If several of the 12v lights in your RV cease functioning, what should you do? That's an excellent question, and Katie and I have recently learned how to answer it all too often.
Fortunately for us, we were able to address the problem rather quickly.
What should you do if any of your 12-volt RV lights fail? There are many possibilities, but this is an excellent place to start when troubleshooting.
It's vital to understand that neither Katie nor I are licensed electricians. Using research and the strategy that made the most sense to us, we troubleshot our way through this issue. It would be advisable to consult an expert or do further research if you were uncertain about anything.
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HOW TO RESPOND IF SOME OF THE 12V LIGHTS IN YOUR RV STOP WORKING
A handful of the unique light fixtures Katie and I created are getting dimmers. We removed the lamp above the couch to have a better concept of how we'd install the dimmers while we waited for them to arrive in the mail.
The situation was perfect up until we reinstalled the light fixture. We found it wasn't functioning after reconnecting everything. No matter what we did, we were unable to make it work. What took place?
We removed the mason jar lights from the bedroom to test in the living room since the dimmer switches are also working there. Here, determining whether the issue was with our light fixture or with our RV 12V lights was the major goal.
We quickly came to the conclusion that the issue went beyond our light fixture. The mason jar lights would no longer function in the bedroom in addition to the living area. We were genuinely baffled by this.
Check out the video below, where I explain what we did to bring our RV lights' 12V batteries back to working order:
So there we were with three of the 12 volt lights on our RV not functioning. The other lights were all functioning properly, which was the first thing we noticed.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Switches for certain light fixtures in an RV may be found on a control panel. For instance, our 12 volt on/off switch is right next to the switch for the light fixture over our couch. We started by making sure the switch was turned on.
We knew we needed to pick up a voltage tester after we learned the fixture should be receiving electricity. This tester, which will give you the exact reading of the volts, was recommended by one of our YouTube subscribers (RV Habit). I believe we'll be purchasing one up shortly.
The issue was that the few shops selling voltage testers had already closed for the evening. So I played around with a few different possibilities. I tried the 12 volt disconnect fuse, flicked the circuit breakers, and even powered on the RV.
The 12v disconnect fuse was in excellent condition, the circuit breakers were ineffective, and even turning on the RV didn't make much of a difference since all the other 12v lights in the RV were functional.
We could have removed the fuses and checked them for damage with our needle-nose pliers. We waited till the next morning instead because we discovered a clever approach to check fuses using a voltage meter.
Our RV's 12v lights were repaired by changing the fuses. All the lights started working again after we changed the two blown fuses and repaired the light fixture above the couch.
In this case, it was as easy as changing the blown fuses. However, it's crucial to remember that fuses explode for a purpose. Thankfully, this time the issue was limited to few crossed wires. It's crucial to look further to identify the problem if a fuse keeps blowing.
Remember to watch the video up there to see how we took out and changed the fuses.
We really hope that this information put you on the correct path to resolving the issues with your RV's 12v lights. We at least hope it provides you a decent starting point.
Have you ever had problems with the lighting in your RV? How did you resolve it in the end, and did you identify what caused the disruption?
