I've been a subscriber and want to thank you for your perspective on this troubleshooting. I installed four new brake assemblies that were worn yet ultimately was not able to solve the intermittent output short on my brake controller. Your troubleshooting ideas brought me back to where I had given a cursory check - the ground connections from the batteries to the frame. Upon closer inspection - there is was. Not completely fractured like yours but corroded enough to break the electrical path. Thank you sir and keep the tips coming.

Thank you, this was the exact cause of my voltage drop. You Sir are a scholar and gentleman! P.S. Your Lippert Schwintek slide system video kept me out of the insane asylum 😂

Excellent information, thanks

Thanks Daren I recently subscribed to your channel. Your a true professional and I thank you for taking the time to teach us novices in the RV world. Best regards!

Thank you.

You are right, again as usual thanks

I had a very similar thing happen with my electric brakes; Intermittent indications on my brake controller while driving everything would check good while stationary. Rusted thru broken ground screw at the truck end of the plug.

I have found a poor or broken ground wire that caused problems in cars the same way., whenever they can rust off due to road salt etc. Trouble shooting takes a certain thinking and you are good at it😀.

Great vid

Nice service sticker on the converter!

I ran into a non start issue with my Tundra this morning with a Go Fast Camper and Renogy system installed (DIY) with 200ah house batteries connected to the starter battery. First start in the morning, a surge and a slight overturn. Then after every start attempt there was no turnover. To make a long story short, I connected the negative terminal connection to the ground on the frame from the starter battery, recharged the started battery from 12.4V to 13V and whamo! She started up. This is after several success and failure attempts. There is a plastic tray under the battery too and I was questioning if the connection to the negative terminal was causing electrical gremlins and or not creating enough crank amps to overturn the starter motor. For now its working. Going to be vigilant about checking my ground connections from now on.

Thanks! 😀

Darren, first of all, thank you for admitting you aren't Superman and subject to many of the same problems we deal with. I think this, along with some other vids, illustrates the need for proper ground to chassis connections. Aside from tightening bolts (or making sure it didn't rust off), but think of galvanic corrosion. We have to join copper wires to steel, which are incompatible. If you tried to crimp on a steel ring terminal on the cable you just move the point of corrosion from the frame to the terminal crimp. Almost, most people I discuss it with misunderstand dielectric grease. They think it conducts instead of insulating then wonder why they have problems. I suggest a vid on making connections: how to prepare a rusted, painted chassic point, how to make a new grounding point, how to make crimp connections from 12vdc wire terminals up to high amperage crimps. You covered using a torque screwdriver for the 110 panel, which was enlightening. However, you did not discuss the mundane topic of stripping wire, twist or not, goop or not or when, perhaps, to solder a connection. Another series to consider might be mapping out voltage drop and using the negative for reference to find faults. There's a lot of vids with the auto repair industry but nothing showing the challenges of my 38' class A. Lastly, I would suggest touching on coatings and protection from water and salt. You are the most valuable source on the interweb for RV troubleshooting and maintenance Darren. Thank you for sharing.

Searched for 'solar power' on your youtube main page, this was the top of the list. (Your usual top notch diagnostics at work!). Question: Any history with RV solar power / charging / inverter systems? Specifically battery recommendations? KZfaq universe goes from 'cheap' 6v golf cart batteries (4 in series / parallel) to lithium-ion paralleled pairs (or more) at $900 each. It's all about amp-hours & capacity.

My brand new Toy Hauler had a shorted ground to the not well grounded Junction Box. I made 2 wire jumpers from ground to the Jbox. RV fuse box now has battery voltage. Now everything is working.

Great helpful video! Dielectric grease is good stuff.

I had a built in surge protector on my motorhome that failed, so I had a mobile RV fellow locally come by, where he basically gutted the Surge Protector, hooked all the corresponding wires together, including the green ground, and basically used the surge protector box to hold the wires safely. BUT, now when I do a test of my outlets in our coach, I get a 'ground fault' reading! I'm 'not' quite sure what to check for, as mentioned all wires where hooked together, yet prior to my surge protector failing, I had no fault! I did go in an push my GFI outlet preset, which turned things off and on at that electrical outlet, but it still shows a ground fault. I might pull the 'box' off again and look inside to see if there is an issue, but I did watch him connect all the wires and all looked fine. There is power going to my Xantrex inverter, which seems to be charging the batteries...as my mulimeter showed the input as 14.2 V, so it may be equalizing. Thanks for the video though, as I have some further checking to do it seems.

