Removed furnace, fridge no work

[Gypsy-Monk]

Ok well, ive got photos of everything, however this site times out attempting to load them.

There is 110v and no 12vdc going to the fridge control board.

There were actually 8 wires in total feeding the furnace: a yellow, a white, a red/black, and two green/white. When i say red/black or green/white, i mean a green wire and a white wire manufactured to run together as one cable.

Soon as i can i'll load pics to make this whole thing much clearer.

[chuckster57]

Ok, let’s see if we can get this mapped out and fixed:

Your FURNACE has 4 wires, should be 2 blue, and probably a red and yellow.

The 2 blue are the thermostat connections, the other two are 12V positive and ground.

The 2 “sets” of stranded wires: use an OHM meter and test for 12V. That will be your power to the furnace, if the other “set” of stranded wires DONT have 12V, then test for continuity from those to the fridge. If you have continuity there is your 12V power to the fridge.

The 2 “single” wires are the thermostat and hook to the 2 blue wires from the furnace.

[Gypsy-Monk]

This should help.

[chuckster57]

Can you post a pic of the furnace wires?

[Gypsy-Monk]

That first pic of the wires comming outta the wall with black gorilla tape on the wall is the furnace wires.

[chuckster57]

So the furnace is still in the trailer?

I’m trying to get a view of the 4 wires the furnace manufacturer had from the furnace.

[Gypsy-Monk]

Nah, i grabbed the furnace off the floor, ripped it outta the wall, and cut the wires comming out of the wall to the furnace. Those are the wires.

The furnace is most likely in a landfill or being melted down for scrap at this point. Dumpster pickup has come twice since i tossed that monstrosity.

[chuckster57]

Ok. get a Volt/Ohm meter and do the following:

The set of wires with the green and white, test for 12VDC with the white as ground and the green as positive. ONE set of those should be "hot".

Then look at the wires coming to the fridge from the trailer, are they white and green by chance? if so verify they are by using the OHM's/ Continuity function of the meter.

IF they are then just connect the two white/green wires together making sure the green is to green and the white is to white. Butt connectors are fine to use just do the whites first.

[Gypsy-Monk]

Very nice, Chuckster! Connected the white green wires as you suggested and "BAM!"...fridge workie now.

Hey chuckster, you dnt happen to be a sign guy would ya? Got a brother in the sign business that has an old real good friend named chuck. Thnk he lives out Canyon Lake though.

[chuckster57]

Sorry, nope. I was an Aircraft painter at World Airways in Oakland before I started with the State of Calif. in 1984.

[LHaven]

Power to your fridge is definitely not daisychained through the furnace. That would imply a series connection, which would deliver 6V to both your furnace and your refrigerator when both were running. That's simply too wrong for anybody to do.

If there were four wires to your furnace, you had one positive, one negative, and two thermostat which are signal wires. There isn't anywhere else for a daisychain to go.

[jasin1]

when they were building the trailer they likely just ran one wire long enough to reach the refrigerator and furnace instead of a home run for each back to the panel….used one 12 volt fuse……left enough slack to pull the wire into the furnace junction box..cut it and connect the furnace to the pos and neg wires…end of wire connected to refrigerator.
….In some parts of the country or with some peoples camping styles they may never even use the furnace so nuisance blown fuses aren’t as likely and the wire and fuse are sized to handle both loads…they probably saved $1.67 doing it that way lol

[JRTJH]

Here are a couple of photos of what the "wiring" looks like in most travel trailers. Looking at the OP's photo of the wires he cut, I'd suspect that the Green/White wire is the "dedicated refrigerator 12 VDC power," the Yellow/White is the "dedicated furnace 12 VDC power" and the Blue/Red is the "thermostat wiring".

As you can see in the photos below, being in a cramped space, on your belly, frustrated and cold, it would be very easy to "cut a couple of adjacent wires that have NOTHING to do with furnace removal" .....

Probably just an "honest mistake" ...

[Gypsy-Monk]

Everything works fine now. Chuckster and i figured it out.

[Bill-2020]

You might want to look into those melted neutral 120V wires to the left of the breakers in your photos... I see melted wire insulation and black copper. Not Good. Old problems or new?

[LHaven]

One old point:

Originally Posted by Gypsy-Monk

I have doubts that the furnace blower ran of 12v DC, but that is most likely neither here nor there.

All propane furnaces run on 12V... or else you'd freeze your butt off boondocking.

[CedarCreekWoody]

Originally Posted by Bill-2020

You might want to look into those melted neutral 120V wires to the left of the breakers in your photos... I see melted wire insulation and black copper. Not Good. Old problems or new?

Good catch! Those wires have definitely overheated. Might be as simple as loose connections but should certainly be investigated.

[Kirk's Keystone Outback.]

Originally Posted by Gypsy-Monk

Everything works fine now. Chuckster and i figured it out.

I recall Chuck figuring it out…

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by Bill-2020

You might want to look into those melted neutral 120V wires to the left of the breakers in your photos... I see melted wire insulation and black copper. Not Good. Old problems or new?

Good catch, those white neutral wires connected to the common buss were definitely hot. Any idea why? Power cord/connection at the pole?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Bill-2020

You might want to look into those melted neutral 120V wires to the left of the breakers in your photos... I see melted wire insulation and black copper. Not Good. Old problems or new?

That entire bus bar looks black if my eyes aren't deceiving me. OP might want to do some close inspections/testing to see what is going on - that could have some really bad consequences.