Beware of bumps

There are times when you're towing your caravan when you hit a speed bump, or another road user  forces you to hit a pothole that you were trying to avoid.

You grit your teeth and  wait for the big bang...but , most times, everything seems to remain intact.

We had a customer earlier this week who had hit a big bump in the verge with his caravan some months ago, when trying to avoid an oncoming and unyielding timber truck. He stopped shortly afterwards and inspected his unit, which seemed to have escaped with no damage.

On arriving at a local site at the weekend, he connectedhis hook up but the miniature circuit breaker that supplied his charger, lights and water heater just kept tripping, leaving him unable to charge his battery.

On inspection we found the PCB of the charger looked like this

and what should have been the core of the transformer looked like this-

We suspect that the core fractured when he was forced off the road but the main parts stayed attached to the transformer for months, until his visit to the area, when one of the broken parts caused a short between a transformer terminal and some of the components on the PCB.

At least the protective devices worked  and prevented any major issues and, to be honest , it would have been be a very difficult issue to identify, prior to it causing the charger to fail. So, in the words of Inspector Clouseau, you should always expect the unexpected...........

Solar woes

Solar panels are one of the most popular ways of maintaining good battery charge levels when not on hook up .

They are reliable, resonably effective ( if large enough) and good value for money.

They can though, like most electrical devices , be dangerous.

The photograph below shows the negative cable , or rather what's left of it, from a  solar installation we looked at recently. It is possible that  charge controller was faulty and the  wiring was undersized and all of the insulation has melted, leaving the bare conductor exposed. Both have now been replaced

So make sure you check the condition of your 12 volt cabling, It's easy to  think  that , being 12 volt , it's perfectly safe ....but it can still start a fire.