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Carson Power Inverter Question

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psychoticb0y

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I have a carson power inverter that keeps blowing the 12 volt dc fuses. The only fuse amperage that lasts is a 20 amp. These are ATO fuses. heres the story. the lights in the pop up camper haven't worked since I got it. never really cared to look why. I was looking at it and saw the fuse was blown and that is was a 20 amp. went got a 20 amp, plugged the converter in and the lights worked. I was stoked until today when I plugged it in and no lights. looked at the fuse and it was blown. heres what I have done for tests. I checked voltage at the fuse holder and it says 14.4 VDC. I have a DC amperage test function on my multimeter and it says 10 A DC. I have to switch one of the leads on the multimeter to use this function. I hooked it into the holder and the the display goes blank because its above the range. I tried some other size fuses before this and it popped a 5, 10 and I tried another 20 and that lasted about a second before it popped. why did this work before for about 3 hours until I shut it off and now it wont work at all please help.
 
Does it blow the fuses when all the 12V lights and accessories are turned off? Try disconnecting the RV battery and see if that stops the fuses from blowing.
 
there is no battery hooked up. thats what I don't get. this might help a little more and also I will start looking. I hauled the thing from my parents to my house. set it up outside realized fuse was blown, replaced it. moved it into my garage to work on it and now doesn't work. something tells me I got a short to ground somewhere. I will get looking does that make sense? also if it helps the max fuse it should have is a 7.5 amp and the wire that would charge the battery is somehow plugged into the wires that would connect to the truck. It has a very screwy looking connector before it converts to a 4 flat connector.
 
I have nothing plugged in or turned on. I put the fuse in the fuse holder and flip the switch below it from off to converter. The second I flip the switch it blows big time.
 
yes bill I did because before I looked at what it is rated for it had a popped 20 amp in it so I replaced it with a 20 amp. Yeah I know I should have looked but what did I do to the converter then by doing this? The thing is still putting out 14.4 volts which makes sense to me because that is what a car alternator puts out when its going about 2000 rpm. That seems right but why is it that when I put the leads in the fuse holder that one gets really hot? I understand that its because a lot of current is flowing through it but why is there? I should get a reading of 7.5 not out of range? Please give me something to go on?
 
You're running the device at almost 3x its rating. The fuse is there to protect it and using a higher than rated fuse can cause part failure or worse. Without a schematic or service manual it's going to be quite difficult to repair.

What you need is a higher power inverter for your RV.
 
okay but what about the fact that it is still converting the 120AC down to 14.4 DC? Thats what I don't understand. would the fact that it pops the fuse be caused by a short somewhere in the wiring going to some courtesy lights that are ran by the converter on 12VDC?
 
on the front panel it says Panel input: 120VAC 60HZ 15 AMPS converter input: 1.2 AMPS converter output 12.5VDC 8 AMPS. there is a 15 amp pop out breaker for the 120 and an ATO fuse for the 12 volt the model of the thing is CP-06FK-1 the camper was made in 87 and I have no manual for it.
 
well this morning I unhooked the white and blue wires that are shown in the pictures that alain posted I only have one white and one blue but when they are not hooked up and I put in a 7.5amp fuse it did not blow it so I am going to start looking for corrosion and for a short. Also when I tested the voltage at the blue and white wires it was about 15.4 volts is that odd? It is to me.
 
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I got it fixed. the problem was that there was some wire exposed from a connection someone had made on the heater and the positive wire and the negative were both resting on the steel housing of the heater. thanks for all the help
 
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