Help with 12V outlet troubleshooting

[Mark_C]

Bought a used RoadTrek CS Adventurous 2014. Doing some upgrades. There's a 12V cigarette lighter style outlet in a cupboard, but it is not working properly. I have replaced the outlet fitting to be sure that the is not the cause. But what I get is 12.6V with a meter on the wires and the outlet. But when I plug in a cigarette lighter style sensor that reads 7.0V. And if I plug in any charging units (i.e. any load) they do not work, presumably because the voltage is too low. There are 2 other identical 12V outlets in the van running from the house batteries and they both work fine at 12V with loads. Looks like hassle to trace the wires as I don't have any diagrams and they disappear behind the cabinetry. See photo.
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?
TIA
Mark

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Mark_C

Bought a used RoadTrek CS Adventurous 2014. Doing some upgrades. There's a 12V cigarette lighter style outlet in a cupboard, but it is not working properly. I have replaced the outlet fitting to be sure that the is not the cause. But what I get is 12.6V with a meter on the wires and the outlet. But when I plug in a cigarette lighter style sensor that reads 7.0V. And if I plug in any charging units (i.e. any load) they do not work, presumably because the voltage is too low. There are 2 other identical 12V outlets in the van running from the house batteries and they both work fine at 12V with loads. Looks like hassle to trace the wires as I don't have any diagrams and they disappear behind the cabinetry. See photo.
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?
TIA
Mark

i have owned a roadtrek at one time. I did not have cs. the other 2 12 volt outlets-are they the vans or roadtrek installed. I do know-at least on mine-all the 12 volt outlets roadtrek installed were on 1 10 amp circuit. seemed stupid to me if you wanted multiple 12 volt outlets used at same time. I also remember the awning being on same circuit.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Mark_C

Bought a used RoadTrek CS Adventurous 2014. Doing some upgrades. There's a 12V cigarette lighter style outlet in a cupboard, but it is not working properly. I have replaced the outlet fitting to be sure that the is not the cause. But what I get is 12.6V with a meter on the wires and the outlet. But when I plug in a cigarette lighter style sensor that reads 7.0V. And if I plug in any charging units (i.e. any load) they do not work, presumably because the voltage is too low. There are 2 other identical 12V outlets in the van running from the house batteries and they both work fine at 12V with loads. Looks like hassle to trace the wires as I don't have any diagrams and they disappear behind the cabinetry. See photo.
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?
TIA
Mark

I think that would normally indicate a bad ground or a a poor connection (high resistance) in the 12 wiring to the outlet.

[mikeehlert]

Agree with booster, poor connection somewhere. Good luck tracing the wires.

[GallenH]

Just out of curiosity: You say that the wires to the outlet are 12+V and when you plug a volt reader into the outlet it reads 6V. When you plugged in the volt reader, did you also test the wires going into the socket? Did they also show a drop to 6V? Or is the 6V reading coming solely from reader?

[John Ross]

I have a 1998 Roadtrek 190, the 12V outlets in the entertainment compartment wouldn't operate 12V stuff, like Garmin and satellite radio.
I never got around to tracing it out and just used another source.
Since you have a similar problem, it got me thinking that it might be a lower voltage for the TV and VCR that were there in the entertainment cabinet when I got it. I never used them, just installed a larger TV and us my computer to feed programs through my Apple TV.

[Hatteras Jim]

As stated before, either a bad ground or primary wire. With your VM plugged into the outlet, run a wire from a good ground (negative battery terminal is ideal) and touch the outside of the outlet. If your voltage increases, you have a ground issue. If you still read low voltage than you have probably have trouble in the primary wiring circuit. Start with the fuse block and read the voltage on either side of the fuse. If OK, then look at the wire going to the outlet. Is it brittle? Hard? Discolored? This may indicate an overload at some point in time and the cure is to splice in another wire where the damage area is, making sure you get back to bright and shiny copper. A nicked wire or pinched wire could cause the issue as well. Sometimes, it is easier to cut the wire at both ends and run a new wire from the fuse block to the outlet. Good luck.