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philandterri's avatar
philandterri
Explorer
May 25, 2015

Electric

We have a 2006 Fleetwood Bounder 32W on a ford chassis. Half of our 120 volt power is not working either on shore power or generator. Found only one ground fault breaker near the stove, checked all breakers. What next?
  • Assuming that GFCI is functioning properly check the bathroom for another one.
  • Yep, we got tired of the bathroom GFCI knocking out the satellite receiver and other appliances when it was accidentally tripped. I rewired it to pass power from the non-GFCI side to the rest of the outlet string, all outside of the bathroom in dry areas.
  • Dick B presumes the GFI outlet is good, I presume it is bad, ours went belly up and after I replaced it there was no more problems. If you change it out, either mark the wires or change them over one at a tie watching for the correct polarity of power in and power out.
  • Do not assume that a CB is not tripped by looking at it. Check each one.
  • If not a GFI breaker tripped, you may have another circuit breaker on your converter/inverter. Usually they are small push button type.

    Ron
  • With the coach disconnected from shore power and the generator off go thru all terminals in both the transfer switch and breaker panel are ensure all are tight. Check both hot, neutrals and grounds.

    If your coach is 50 amp powered you could have tripped one side of the primary breaker but the other side is holding the tripped side up so it looks like it's closed. Eye ball the breaker closely before you cycle it. If the two sides don't line up cycle it off then on and see what happens. Also ensure the breaker is firmly seated in the breaker buss bar. It just snaps into place and with the breaker panel covered removed you can actually pop it out and back into place. No different than the panel in your house.

    Also pick up one of THESE next time your near a hardware store. Makes troubleshooting and power off safety checks a bit easier.
  • Check to see if one of the breakers on your inverter has tripped. These are breakers that are on the inverter itself and are independent of any interior circuit breakers in your electrical panel or GFI outlets.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Half the electrical or half the outlets?
    If you have a 50 amp RV proprly wired (Big if there) and one A/C works and one does not.. Then go to your breaker box (Even if it's both A/Cs work or not) and se if you can figure out which breakers are L-1 and Which are L-2
    Breaker boxes are layed out in one of 3 basic patterns M=main, 1 and 2 are legs

    M M 1 2 1 2 1 2....

    M M
    1 2
    2 1
    1 2

    1 1 1 1 m m 2 2 2 2

    If one leg is down.. your cord or transfer switch. OR the shore/generator breakres (not likely the breakers)
  • philandterri wrote:
    We have a 2006 Fleetwood Bounder 32W on a ford chassis. Half of our 120 volt power is not working either on shore power or generator. Found only one ground fault breaker near the stove, checked all breakers. What next?

    I'm assuming that you have a 50amp coach, so...
    If all the obvious quick checks are OK, along with turning the main breaker off and back on, then...
    Pull the cover front off the main breaker box.
    Use a voltmeter to see if you have 240vac across both the top and bottom of the double pole main and either side to neutral or ground should read 120vac.
    If one leg is missing on top, then check the transfer switch, if the connections are tight.
    If one leg is missing on the bottom, replace 50amp breaker.
    If the transfer sw. is faulty, it would be rare and have to be stuck midway rather in one position or the other.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Just a thought... Do you have an inverter? If you do you have a sub panel.. WHICH MAY BE PART OF THE INVERTER It has circuit brakers that feed.. Gnerally,, the Entainerment center(s) Microwave and GFCI may feed other outlets as well.