Uhhhhhhh....Power outage?

I run a second cord as well and just stick it through the slide before I open it all the way.

I added an extra plug recepticle to my trailer a few years ago. The device that I used was this one from West Marine.

With all the cool weather we had down in Florida, we needed a way to run our electric heater without going through the trailers electrical system. I put in a waterproof outside receptical and inside outlet in the side of our slide out. Now we can run the electric heater without worrying about tripping the trailers breaker. This also allows us to use the elec frying pan or toaster while also using the water heater on electric and and the coffee maker. Same goes in hot weather when we want to use the air conditioner and some other combination of electric appliances. Works great!
Barney





Quite simple mod.

1. I first determined where the studs were by tapping around on the outside. Then drilled a 2" hole ( I think that was the size) through the outside wall.

2.Cut an opening in the inside wall about 6 inches to the side of the outside hole for the inside plug outlet and box.

3.Snaked a 12/2 wire from outside over to inside hole.

4.Connected outside receptical to wire and mounted it on wall.

5.Connected inside receptical to wire and mounted it on the wall.

6.Checked wiring job with outlet checker - everything showed ok.

7.Plugged in the heater and it worked fine! :)
Barney

If you intend to "push" the outlet with a 1500 watt heater, it may be best to replace it with a standard home type rather than the junk ones that are in your RV.

Plug 1 heater into regular outlet. 2nd heater plug into say micro outlet w/ good med duty ext cord. All this if you have 30 amp service. We found out the same way that 1 heater is ok but 2 isn't cuz all reg outlets on same circuit.

Those GFCI's go bad sometimes and just keep tripping. You may emd up replacing it.

I too run a second extension cord plugged into the 20AMP Service at the camp ground pedestal for running our Oil Filled Electric heater. The 20AMP Service has it own breaker on the pedestal.

Typical camp ground Power pedestal...

Google Image

This does not take away from anything on our 30AMP Shore Power...

Been doing this for several years and works out great for us...

Roy Ken

Mine is not a 5er, but ... electricity is electricity regardless of RV type though.

If we run some appliances / air conditioner / etc at the same time, we have also blown breakers too, at the shore power pole and inside the camper.

We have found we cannot run things normally (AC electricity) when we have 2 electric heaters on at the same time. Ours are smaller ceramic type heaters, but both are 1500 watt.

One by itself will run just fine and breakers never pop. Two at the same time will cause something to pop.

In order to get around that, we run a separate extension cord (120 household electric construction-orange colored cord) from the shore power plug to inside the camper and use that for a dedicated line for the second space heater.

I get this extension cord into the camper by using the same hole where the trailer's 30 amp cord comes through. I did a little wiring modification for my 30 amp plug to install a surge protector, so when I did that, I made it available to access that area where all the trailer's extension cord rolls up. I can insert the orange extension cord from the outside and pull it inside this way without having to go through any windows or anything. The access is right at the rear of the camper, so the space heater has a great and safe place to sit and run that is not a fire danger.

Since we started doing this, we've never popped another breaker.

This is something you may consider. If one of your space heaters runs successfully on 1500 watts without popping breakers, run a second (normal) 50 or 100 foot extension cord from the shore power post to the camper as a dedicated separate line.

Now, if your shore power hook-up does not have a second plug for a regular household 15-20 amp plug, then of course, you won't be able to do this.

Good luck! Glad you finally found your problem and it really was an easy fix!

Edit:

We have found we cannot run an electric griddle and an electric skillet at the same time through the camper wiring. Although there is an outside plug on the camper, which is absolutely convenient when using electric cooking devices outside, the trailer just can't handle it when 2 are running at the same time. Breakers always pop.

So, even if using our electric skillet / and / or electric griddle outside, I always run that same orange cord to the picnic table from the shore power cord. I have never been in a campground yet that did not have the additional 15-20 amp receptical at the power pole. And, I can always run both appliance at the same time through this same cord. This is something you may consider ... just run an extension cord from the shore power post to whatever high energy electric device you are using. Inside the camper (if we use the electric skillet or griddle), I pull the orange extension cord on through and plug in the electric griddle with it, never through the camper wiring now. It works for us ... wonderfully!

Disregard, found my issue. GFCI was in fact still tripped. While I was checking fuses, wife was checking GFCI in bathroom, thought the green light was normal for the circuit to be on and thus left it alone and called it good..
reset the GFCI 10 minutes ago and all is well.

Yes to all of the above.... All other power outlets, lights, A/C, fridges, microwave are working just fine. Shore power was checked, turned off for 10 seconds and turned back on, still no change in power at the 2 outlets on my center island. All 12 volt systems are working fine as well. Affected breaker was turned all the way off and has been reset successfully a half-dozen times during troubleshooting. Bathroom GFCI was reset without issue as well. Thank you for the sanity check, but I am still at a loss to explain how the outlets remain unpowered.

Is there other in RV electric working? Have you checked the shore power breaker ? Did you turn the breaker all the way off then all the way back on again? Sometimes just turning it on (without turning it all the way off) does not reset a breaker.