camieduong
RVF Newbee
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2026
- Messages
- 2
I am a newbie and bought a 2018 Intech Explore early this year. We experienced the first fire during our camping trip last weekend. Please bear with me as I want to include all the detailed information for your guidance. Thank you in advance for reading and providing your feedback.
1) The previous owner installed the solar panels and the Renogy Charge Controller. We have the app to monitor the charging status.
2) We always leave the solar charging cable plugged in at home. Before we left home, we checked the app & the battery was fully charged.
3) We kept the solar charging plugged in during the 2 hour drive. We also plugged in the 7 pin trailer connector for the drive. There was nothing being charged inside the trailer, including the cooler.
4) At the camp site, we connected the trailer to the 30amp power source. We still kept the solar charging plugged in. Immediately we smelled the burning smoke inside the trailer. We tried turning on the ceiling lights and the fan and nothing worked.
5) We turned on the AC and it worked. All the outlets also worked.
6) We opened the electrical panel and saw a burnt mark on the last fuse (according to the label, it's the LP Shutoff, please kindly explain what it is for).
7) We turned off all the breakers and unplugged the 30amp power from the camp site. Then we replaced the burnt fuse with a new 15 amp fuse.
8) We turned everything from (7) back on. The lights / fan still didn't work.
9) We turned all the breakers off and on again. Unplugged and plugged the 30amp power again. Turned the lights on and still didn't work. However, there was burning sound and this time, the second to the last fuse (according to the label, the Vent) was burnt.
10) We turned off all the breakers, unplugged the 30amp, replaced the fuse, and turned everything on. Still no lights, but about a minute later, a small fire started inside the cooler/stove/battery compartment. It was from a vault (see the blue arrow on the attached photo) that has 2 lines out, 1 going to the original gas stove we removed, and the other going into the propane tank which we removed. Basically both lines are not connected to anything, and we left them unconnected under the slide-out, as we don't like to use propane or gas. Perhaps this is where we did wrong, as I recalled the "vault" was warm to touch when we disconnected the stove. We thought it would not be a problem since no propane tank was connected. Perhaps the battery continues to "warm" the vault and because the battery was overcharged, it made the vault extremely hot and started a fire??
11) So, the fire started at the vault, fortunately we caught it and used the fire distinguisher to put out the fire.
12) We were scared. We turned off the battery knob above the battery (the battery shutoff). Then we turned off the converter breaker (the last breaker on the panel).
13) We checked and no heat coming out of the vault (maybe it's dead?). We continued camping but left the converter breaker off. No lights during the trip, but we used the AC and the outlets just fine.
14) We are now back home. We am hoping someone can guide us as to what happened. The battery app says the battery is overcharged. Maybe we burned the fan and the lights? I am not sure. The Renogy Charger Controller is still off even after we turned the battery shutoff back to ON. We are currently not plugged into any 30amp source power.
We probably did some stupid things and made the matter worse. Please be kind in your guidance. We are trying to learn how the system works so we can hopefully fix it and avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Should we unplug the solar charger during our drive, or before plugging into the source power? Please note we did the same thing in our 3 prior trips (solar plugged in, 7 pin plugged in during the drive, and nothing happened, however the only difference was we also plugged in the cooler during the drive, so maybe it helped release the battery from being overcharged).
I included all the photos, including the "vault" covered in white powder from the fire extinguisher.
Also note, there is an RV Gas Detector (the black box) inside the trailer under the tip out bed. The light was red after we had disconnected the stove from the vault. We just "ignored" it...After the recent incident, there is no more light.
Thank you.
Camie
1) The previous owner installed the solar panels and the Renogy Charge Controller. We have the app to monitor the charging status.
2) We always leave the solar charging cable plugged in at home. Before we left home, we checked the app & the battery was fully charged.
3) We kept the solar charging plugged in during the 2 hour drive. We also plugged in the 7 pin trailer connector for the drive. There was nothing being charged inside the trailer, including the cooler.
4) At the camp site, we connected the trailer to the 30amp power source. We still kept the solar charging plugged in. Immediately we smelled the burning smoke inside the trailer. We tried turning on the ceiling lights and the fan and nothing worked.
5) We turned on the AC and it worked. All the outlets also worked.
6) We opened the electrical panel and saw a burnt mark on the last fuse (according to the label, it's the LP Shutoff, please kindly explain what it is for).
7) We turned off all the breakers and unplugged the 30amp power from the camp site. Then we replaced the burnt fuse with a new 15 amp fuse.
8) We turned everything from (7) back on. The lights / fan still didn't work.
9) We turned all the breakers off and on again. Unplugged and plugged the 30amp power again. Turned the lights on and still didn't work. However, there was burning sound and this time, the second to the last fuse (according to the label, the Vent) was burnt.
10) We turned off all the breakers, unplugged the 30amp, replaced the fuse, and turned everything on. Still no lights, but about a minute later, a small fire started inside the cooler/stove/battery compartment. It was from a vault (see the blue arrow on the attached photo) that has 2 lines out, 1 going to the original gas stove we removed, and the other going into the propane tank which we removed. Basically both lines are not connected to anything, and we left them unconnected under the slide-out, as we don't like to use propane or gas. Perhaps this is where we did wrong, as I recalled the "vault" was warm to touch when we disconnected the stove. We thought it would not be a problem since no propane tank was connected. Perhaps the battery continues to "warm" the vault and because the battery was overcharged, it made the vault extremely hot and started a fire??
11) So, the fire started at the vault, fortunately we caught it and used the fire distinguisher to put out the fire.
12) We were scared. We turned off the battery knob above the battery (the battery shutoff). Then we turned off the converter breaker (the last breaker on the panel).
13) We checked and no heat coming out of the vault (maybe it's dead?). We continued camping but left the converter breaker off. No lights during the trip, but we used the AC and the outlets just fine.
14) We are now back home. We am hoping someone can guide us as to what happened. The battery app says the battery is overcharged. Maybe we burned the fan and the lights? I am not sure. The Renogy Charger Controller is still off even after we turned the battery shutoff back to ON. We are currently not plugged into any 30amp source power.
We probably did some stupid things and made the matter worse. Please be kind in your guidance. We are trying to learn how the system works so we can hopefully fix it and avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Should we unplug the solar charger during our drive, or before plugging into the source power? Please note we did the same thing in our 3 prior trips (solar plugged in, 7 pin plugged in during the drive, and nothing happened, however the only difference was we also plugged in the cooler during the drive, so maybe it helped release the battery from being overcharged).
I included all the photos, including the "vault" covered in white powder from the fire extinguisher.
Also note, there is an RV Gas Detector (the black box) inside the trailer under the tip out bed. The light was red after we had disconnected the stove from the vault. We just "ignored" it...After the recent incident, there is no more light.
Thank you.
Camie
