We had a bit of a scare this spring. Anytime we ran a significant electrical load (like the microwave), we’d get wafts of that nasty electrical wiring burnt smell in the rig. When you’re in a confined space, like a boat or an RV, an electrical fire is exceedingly dangerous. On top of that, it can also be difficult to identify the offending wire or component. So we had to act fast.
Last summer, there were a couple of occasions we’d run an AC on battery power (which our system is easily rated for), but smelled that same bad smell then too. Since you need to turn these things off immediately, it makes troubleshooting based on scent more difficult. Since it was a rare occasion and we were newbies, thinking perhaps we’d done something wrong, we didn’t pursue it further with the dealership.
We should have pursued it further.
Now, determined to find the issue, we took a flashlight into every nook & cranny to inspect wires, connections, fuses, breakers, batteries, and the inverter charger. It took a while, since the original cause was located inside the Victron inverter where it wasn’t very visible, but that’s where we discovered this:
See the white wire coming out of the terminal box on the lower left? That’s the AC neutral out line (you can see a close-up at the top of the post). It’s not 100% certain, but it’s pretty likely the wire was inserted most—but not all—of the way into the terminal box. Thus the connection wasn’t very secure and every little bump Ellie experienced on the road created a gap and spark between contacts. This literally rippled through the system and showed up on the Victron VRM logs as a DC ripple high voltage.
Originally, I had reached out to Battle Born as well for help with determining the cause since we saw spurious, unpredictable voltage spikes as well. Turns out because of the excess current flow, our DC bus shunt had nearly melted, came off its mount, and was slowly burning its way into one of the four LiPO4 batteries.
This discovery changed everything. We had plans set, as many RVers do, to be at a particular place at a particular time (namely in this case to be at Ojo Caliente to celebrate a’s birthday with some friends) but in no way was our electrical system safe to use in any capacity. Thankfully Echo One Adventures out of Albuquerque came to the rescue by pushing back their schedule a bit to help us out. Not only that, Jordan there had another RV we could rent so we could still meet our friends at Ojo.
Needless to say, the replacement Victron Multiplus II inverter, Battle Born battery, shunt, and cabling added up to a not-insignificant sum. And because we were technically out of the warranty period when we discovered the original cause, the dealership unfortunately declined to take any responsibility. So here’s the lesson, boys and girls: When something feels amiss, it’s probably a good idea to have someone check it out if you’re not comfortable or knowledgeable enough to do so yourself. It could save you from experiencing a life-threatening fire at worst, and a few thousand dollar bill at a minimum.