Problem with hydraulic pump.

[bajarick]

Been on the road for three weeks. Baja to South Dakota and now headed back home. Pushed an extra 150 miles yesterday til sundown. Went to put up the camper and nothing! Checked the fuse and looked for something loose. Zippo. Drove to a hotel and waiting for a parts store to buy a new fuse. Any other things to check? I'm close to Phoenix and don't want to hotel it all the way home!

 

[enelson]

Check the battery voltage. Then the voltage at the pump when trying to run the pump if you can. It's possible the motor burned up, but seems unlikely if the sound was normal during the last time raised. If voltage is low at the pump you can inspect the wire to see if there is a butt splice or wire nut that has come loose.

When we first got our camper years ago we had an issue when the battery voltage dropped to the lower useable range. The wiring for the pump on our camper ran up to the power converter and then back down to the pump. The wire gauge was also undersized for the pump load of 20A. All that wire length and the small size caused a sizable power drop by the time the power reached the pump. I ran some larger gauge wire directly to the pump and it has run way better ever since.

 

[bajarick]

Thanks. Just changed the fuse. No go. Trying to get to the switch wires.

 

[enelson]

My switch has screw terminals that could come loose. I have star washers for vibration and wrapped with electrical tape to prevent shorting the terminals from bumping against something inside the cabinet. The switch seems durable, but you never know.

You could try a direct connection to see if the pump motor is still working.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Thanks. Just changed the fuse. No go. Trying to get to the switch wires.

If you don’t have a multimeter (amps/volts/resistance) getting one would be very helpful in wringing out your circuits. Digital multimeters are not expensive, and they’ve saved the bacon for many of us.

 

[bajarick]

Thanks all. Had an electrician come to us. He spent a good hour tryiing to figure out what was happening. The ground from the pump wasn't grounded. Something was shorted. Ran wires direct off the battery to get it going. I'll try to clean it up a bit when I get home. Annoying but we're camping again!