Celtic Rover
Unlike the Carlsberg beer advert, troubleshooting my light bar and setting up the new spotlights was not an easy task simply because I was a bit scared of the complexity of the system. As a reminder Nelson has
- Three linked batteries
- Battery management system to monitor voltage, charging and prevent the camper running down the driving battery, this allows a jump start from the reserve batteries if needed
- Solar panel and charge management system for that
- Invertor for AC power from the batteries
- External campsite mains hook up
- Compressor system for tyres, tools and inbuilt with dash switches for diff lockers
- Raptor panel to control all this plus extra, boost, temp, oil pressure gauges
- Three fuse boards
- Electrical kill key for the main battery and the camper systems
So my light bar was not working and new spotlights were fitted but not yet wired in. To solve the light bar problem I had to research and understand the light bar itself, the carling switches on the raptor panel (these have five or six pins not just a simple on and off) and the extra fuse box attached to the kill switch and finally the operation of high current relays which provide power to the light bar.
Ultimately the problem was a blown fuse in the line to the relay for the light bar, and a positive feed wire which was knocked off the back of the Carling switch, easy to say but much head scratching and internet searching was needed to sort things out in my mind.
Finally the light bar was working
One very helpful troubleshooting tool was my multimeter which can be seen in the picture above, other bits I carry include
- Electrical tape and duct tape
- Cable ties of various sorts
- A full set of different fuses and lights
- Red and Black 20Amp and 5Amp cable
- Lots of cable joining and terminating bits in a box
- Wire stripper crimper
- Solder and solder iron, small burner
- Test light with cable and crocodile clips,
- Bypass cable with croc clips to test connections
- Drill and bits for making holes
At the moment I am trying to do any work on the truck with my on board tools as practice for the bigger travels, so far so good including a full service on my own, serpentine belt change and this troubleshooting
March 2017
Gerry
