Coleman Popup - Interior Lights Not Working

[Dan]

All,

I have a 1997 Coleman Santa Fe popup camper. We took it out this
weekend for the first time in a few months, and both interior celing
lights were not working. There are 4 bulbs in all and none appear to
be burnt out. All the outlets and exterior lights work fine. Any
ideas? I am pretty sure the camper does not have a fuse box.

Thanks,
Dan

[Brian V]

Post by Dan
All,
I have a 1997 Coleman Santa Fe popup camper. We took it out this
weekend for the first time in a few months, and both interior celing
lights were not working. There are 4 bulbs in all and none appear to
be burnt out. All the outlets and exterior lights work fine. Any
ideas? I am pretty sure the camper does not have a fuse box.
Thanks,
Dan

The camper should definately have a fuse box, it's usually right in the
inverter. There is also most likely a "kill switch" that turns off the
lights when the top is lowered. They can be located in quite a few places,
along the inside edge of the roof. on one of the support columns etc.

[AustinMN]

Post by Dan
All,
I have a 1997 Coleman Santa Fe popup camper. We took it out this
weekend for the first time in a few months, and both interior celing
lights were not working. There are 4 bulbs in all and none appear to
be burnt out. All the outlets and exterior lights work fine. Any
ideas? I am pretty sure the camper does not have a fuse box.

By far, the most common cause of this problem is something with the
kill switch. The kill switch is under the galley, and when you flip
the galley up into position it sets on the switch and turns it on.
Sometimes the switch gets out of alignment and won't quite turn on,
sometimes a wire comes off, and sometimes the switch goes bad.

There should be a fuse box that is part of the power converter if that
approach fails.

Austin

[Tomes]

Post by AustinMN

Post by Dan
All,
I have a 1997 Coleman Santa Fe popup camper. We took it out this
weekend for the first time in a few months, and both interior celing
lights were not working. There are 4 bulbs in all and none appear to
be burnt out. All the outlets and exterior lights work fine. Any
ideas? I am pretty sure the camper does not have a fuse box.

By far, the most common cause of this problem is something with the
kill switch. The kill switch is under the galley, and when you flip
the galley up into position it sets on the switch and turns it on.
Sometimes the switch gets out of alignment and won't quite turn on,
sometimes a wire comes off, and sometimes the switch goes bad.
There should be a fuse box that is part of the power converter if that
approach fails.
Austin

Good advice given by Brian and Austin, and I will add this. I used to have
a Coleman Destiny and the fuse was indeed part of the power converter, just
look at all the thingies on it. My fuse was loose just a bit and I needed
to fiddle with it sometimes to get it to power up. However, when this
happened I had no power to the lights nor to the outlets (IIRC). Also make
sure that the switch on the converter is set to the right setting (we used
to get frustrated only to finally look at the converter and see that some
gear slid around while traveling and switched the setting to a position
other than 110v source). I too am betting on the killswitch.

Please let us all know what it turns out to be.
Thanks,
Tomes

[Dan]

Thanks for the replies. I finally found the fuses on the converter.
None were burned out. I reset the breaker switches just to be sure. I
checked the continuity of the galley mounted kill switch with a
multimeter and it was ok. There was 15V going out of the kill switch
but no voltage at the light socket. As I said before, all the outlets
and exterior lights work fine.

Could there be another kill switch somewhere?

Thanks,
Dan

Post by Tomes

Post by AustinMN

Post by Dan
All,
I have a 1997 Coleman Santa Fe popup camper. We took it out this
weekend for the first time in a few months, and both interior celing
lights were not working. There are 4 bulbs in all and none appear to
be burnt out. All the outlets and exterior lights work fine. Any
ideas? I am pretty sure the camper does not have a fuse box.

By far, the most common cause of this problem is something with the
kill switch. The kill switch is under the galley, and when you flip
the galley up into position it sets on the switch and turns it on.
Sometimes the switch gets out of alignment and won't quite turn on,
sometimes a wire comes off, and sometimes the switch goes bad.
There should be a fuse box that is part of the power converter if that
approach fails.
Austin

Good advice given by Brian and Austin, and I will add this. I used to have
a Coleman Destiny and the fuse was indeed part of the power converter, just
look at all the thingies on it. My fuse was loose just a bit and I needed
to fiddle with it sometimes to get it to power up. However, when this
happened I had no power to the lights nor to the outlets (IIRC). Also make
sure that the switch on the converter is set to the right setting (we used
to get frustrated only to finally look at the converter and see that some
gear slid around while traveling and switched the setting to a position
other than 110v source). I too am betting on the killswitch.
Please let us all know what it turns out to be.
Thanks,
Tomes

[AustinMN]

Post by Dan
Thanks for the replies. I finally found the fuses on the converter.
None were burned out. I reset the breaker switches just to be sure. I
checked the continuity of the galley mounted kill switch with a
multimeter and it was ok. There was 15V going out of the kill switch
but no voltage at the light socket. As I said before, all the outlets
and exterior lights work fine.
Could there be another kill switch somewhere?

No, there's only one kill switch. But there is a plug. Somewhere, the
wires enter the canvas for the run up to the ceiling. The plug is
probably on the outside near the bottom of that run (so that the wires
can be disconnected for canvas maintenance/replacement). Sometimes it
comes unplugged. There may be another plug at the top on the inside.

Austin

[Dan]

That's what it was! The plug was embedded in the canvas at the top and
had come unplugged. Thanks for the help!

Dan

Post by AustinMN

Post by Dan
Thanks for the replies. I finally found the fuses on the converter.
None were burned out. I reset the breaker switches just to be sure. I
checked the continuity of the galley mounted kill switch with a
multimeter and it was ok. There was 15V going out of the kill switch
but no voltage at the light socket. As I said before, all the outlets
and exterior lights work fine.
Could there be another kill switch somewhere?

No, there's only one kill switch. But there is a plug. Somewhere, the
wires enter the canvas for the run up to the ceiling. The plug is
probably on the outside near the bottom of that run (so that the wires
can be disconnected for canvas maintenance/replacement). Sometimes it
comes unplugged. There may be another plug at the top on the inside.
Austin

[Tomes]

Cool, glad that you found it and thanks for letting us know.
Tomes

Post by Dan
That's what it was! The plug was embedded in the canvas at the top and
had come unplugged. Thanks for the help!
Dan

Post by AustinMN

Post by Dan
Thanks for the replies. I finally found the fuses on the converter.
None were burned out. I reset the breaker switches just to be sure. I
checked the continuity of the galley mounted kill switch with a
multimeter and it was ok. There was 15V going out of the kill switch
but no voltage at the light socket. As I said before, all the outlets
and exterior lights work fine.
Could there be another kill switch somewhere?

No, there's only one kill switch. But there is a plug. Somewhere, the
wires enter the canvas for the run up to the ceiling. The plug is
probably on the outside near the bottom of that run (so that the wires
can be disconnected for canvas maintenance/replacement). Sometimes it
comes unplugged. There may be another plug at the top on the inside.
Austin