Things to Know About Circuit Breakers and Fuses in Your Caravan

Caravanning can be called, a home away from home and that is because we carry along quite a stuff that you have back at home. And one those things is electricity. Well, practically we do not carry electricity along but our modern vehicles and RVs/campers are designed to provide the electric supply to us.

All the wiring and circuitry work calls for breakdowns and maintenance and so it becomes important for us to understand the anatomy of the electrical system in our caravans.

One of the common problems with the electrical system is the flow of excess current. The excess current can wreak havoc and to save yourself from that, there are fuses and circuit breakers.

Fuses

Fuses are the small metal wires that get heated up and blow up when excess current flows through the circuit and Thus save the devices. Once a fuse blows up, you need to change it. The fuses in your caravan power the lights, stereo and other things which run on DC 12 volt. They are very cheap and has various types, like- automotive fuses, glass barrel fuses and relay fuses. Automotive and glass barrel fuses work similar, the filament inside them burns up and seizes the current flow. On the other hand relay fuses are automatic fuses which trip on overheating (flow of excess current) and get back on when they cool down. They continue to do this until the problem is fixed or the relay burns out. Fuses are easily available at all the hardware stores.

Circuit Breakers

A circuit breaker is an electrical switch that breaks the flow of the excess current by tripping. Circuit breakers are relatively expensive as compared to fuses and are complex to install. Although circuit breakers are safe as compared to fuses and easy to spot (a tripped one) and can be switched back to ‘on’ without any hassle. On the other hand, one can’t make out by just seeing a fuse if it is bad or good. You need to manually check each fuse by either pulling each one out and checking the filament or by a light tester (which actually saves a lot of time and energy). Anyway, if you are saved by a light tester, nothing could save you from the tedious and dangerous (at times when caution not taken) job of changing a blown out fuse.

Both the fuses and circuit breakers are on the fuse panel of the caravan and all you need to do is locate and open it.

Well, now it must be completely clear everything you either were not knowing or wanted to know about fuses and circuit breakers in your caravan. Next time you hit the road on a camping trip, carry along spare fuses, a light tester and needle nose pliers to change a fuse and for a tripped circuit breaker, you just need to switch it back ‘on’.