Blown fuse connected to battery

[IceOnFire]

We took out our new X23B this weekend for a maiden voyage and noticed every time we attempted to engage the tongue jack on battery power the battery fuse would blow. Plugged in to 15 amp circuit it works just fine. A 20 amp fuse was originally installed by Jayco. We replaced it with another 20 and a 25 amp fuse, with the same result. Could this be a wiring issue or an issue with the tongue jack itself. Also, should we try 30 or 40 amp fuse?

[sailor]

The fuse for a motor needs to be a slow blow fuse, not a regular fuse. A motor will initially draw higher current as it starts. Even with the slow blow fuse we would have a blown fuse every year or two. I would not recommend just going to a bigger fuse. A good automotive parts store should be able to supply this fuse. They are also available on line. If the slow blow fuse does not solve the problem talk to your dealer about replacing the jack.

[ranchosinvacas]

My 145RB did not have a factory installed battery.
In our case the battery was dealer installed and came from the dealer with a regular 30 amp automotive type fuse.
This is not an answer to your question, but does illustrate that not all Jayco products come with the same type of fuse from the battery.

[carey965]

mine does that too, mostly if i just dont let go of the switch quick enough when i is all the way up or down,
i just keep a spare pack of fuses in the trailer just incase

[Jagiven]

Installing a larger fuse, just means you are going to have a larger bill down the road, when something burns up. Try the slow blow fuse, or better yet circuit breaker replacement. If it keeps having issues I would have the dealer look at it, as there may be a motor issue.

[RedHorse1]

Odd that it blows a fuse when on battery but not when on shore power. Would a weak battery cause this? (calling the experts!) I have no problems on battery only.

[Camper_bob]

Ours had a 35 amp fuse (?) that got blown when the umbilical to the truck got pinched and shorted out. I took it to the dealer and had them replace the cut cord under warranty (or because the damage occurred on their lot and wasn't inspected thoroughly before I brought it home?), but had to replace a bunch of fuses myself, including the one from the jack to the battery. Replaced it with a 30 Amp auto fuse and all is well.

I would closely inspect the cord that plugs into the TV, perhaps that's why it works fine when on Shore Power, but not when plugged into the truck or on battery?; you could have a short somewhere in the lines between truck and trailer which could cause the problem you're having along with a host of others...

[John LLRV]

Those jacks are currently looked at for a possible replacement, due to the fuses blowing.. mostly when you reach the top or bottom of travel. I will try to do bit of research tomorrow and see if it has a ETL yet.

[Texas Camper]

Hello folks,
My wife and I just purchased a new 26 Jayco travel trailer and experienced the same problem of blowing the 30 amp fuse between the electric jack and the battery when raising the hitch to the fullest extent of the jack. I blew four fuses before I finally called the RV dealership. If I raise the jack all the way to the top, it will blow a fuse. The dealer rep said this is a safety precaution to prevent the motor from burning up. I don't think I believe his excuse. Has anyone found any more information regarding this problem or if there is a recall on the electric motor?

At the same time, something blew the fuse on my trailer's running lights. That 20 amp fuse for the trailer's running lights is found under the hood of my 2010 Ford 150 truck. By the way, a Ford dealership charges $7.00 for each small fuse and Advanced Auto Parts charges less than $1.00. Highway robbery!!!

Any additional info on this issue would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[SkyBound]

I found that if my trailer was ever connected to both shore power and tow vehicle power at the same time, that 30A fuse would sometimes blow. Ever since I adopted the practice of unhooking the truck connection before plugging into shore power, and removing shore power before plugging in the truck, I have not had a problem.

[eldermike]

Specifying a fuse for a low voltage motor is not an easy engineering task. Since I know this and deal with it in design all the time I fixed mine. I blew mine once and did away with it. Our company is not manufacturing a device in the proper size for these motors but I built one for my use. If the manufacture would contact me I could get them a sample to test for free. It's a simple design with 4 PTC's (positive temp. resistors) in parallel with glass epoxy hard sides for protection. It's inline with a 10 gage wire pigtail and can eaisly replace the inline fuse holder they currently use.

The advantage is it resets and will not reset on a constant fault (short). So it teaches you how to treat your motor by making you wait if you run it to long. It's different from an auto-reset breaker in that they continue to reset on a fault until you see smoke and flames, this will not do that.

[norty1]

After blowing a few at the top of their run, which is easy to do, I bought some 30a slow blow fuses and hung the container next to the fuse in the switch holder. They are there to protect the motor.

Never blown one since.

[Texas Camper]

Since I'm not too great with electricity, can I assume from the various comments that it's normal for these motors to blow a fuse? I think one option to prevent blowing fuses is to use a brick or board to raise the hitch height so that I don't hit the top end, which blows out the fuse. I'll try that option on our next trip with camper.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

[jtownstumpjumper]

Have had recent problem with no battery power to operate anything until I plug in my 110. Once I do that everything works fine...unplug from 110 and nothing on 12V power.....I'm sure it's a fuse somewhere...hopefully rains stop tonight here in Branson MO and I can start tomorrow morning chasing down my problem

[SouthCo]

Originally Posted by Texas Camper

Since I'm not too great with electricity, can I assume from the various comments that it's normal for these motors to blow a fuse? I think one option to prevent blowing fuses is to use a brick or board to raise the hitch height so that I don't hit the top end, which blows out the fuse. I'll try that option on our next trip with camper.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

On delivery the service guys who were setting up my WDH and walking me through hitching up said if I raised my power tongue jack all the way up or all the way down it would blow the fuse. They used a 6x6 block of wood under the jack foot pad and so do I....

[Texas Camper]

Apparently your service guy who set up your camper was a little brighter than mine. However, I did take a closer look at my power jack and they is a warning to not lower or raise it past a certain point. Dumb me!!!

[jtownstumpjumper]

Originally Posted by jtownstumpjumper

Have had recent problem with no battery power to operate anything until I plug in my 110. Once I do that everything works fine...unplug from 110 and nothing on 12V power.....I'm sure it's a fuse somewhere...hopefully rains stop tonight here in Branson MO and I can start tomorrow morning chasing down my problem

Yes, the problem this morning was a blown fuse (30 amp) on the positive side of my batteries...replaced and will see if problem repeats when we leave Sunday for home.....noticed problem occurred when operating tongue jack...will be watching to see how often this now occurs.

[baygirl]

I have blown the fuse on the front leveling jack. 26BHS 2016. I need to replace the fuse but don't know where it is located...help please.
Thanks!

[norty1]

I should be on one of the smaller leads leaving the positive battery terminal headed towards the jack. It is usually a inline 30a fuse.

[homer1959]

Its normal to blow that fuses, 30 amps is a lot, they should have installed limit switches on the jack but they would have been more expensive, so learn the power jack leg limit ;-) and you wont have any problem