Learned a lesson the hard way. For those of you who have popups and the converter underneath the dining seat. When you popup in the driveway at home temporarily and don't raise the table, remember to be sure air can circulate to the converter. I ran the a/c to cool the camper down to look at some mods I wanted to do. Temperature in camper when I turned it on was 104 f. Day before yesterday the breaker kicked and that is when I discovered the box right in front of the converter. Cleared the area, reset breaker and worked alright. Yesterday temp about the same in camper so turned the a/c on let it cool down and started the mods and the a/c quit. Checked the breaker and it wasn't thrown so I turned it off and back on checked short power and overhead lights were working. Turned the air back on and as soon as I hit low cool and the compressor kicked on I saw sparks and smoke on breaker side of converter. Breaker didn't throw and I turned it off real quick. Upon closer look hot wire going to breaker bar was burnt and behind the breaker plate was smoked. Was wondering if anyone knows if just the breaker area of converter can be repaired or will I have to buy new converter? I can get a direct replacement for about 100 bucks plus breakers and doesn't look too complicated to replace. What would you do? Have email sent to dealer to see what their cost an opinions are. Oh yeah, ran power from house to a/c and it is working fine. Didn't kick any breakers and cooled down real good.

Do you know the name and model of the converter? I will do a search on it and see what I can tell about it. I have a few questions being new to camping and also since I have a vintage one. My camper just had a breaker box and breakers. What you are calling a converter? Is this the device that changes the 12 volts to 120? Most of the time when I have had trouble with breakers and wiring overheating and burning it is due to the wires not being tight or too much current being pulled. . If you have aluminum wires it can work loose due to the current. I replaced quite a few breakers due to it. So when you replace make sure all are tight. I am familiar with converters,power supplies and other stuff like this. I have worked in maintainence,Have a degree in electronics and now I work on computers. So maybe I can help. 100 bucks doesn't sound bad but if you can buy a new replaceable terminal strip for 20 bucks that would sound good too.

The converter is a Centurion 3000 cs1200 12 amp. I goggled it an found a replacement for it for $99.50 plus breakers. It changes 120v to 12v and charges your battery. It has copper wiring and from the looks of it, all the damage is behind the panel where the breaker snaps on. The hot wire attached to the lug at top of breaker panel is where it burnt the insulation off the wire and the flat panel looks burnt around the edges. I was wondering if just that part was a replaceable part. The breaker its self looks ok, I am going to check the continuity on it tomorrow. I have a brother-in-law that is an electrician and I am going to ask him about it also. I probably would be better off just to replace the whole converter and that way I won't have to worry about it. Or I could run the a/c from the power panel and by-pass the breaker. I have breaker pulled now and am going to try the converter to see if the 12v system is working. I know none of the 120 plug-in will work with the breaker pulled. That would be jury rigging it though.

I am not sure if you could replace it without rigging it somehow. If you do go the route of replacing What will you do with the old one? I wouldn't mind getting one that has a good charging and 12 volt supply circuit. If the charging and supply circuit was bad I can buy one for the cost of parts. I don't care about the breakers because all of my 12 volt stuff is fused. I work in computers and electronics so I could get one like that setup. Don't forget ebay, I saw some by that brand for 50 and 89 buy it now. I may get one of those there myself. Sometimes stuff like this is priced so cheap the parts to fix it costs more than a replacement. I have had way to much junk stuff that wasn't worth fixing for people.

Hey Willy, you don't happen to have a bad converter that I could cannobalize do you. I need the buss bar and insulator for 2 breakers. Have the old one out and it is a replaceable part if I can just find the part. Talk to my brother in law and he said he had seen a lot of panels burn out like that and that if I can find a new bus bar and buy two new breakers that it should be ok. If anyone else has an old converter lying around that maybe quit converting but the breaker panel is still good, let me know. I am going to check a few of the electrical distribution places tomorrow to see if I can find one or something similar that I can modify and use.

I don't have any converters like that. Most of what I work on any more is computers and that type stuff. But what you might can do is check with some of the local camping places in your area. If it is a Screw type connector that you put wires in I may have some. If it is some type flat bar like in a breaker box I probably would not. If it is a breaker box type piece and you don't find it have your brother in law ask around. You may get lucky and he may find one. Do you have a picture of what you need of the bad part? If so send it to my email at wrtyoung@hotmail.com. I got a lot of junk I will look through if I know what I am looking for. If I have the part its yours.

here is a few pictures of what I need looks like. It is 3 1/4 by 2 1/2. This is what the breakers mount on.

Willy and anyone else, just found the part that I need 4 miles from the house at a trailer sales that I had forgotten about. The service man just gave me the whole converter with the bus bar in it and it hasn't been burnt. Just a minor technicality of taking the old bus bar out and putting it in mine. Thanks for all you help and suggestions.

Glad you found your part... now you can make it to KOA next month

Thats great. One thing I would do is to save the old one you use for parts. I usually save bad items that I have one that works. Like most people buy a junker for parts when they restore a vehicle.