I look inside to nice bright lights. Really confused now, I disconnect the converter and tie the wires to run on battery only. I turn everything back on with 120 electrical still disconnect and watch the voltage. Voltage is fluctuating 12.2, 11.9. 11.4, 11.6 and dropping at a pretty good rate then gets to about 11 and immediately drops to 8. Wait about 30 seconds while sitting in the warm glow lit 5ver then back to 11.9 and it starts all over. Ok, not the converter. Back to the battery area where I look at these 2 little modules on the framework. They are both fed 12vdc with load wires on the other end. I disconnect the 12vdc side and landed those with the load wires then turn everything back on. Start checking and voltage is good everywhere and steady with no more Twilight Zone symptoms, plugged back into 120 and checked voltage at batteries with wizard on boost, 14.4, now we are good. Near as I can tell these modules are rated at 30 amp and I do not know if they are fuses, breakers, voltage regulators. Anyone know ?

#ad
#ad
#ad


Dave

#ad


#ad


#ad

 

Automatic resetting circuit breakers. Here's a source.

#ad


Rusty

#ad

 

Thanks Rusty, I will order 2

Dave

 

Local parts chains such as NAPA, etc. should have them as well. Offered in various amp ratings, with mounting brackets and without.

Freightliner trucks used them for about every circuit in lieu of fuses up until the late '90s.

 

Thanks Mike, I see Oreilly's shows them at about 2 bucks more also found on ebay for about $5.00 and free shipping. 13 years old and bellies up, they just don't make things to last anymore :-laf

Dave