Basement Lighting

[Texas Clodhopper]

The basement lighting in my 2017 Ventana 4369 has never worked except by using the on/off switch located next to the passenger seat. The lights all work but the door activated switch does nothing. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Neal]

Mine worked and then stopped, I found a loose white/ground in a relay behind the pegboard. I got really lucky! I thought I hit something with a screw when adding things to the basement walls.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

Thanks, Neal. I'll take a look and hopefully will get lucky.

 

[Stuart S]

The basement lighting in my 2017 Ventana 4369 has never worked except by using the on/off switch located next to the passenger seat. The lights all work but the door activated switch does nothing. Any advice would be appreciated.

You have one or more plunger switch’s out of adjustment, this is what I want you to try;
With lights on open one bay door and operate the plunger switch, if nothing changes disconnect that plunger wire and leave that bay door open.

Open the next bay door and repeat the above procedure, if nothing changes with plunger, disconnect the wire from the plunger and leave the bay door open

Repeat this on each door until you get to a door that when you push the plunger the light goes out. At this point grab the plunger bracket of that plunger and bend it towards the outside of the bay, towards the back of the closed bay door. Shut that door, if the light goes out with door closed your done, reconnect all door one at a time testing by shutting that door.

In some rare cases (more then one plunger switch is out of adjusted ) you may need to open all of the doors and disconnect all of the plungers, the lights should be off. Next one by one reconnect one plunger at a time, shut that door light should go out, if not adjust plunger bracket
Let me know if you need help, stuart

 

[Stuart S]

For every Newmar owner with this type of bay lighting system I recommend periodically running this test:
With master bay light switch on, go outside and open one bay door and operate the plunger switch. If light goes on and off with the plunger shut that door and go to another bay door, operate the plunger, if the lights go on and off with the plunger your done and the system is good.
If the light stays on with the second door plunger switch, run the procedure I listed in previous post, starting with the first door you tested.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

Great information and makes sense, Stuart. Thanks.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

Neal/Stuart, maybe this should be added to the resource section...good info.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

Stuart S, I removed all the wires and the lights never went off. Next? The relay that Neal referred too?

 

[Neal]

In my case with the relay issue the lights never came ON. If your lights are ON then your relays are good. You most likely have a door plunger switch stuck open. I misread your original situation, I thought you were NOT getting lights at all.

 

[Stuart S]

Stuart S, I removed all the wires and the lights never went off. Next? The relay that Neal referred too?

did you also include the wet bay and electric bay? Also engine and front compartment.

 

[Stuart S]

Also for clarification, you opened all bay doors and unplugged all plunges at the same time and lights stayed on

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

I did the wet bay and electric bay but I don't find a plunger or light in either the front or engine bay. I will look again tomorrow. I opened all the bay doors that have a plunger and left them open.

 

[Stuart S]

I did the wet bay and electric bay but I don't find a plunger or light in either the front or engine bay. I will look again tomorrow. I opened all the bay doors that have a plunger and left them open.

 

[Stuart S]

TC, you said you left them all open, where they also all unplugged ? What the plungers do is connect the ground to the lights when the plunger (s) are not pushed in(doors closed). Any one plunger grounds all of the lights. If you have unplugged all of the plungers and the lights are still on it is my guess that someware the ground wire is shorted to ground, while your unplugging them take a look at the wire going to the plungers. BTW I didn’t expect the hood or hatch would have a plunger, just checking.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

They were all unplugged with all the doors open and all the lights were on.

 

[NWIP]

I don’t believe there is a plunger for hood or engine bay for any Newmar models

 

[JoeHogan]

I found that the engine bay light on a Canyon Star, Ford F53 chassis, is on a different circuit than the rest of the basement lights. My basement lights have a short somewhere but the engine compartment light still works.