electrical issue

I am with those that say there's a broken / loose connection somewhere and that he may be observing "back-feed" that is making the "neutral" wire have voltage versus the "official ground".

As to exactly where- I think the OP has a detective job to work through and probably needs someone with a bit more electrical knowledge than him or even strangers on a discussion forum.

...and something that probably needs to be done REAL TIME IN THE CAMPER, not second hand from far away.

A tester can be easily fooled too. Try the same test using the tester. See if the symptoms or the lights change with the load on the circuit.

YC 1 wrote:
You are getting fooled using a digital voltmeter and no load on the outlet. Go to an outlet that is giving you problems and put your voltmeter to work. Now plug anything in to the other outlet on the same outlet. That is, measure one of the outlets while you have a load on the one above or below the one you are measuring. There are two outlets per wall plate so this should be easy. I bet your voltage goes to zero.

Now the fun part, tracking back to where the problem is. I too suggest turning off your AC breakers one at a time. Press them into the off position. Sometimes one will feel fine but actually be tripped.

If resetting does not solve it you likely have a bad connection. Since I don't know what RV you have do you have an inverter? If so it may have breakers on it too.

Back to a possible outlet issue. Outlets generally daisy chain from one to another. You may need to do some guesswork to find where those outlets are fed from. There are devices "fox and hound", that make the job a lot easier.

He isn't even using a meter, just a voltage detecting lamp type tester. Probably a neon bulb voltage sensor.

aruba5er wrote:
Huh? Big plug small plug? Next 911. sounds like you should not be doing anything. Ask a friend or neighbor to help you before you shock yourself. Not everyone can do everything. I've always said " put a piece of wire into someones hand and all of a sudden thy are electricians"

I assumed he meant large, small and round prongs on the plug. ;)

You are getting fooled using a digital voltmeter and no load on the outlet. Go to an outlet that is giving you problems and put your voltmeter to work. Now plug anything in to the other outlet on the same outlet. That is, measure one of the outlets while you have a load on the one above or below the one you are measuring. There are two outlets per wall plate so this should be easy. I bet your voltage goes to zero.

Now the fun part, tracking back to where the problem is. I too suggest turning off your AC breakers one at a time. Press them into the off position. Sometimes one will feel fine but actually be tripped.

If resetting does not solve it you likely have a bad connection. Since I don't know what RV you have do you have an inverter? If so it may have breakers on it too.

Back to a possible outlet issue. Outlets generally daisy chain from one to another. You may need to do some guesswork to find where those outlets are fed from. There are devices "fox and hound", that make the job a lot easier.

Ozlander wrote:
How come no one has subjected he reset his breakers. First thing to do and he has probably done it.

Because he does have power (both hot and neutral) to the outlet so the breaker is ok.

Scott

How come no one has subjected he reset his breakers. First thing to do and he has probably done it.

Actually I thought the OP's post was perfectly cohesive and "I" understood everything he wrote.
The bottom line is either the pedestal is reversed or his RV is wired backwards.

Huh? Big plug small plug? Next 911. sounds like you should not be doing anything. Ask a friend or neighbor to help you before you shock yourself. Not everyone can do everything. I've always said " put a piece of wire into someones hand and all of a sudden thy are electricians"

You should really have the circuit tester pictured above or a hand held multimeter. A multimeter will diagnose many electrical problems besides just measuring voltage. An inexpensive meter can be purchased at most hardware and big-box stores.

I'd suggest to have a structured approach to your trouble shooting. I would start at the source connection (your home's receptacle) and test at every connection following back to an interior receptacle in the RV. 120V will operate devices with neutral and power phases switched so just plugging in a lamp or motor will not correctly diagnose the problem.