Andy Here - Englishman Living in and Loving Ireland

[Andy the App Man]

Probably like many, I've joined as I have a problem?? I own a 2012 Bailey Pegasus, but I think I many have "broke it! We had an long power cut a few days ago and I needed to get a couple of customers apps finished. So Einstein here fired up the caravan, no mains just 12v and decided to try and get my work finished. As my laptop was nearly flat I plugged in a low power inverter into one of the cigar light plugs (are they even called that nowadays?) The inverter started inverting and things were going fine. THEN the inverter started working really hard, getting noisy, which I'd never heard before. So I quickly disconnected......... NOW THE PROBLEM, Next morning decided to make sure all is ok with, Bob, the Bailey. All good on mains - not so on 12v, the control panel was not even lighting up, so I checked the battery with a multi meter and ran a check 13.8v incidently, that's the start and finish on my multi meter skills. Checked all fuses with particular attention to the 20v Battery fuse, all seem good. Got into the back of the control panel, to see if I could see a fuse, nope. Not sure what to try next and hoping one of you kind souls can help. I'm in the doghouse as we are off to the West of Ireland at the Weekend and I need somewhere cold to store my lug worms Thank you for reading, Andy

 

[Mel]

Hi Andy. Welcome to the forum. I can’t help you with your problem. I am clueless technically so my next move would be to phone a mobile engineer. However, someone on here will have some words of wisdom. Hope you get it sorted.
mel

 

[Andy the App Man]

Hi Andy. Welcome to the forum. I can’t help you with your problem. I am clueless technically so my next move would be to phone a mobile engineer. However, someone on here will have some words of wisdom. Hope you get it sorted.
mel

Thank you!

 

[Beachball]

Hi Andy Welcome to forum i am like Mel if i have a problem i always contact a Mobile caravan engineer to come and fix it for me but i am sure you will get help to your question they are a great bunch on here

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Andy,

I'm sure you can appreciate its very difficult to diagnose some problems remotely without the chance to test bits of it.

The sequence of events you describe, does suggest the inverter you used may not have been powerful enough for the laptop, That might explain the funny noises from it.

Generally when devices like that start making unusual noises it usually means they are beginning to fail.Many laptop chargers can take up to 90W, that means the 12V supply needs to be able to supply 90/12 = about 8A and under fault conditions it might well exceed the circuits capacity

Each 12V circuit usually does have a fuse somewhere in the caravan and that fuse may have blown.

Unfortunately I can't tell you where they may be in your particular caravan.

 

[Andy the App Man]

Hello Andy,

I'm sure you can appreciate its very difficult to diagnose some problems remotely without the chance to test bits of it.

The sequence of events you describe, does suggest the inverter you used may not have been powerful enough for the laptop, That might explain the funny noises from it.

Generally when devices like that start making unusual noises it usually means they are beginning to fail.Many laptop chargers can take up to 90W, that means the 12V supply needs to be able to supply 90/12 = about 8A and under fault conditions it might well exceed the circuits capacity

Each 12V circuit usually does have a fuse somewhere in the caravan and that fuse may have blown.

Unfortunately I can't tell you where they may be in your particular caravan.

Hello John, thanks for taking the time to comment. The inverter runs fine on a running car, the problem is not quite having my brain in gear and assuming I could run off my van 12v system. Having checked all the fuses visually especially the 20 amp battery fuse it "looks" ok. going to get a new one today. Other than the fuse box are there any other fuses on the van that anybody may know of? I'm going to hook up the can to my car to see if plugging the car into the ran and running the car gives me any clues........this may just be me highlighting my lack of "all things electrical". Thanks again

 

[Andy the App Man]

I've got a multi meter, going to watch some videos on youtube on how to use the thing

 

[Raywood]

Welcome to the forum. Not one my technical disability can answer but the prof is good on these things so hope he can sort you out.