Question from an electrical novice. If the house batteries are dead or defective, do they prevent the shore power from working? We have a 50A circuit on our house and the breaker seems fine. Plugged in power cord and got nothing. That has never happened before. Thanks for your help.

redT2go wrote:Question from an electrical novice. If the house batteries are dead or defective, do they prevent the shore power from working? We have a 50A circuit on our house and the breaker seems fine. Plugged in power cord and got nothing. That has never happened before. Thanks for your help.shouldn't. what happens when you unplug and run the genny? and you have aero 120VAC...no outlets, no microwave, TV, aire conditioning, etc?several EZ to check possibilities:1-you don't indicate the type, year, make or model of your RV. if newer you likely have a "salesman's switch" located near the main entrance. you might even have two...one for the coach (house) batteries and another for the chassis (starting battery(ies). be sure they are in the correct position for travel. I've seen some that are labeled ON/OFF where ON meant TRAVEL instead of STORE.2-when you plug in to your shore power pedestal you should hear a thunking noise. that's the sound of your automatic transfer switch switching to the shore power position. the ATS directs power from a pedestal or generator to the AC appliances and outlets in the TV. the default position for the ATS is GENERATOR. within a few seconds after plugging into shore power you should hear the electromagnet in the ATS switch to the SHORE POWER position. if you don't hear it your ATS might be "stuck". that happened to us a few times. a gentle tap or two with a rubber mallet on the ATS temporarily solved our problem but the long term solution was to open the ATS and ensure all of the connections are tight, no corrosion, pitting or burns. if your 120VAC works when the genny is running but not on shore power its highly likely the issue is your ATS.

Is the shore pedestal working proper....check with meter.

How does the breaker seem fine? Did you turn it off then back on? Did you check voltage? You need 240 between L1 and L2. 120 between L1 and ground and L1 and neutral. 120 between L2 and ground and L2 and neutral. 0 volts between Neutral and Ground. Don't waste you time until you do this. Also turn your main breaker on and off in the RV. 12 volt will not effect the 120 system.

Yup.To drill down further:Either outer straight to center straight or center round= 120 VACOuter straight to outer straight= 240 VACCenter straight to center round= 0 VAC

What is your battery voltage? Only suspect would be if you have an energy management system that needs 12 volts to operate.

No shore power | Good Sam Community

14 Replies

oldave
Explorer
May 25, 2019

Now it's sounding like there was no power at your friends house.

Your only problem may be frozen / dead batteries .
D_E_Bishop
Explorer
May 25, 2019
Congratulations and thanks for letting us in on the solution.
D_E_Bishop
Explorer
May 25, 2019
Congratulations and thanks for letting us in on the solution.
tropical36
Explorer
May 25, 2019
redT2go wrote:
Update, I didn't mention that the energy control board where it normally shows what amps I am plugged into was completely blank. I got the idea of using the 110 converter and plugging into my normal household outlet and still got nothing. Took the RV into my work and they checked all of the batteries. It seems that the friend where we store the RV for the winter hooked up the battery tender too late and the batteries froze. One battery was broken and the rest were swelled out. They showed a low charge but when a load was applied they all showed a bad battery. We replaced the one battery and in the interest of saving money decided to wait on replacing the other three.

I took the RV home and plugged into the 50A circuit and immediately had power! The energy control panel showed that it was plugged into 50A and everything worked. So at least in my case, yes, a defective battery seemed to prevent me from getting shore power. We will now see if the three batteries will charge and maintain it.

Thanks for all of the replies.

Now it's sounding like there was no power at your friends house.
redT2go
Explorer
May 25, 2019
Update, I didn't mention that the energy control board where it normally shows what amps I am plugged into was completely blank. I got the idea of using the 110 converter and plugging into my normal household outlet and still got nothing. Took the RV into my work and they checked all of the batteries. It seems that the friend where we store the RV for the winter hooked up the battery tender too late and the batteries froze. One battery was broken and the rest were swelled out. They showed a low charge but when a load was applied they all showed a bad battery. We replaced the one battery and in the interest of saving money decided to wait on replacing the other three.

I took the RV home and plugged into the 50A circuit and immediately had power! The energy control panel showed that it was plugged into 50A and everything worked. So at least in my case, yes, a defective battery seemed to prevent me from getting shore power. We will now see if the three batteries will charge and maintain it.

Thanks for all of the replies.
dkreuzen
Explorer
May 24, 2019
redT2go wrote:
Question from an electrical novice. If the house batteries are dead or defective, do they prevent the shore power from working? We have a 50A circuit on our house and the breaker seems fine. Plugged in power cord and got nothing. That has never happened before. Thanks for your help.

Without a lot more information we are all guessing. So I will too...
The inverter/charger should have a input circuit breaker that may have been tripped. This will cause no AC power (on all inverter powered outlets) and no battery charging. And it will do the same thing with the generator.
navigator2346
Explorer
May 24, 2019
Do you get power when running the generator?

While plugged to shore power,give the transfer switch a little love tap and see what happens
navigator2346
Explorer
May 24, 2019
Do you get power when running the generator?

While plugged to shore power,give the transfer switch a little love tap and see what happens
wa8yxm
Explorer III
May 23, 2019
redT2go wrote:
Question from an electrical novice. If the house batteries are dead or defective, do they prevent the shore power from working? We have a 50A circuit on our house and the breaker seems fine. Plugged in power cord and got nothing. That has never happened before. Thanks for your help.

Generally NO.. However anything is possible.

Some RV's have a power manager. Made by Intelletec and I'm not sure if it needs 12 volt or not. HOWEVER even if it does the converter SHOULD supply and it should work.

I can think of a few possible issues.. I once had a bad plug connection on the Shore end of the cord. and a bad connection elsewhere in the system. Check the 50 amp mains in the RV as well.

I'm comfortable working on electrical circuits even live. but I do not recommend it.

Oh. True story: brand new (sticker in the window new) 5er. NO POWER said the wife after hubby plugged in.. Sure enough NO POWER.

Went to check if power was coming out the cord (The outlet end of the shore cord) Blasted MARINCO outlet fell off in my hand. Nobody tightened the half dozen screws inside.. I KID YOU NOT.

We fixed it.. But I'd have loved to be listening when the owner (an electrician by the way) returned to the Dealer...
time2roll
Nomad
May 23, 2019
What is your battery voltage? Only suspect would be if you have an energy management system that needs 12 volts to operate.