electrical problem

I take it you do not have a Progressive EMS (Electric Magement System) or any surge guard in line with the park pedestal. You should only have 120 volts coming into the RV. Never 220. You more then likely have a converter that converts 120 volts to 12 volts and charges the batteries, and powers all the 12 volt items in the RV. The Microwave is 120 volts not 12volts. Do other 120 items in the RV work? A/C , TVs, hair dryer if plugged in. Did you check the 120 volt breakers in the RV??? Do you have a volt meter are you getting 12.7 volts or better at the battery terminals??? (which will show if the converter is working or not). The converter could be any place mine is in the where all my 12 volt fuses are but a friends is on the wall under the refrigerator. They have a fan on them and sometimes you can hear them running.
And if you got a power surge 120 volt items in the RV could be toast and it would not be the converters fault. The converter only powers 12volt items, lights, water pump,Heater, etc. And these items would work till the batteries ran down.

First off, if there was a power surge, the circuit breaker at the pedestal could care less. It would not have tripped and protected anything. That is why people add surge protectors to their coaches. The park owner was just trying to avoid taking any responsibility for any problems.
ON any 50 amp coach, 220 volts comes in on your electrical cord and is fed to both halves of your 50 amp main breaker. Between the two poles of your breaker it will read 220 volts, but just like in your stick house, the output from each side of the main breaker is only 120 volts. From your main breaker, the power is fed to other breakers in your panel which are used to protect the various circuits in your coach.

kuzined wrote:
Have a 2005 Pacearrow gas.Is there a converter on this rig and if yes where would it be.Also, when the rig is plugged into 50amps,how is the power separated between 220 and 110? Does the converter do this?Problem Im having is this morning the power went off in my rig. The park pedestel was ok but the fuse blew on my fridge, and the convection microwave quit. I think it got fried.It also shut the gfi down in the bath which killed the power for the plugins.Park says if there was a power surge, the main breaker on the pedestel would shut down.They say its probably the converter that causede all the headache. Are they right? thanks

Well Sir,
First off, since your coach is a gas coach, yes, it will most likely be fitted with a converter. Second, NO, there is no 220VAC that enters your coach. Just because you're plugged into a 50, it doesn't mean you're receiving 220V. Yes, the plugs and the way it's wired, is very similar to 220VAC but, in all reality, it's two, 120VAC lines entering your coach.

Your converter accepts that and, takes care of all the distribution of that 120VAC throughout the coach. All of us in the RV planet, fear the dreaded "power surge" from RV parks and camp grounds. Many have taken steps to prevent potential damage from those surges by purchasing ultra heavy duty surge protectors, sold on line, in RV Parks, RV Parts Suppliers like Camping World and many more places.

And those surge protectors range anywhere from around $50.00 to, around $400 or so, depending on the level of protection and, all the other bells and whistles that one would want on it.

I'm not anywhere near an electrical expert but, I'd bet dollars to donuts that your converter did not trip the pedestals power supply but, what do I know?

As far as where is your converter, well, you'll have to trace the incoming wire (shore power cord) to see where it leads you after it enters the coach. Or, consult your owners manual or, get a hold of the manufacturer of your chassis or coach and see if you can obtain info on the locale of that converter. They seem to put those converters in some odd places in some of the gas coaches.

If your GFI has tripped, there's at least two reasons. One, the norm, is that you have or had, a short some place that may have be in the lineup of what that GFI controls. The second reason is, those GFCIs can get weak over time and, if you breath on one, it will trip. I've had to replace a couple of them, due to the fact that they were just weak.

But, in any case, it sounds as if your coach may in need of some electrical inspection and maybe some maintenance or repair. Good luck.
Scott

The 50 amp RV service supplies 120 volts from the neutral connection to each of the two hot legs. 240 volts would be measured from hot leg to hot leg, a connection that's not typically used in most RV's. What may have happened, is the neutral connection somewhere between the park panel and the RV breaker panel neutral bus was lost due to a poor connection, possible from a loose terminal screw or poor plug contact. When that happens, the appliances on one hot leg are placed in series with those on the other hot leg, and can pull more current at a higher voltage through the lighter loads than they can safely tolerate. If the lighter loads are fuse or breaker protected, they may be basically ok, just needing the fuse replaced or the breaker reset.

Scott
Go out to your coach and put a meter across the two input lines to your main breaker INSIDE your coach. You will find it is 220 VOLTS.
There are two 120 volt wires coming in but they are out of phase with each other.
Inside your coach is the 220 volts.
Some of the higher end coaches do use 220 volts for the dryer and they use the exact same plug as you do and so does everyone else that has a 50 amp coach.

I have been a member of this forum for over 14 years, and it is amazing to me that this voltage question is still be discussed, and presented incorrectly by so many members with the end result that new members become confused and continue the misconception.



Please look at this image. Study it. Save it for future reference. This is what a 50 amp RV service looks like, including, yes, believe it or not, including 240 volts. It is there. You can measure it with a voltmeter. Is there a lot more to it? Yes, but it exists.

Thanks for the info.Fireup.....I did find a extension cord with multi-ports that had shorted out pretty bad.It could have blown the GFI which in turn shut the power to the fridge and micro. The fuse saved the fridge. Does anyone know if the microwave has a fuse?Its a Sharp 1874...pretty standard in most MH. And larry cad I couldnt see the image so could you send it to my email @ yakpak6@hotmail.com Thanks

They are usually located near the house batteries. Try removing the drawer under the refer, or the grill and see if it is under the refer. More than likely, your batteries are under the entry steps. The converter should put out 13 volts +/- 3 volts with no load on the output. There should be some rather large wires attached to the converter to charge the batteries. Those cables are attached to the batteries and a short will very likely cause a fire. Be careful.

I've been a member of this site for 10 years and like Larry Cad, I'm also amazed that the issue of voltage at the pedestal is still not understood. There is 240 at the pedestal if there is a 50 amp plug. Our coach uses it. Even if your motorhome doesn't use 240, it's still brought into your motorhome.

I think Dutch 12078 has the most likely explanation and that is a neutral was lost.

Dutch_12078 wrote:
The 50 amp RV service supplies 120 volts from the neutral connection to each of the two hot legs. 240 volts would be measured from hot leg to hot leg, a connection that's not typically used in most RV's. What may have happened, is the neutral connection somewhere between the park panel and the RV breaker panel neutral bus was lost due to a poor connection, possible from a loose terminal screw or poor plug contact. When that happens, the appliances on one hot leg are placed in series with those on the other hot leg, and can pull more current at a higher voltage through the lighter loads than they can safely tolerate. If the lighter loads are fuse or breaker protected, they may be basically ok, just needing the fuse replaced or the breaker reset.

I agree that the problem could be an open neutral, which is common to both of the hot legs. I do not feel that there is any way that the two different hot legs will run in series to increase the voltage to any appliance since the two out of phase hot wires are not connected in any way to the same circuits, even if the neutral is lost.