oh what have I done?

[CanuckRV]

I was doing some work in my 97 Roadtrek Popular 190 yesterday I had winterized it last weekend and removed the house batteries. Yesterday I was doing something in the battery compartment when the two leads that go to the inverter touched there was a spark, the inverter is not hooked up to any power source where did the power come from to cause the spark and have I damaged the inverter? It would be a job to get the batteries from storage to test the inverter. I thought I would be safe with nothing hooked up either 12 or 120 volts
Thanks for your input.

[booster]

Originally Posted by CanuckRV

I was doing some work in my 97 Roadtrek Popular 190 yesterday I had winterized it last weekend and removed the house batteries. Yesterday I was doing something in the battery compartment when the two leads that go to the inverter touched there was a spark, the inverter is not hooked up to any power source where did the power come from to cause the spark and have I damaged the inverter? It would be a job to get the batteries from storage to test the inverter. I thought I would be safe with nothing hooked up either 12 or 120 volts
Thanks for your input.

How big the spark was would help determine where it came from. If it was a small spark, it would likely be from the capacitors in the converter and perhaps any other 12v stuff plugged in. If it was a big spark where they might even try to stick together it would have to come from the starting battery and that would mean that it is connected to the coach which should only happen when the engine is running. If the engine was not, you probably would have a failed isolator or it is bypassed.


If you have solar and where in the sunlight that would be a prime place for it to come from and that one could do damage to 12v stuff as it will be higher voltage. But damage from the solar would have happened as soon as you took the cables off so you wouldn't know about the damage then. Battery voltage from the starting battery shouldn't hurt anything

[CanuckRV]

it was a small spark nothing else was connected to the Inverter. The spark came at the ends of the cables that would normally attach to the battery they just happened to bump together.

[booster]

Originally Posted by CanuckRV

it was a small spark nothing else was connected to the Inverter. The spark came at the ends of the cables that would normally attach to the battery they just happened to bump together.

Then you probably did no harm as long as there is no solar. It is always a good idea to tape the ends of the cables when you take them off, just to certain of not having bad things happen.


If the cables are untaped and touching themselves, tray, chassis, etc and you start the van, you could have a big ugly short which is a fire hazard and can do some damage.


Remove the negative first and tape, then positive and tape.

[Strider1]

What kind of tape should I use on neg cable to protect from contact?

[DaveBad]

Black electrical tape will work. I also stuff my cables into a couple of sections of pool floaties while in storage.

[Strider1]

Great idea! Thank you.