Thanks

I've been problem solving my drain battery or no battery power . I removed the 3 way fridge because of a refrigerate leak so I took the DC wires to a 12 plug with usb ports and I still had issues. I watched this video then checked my ground wire and would you look at that ! My frame bolt is rusted and broken , thanks so much I appreciate all your videos

😄👍Good To Know, Great Tips

I am trying to convert my florescent light fixtures to led fixtures. I replace the ballast twice before I figured out I want to change them to leds. when I removed my florescent fixtures, I have 12v on the two wires coming out of the celling but when I connect the new led fixture to the wires, it wont work. I then left the positive wire connected and ran a test wire from the ground in the fuse box and they work. I have 3 lights on the same switch but the other 2 work but I tried to hook the led fixture to one of the other fixture wires on that circuit but the led fixture still don't work un less I ran that ground to the fuse box. how do I get to the ground wire in the celling to repair it?

Thx

Have watched a number of your videos to learn more about diagnosis and testing. I was just up in your area last week in the olympic penninsula but back down in portland area. Definitely need to get a good rv tech in this area. Do you have any referral to a competent RV Tech. It's an electrical issue. replaced the converter with new one but still not charging the battery when plugged into pick up and same lack of charging the battery when plugged into 20 amp connector. 2016 wildowood xlite trailer forest river. thanks.

Great video! I guess I still don't understand the reason for grounding to a frame when a ground wire would work better. My last utility trailer rewire has both. Hopefully redundancy is a positive thing. Thanks again

Very educational video. Thanks! I'm thinking about going to school to be a mobile rv tech. I'm curious what you think the outlook is for the occupation?

Hand by! 😂🙌

So I will hope that by throwing out a RV DC technical question on my 2020 keystone Cougar and I pray that you can guide me in the right direction. I recently Found the fuse on the DC board blew to the water pump. The water pump though has never been used so it was kind of surprising that it blew. So by watching your videos and other ech support the notion that there may be a short in that circuit. The wire runs from the fuse panel to In-Command BCM whereby it triggers a relay to turn on the water pump. So tracong the worong from the fuse panel to the water pump I checked all the wires, continuty test, voltage test etc. it all seem to be fine. so I disconnected the water pump fro the circuit and still I blew a fus. I then took the leads offf the BCM and still blew a fuse. So I hooked up a 12 volt light to the wire from the fuse panel and th elight came on bright with the almost the same voltage that was coming from the fuse panel. Si Disconneted the wore from the BCM to the water pump and reattached the wire from the fuse panel back to the BCM and then the fuse blew again. I then hooked up and brand new same guage wire from the fuse panel to the BCM and it blew again. So now this has stumped many. Maybe you can give a little insight as to what your thoughts are.

In this video it has a DC meter above the leak detector , did that come in the VR or added later? Looking for leak detector with volt meter and can not find any Thank you

AhhhhhHA! Sparks !! Alas current carrying ground

Could this be the cause of my GFIC tripping while plugged in to shore power? My non GFIC outlets are working, but replace the GFIC outlet and I still can get it to reset.

Hey Darren since it appears you have what I think it's an Mighty Mini PD panel, I and many others would like to know how the AC/DC grounds are supposed to be done. First many believe that three grounds each supplied with separate terminations at different points on the chassis. One from the AC panel ground busbar, one from the battery negative on the DC panel and one from the DC terminal ground busbar. Would deeply appreciate clarification and explanation. Thanks in advance.

Very interesting. I thought I heard that the ground is arguably unnecessary for vehicle electrics because it's on rubber tires, so I'm surprised it's having that kind of impact in your case. Hmmm...

I've got a mystery for you but I live in Idaho my power is intermittent during the night and off during the day on my outlets for my air conditioning, furnace, refrigerator, bedroom TV, microwave and my air conditioner in the bedroom works and my frigerators work on gas .2008 Grandjuction 37qsl.. I can't figure it out I wish I knew a good RV mechanic over here thank you

im getting pass thru residual voltage of 5 volts thru an open 112 volt manual reset circuit breaker. im thinking it might be a grounding issue as I have replaced the circuit breaker a few time and the same problem.

In another video you made mention when is ground not ground? Ground is ground is ground is ground is ground.

Wow. I got a good ? For you

Do you have a video of a TOUR of YOUR TOOL TRAILER?

More well "grounded" troubleshooting.

For a 12 volt DC system to work properly, you have to have a good supply(positive) and good return(negative).