isellsunshine wrote:
My husband and I stayed on his brothers 40 acre ranch this summer to get out of the Arizona heat. We live full time in a 2007 Bighorn 5th wheel.
From doing research on the web, I've always known RV power is a different than regular house power, but I don't quite have the language to describe the difference.
When we arrived in Minnesota and our BIL proceeded to get the wiring ready for us, I pleased with him to please be careful, I know RV power is a little different, it's more sensitive, etc.
He didn't listen, he's a contractor after all, and how hard could this be to hook up a little ole RV when you hook up entire houses?
He hooked us up and we immediately blew the following four things:
-Fireplace no longer works
-Microwave blew out
-In floor vacuum cleaner system no longer works
-Fridge will only work on propane now, whereas it would switch back and forth between the electric and propane before this.
We live in Arizona most of the year, so I can live with the Fireplace. We bought a new microwave for $99 at Lowe's, so all good there. I hated the in ground vacuum cleaner thingy, so no worries there.
The fridge only working on propane really bothers me though.
I estimate we spend an extra $40 a month on propane due to not being able to run the fridge on electric. That's almost $500 a year. If we stay in the RV 5 years, that's $2,500.
Everything else works just fine.
Outlets, etc, all work throughout the RV.
My husband is a master mechanic so he's very handy but he doesn't know/understand about electrical in an rv either.
I'm wondering if someone can point us in the right direction to help us troubleshoot this?
We are on our way back to Arizona and I'd like to get this fixed once and for all. (and send my BIL the bill) ;)
If I had to guess, some sort of master motherboard thingy burned out when he overshot the power. (see what I mean by I don't have the language for this?)
Really appreciate any/all help.
Susan & Dave,
Currently in Nebraska, headed to Arizona
Prevent this in the future, wire it yourself when you show up at his place... then you have only yourself to blame. Looking the gift horse in the mouth will only cause you grief.
RV power is not any different than house power... It's still 120V per leg at 60 hz. Each leg gives 120V when run to the neutral, white wire. Each leg wire is a different color, usually red and black. Neutral is always white in AC wiring. Ground is always pure copper.
A complete circuit from a colored wire to the neutral wire will give you 120v. A complete circuit from a colored wire to a colored wire with give you 240V, and that's when things get voltage overload in most of your devices in your 5th wheel.
My guess is someone did not look at and read correctly the back of the female receptacle properly for wiring the hot, colored wires, right where you plug in.
Alternately, you could always run a Honda Generator and make your own electricity to avoid this situation, or get enough solar and a inverter to be self sufficient.
That your refrigerator still runs on propane says that the circuit board on the fridge is still good. heater element or fuse to fridge or both may need replacement, check fuse first.
If you paid him to do the wiring and he blew something up on your rig, then the burden is on him to compensate to get it fixed. If he offered to do it for free, well, you get what you paid for.
Trust, but ALWAYS verify.
