2002 Keystone Challenger 29TIB Fifth wheelLast night, I plugged in a space heater in the 'upstairs' area of my 5th wheel. I also had a small heater plugged in downstairs in the living room area. They had both been running for 10-15 minutes, then I lose power to the wall receptacles in the downstairs and 2 plugs upstairs. I figured I had overloaded the circuit, so I unplugged the heaters and opened the breaker box to reset (what I thought would be) a popped breaker. None of the breakers appeared to need resetting. I clicked each one off, then on again, but it did not fix the problem. So I thought maybe the GFCI had triggered. Went up to the bathroom, that receptacle worked fine. I pressed 'test' and reset just in case, but it did not fix my loss of power downstairs. Anything that would run off of battery (12v ceiling lights & outside porch light) work fine. The wall plugs in the laundry closet, bathroom, and next to the bed all work. Water heater and a/c work. Slide motors work. Outside power receptacle on camper works.I do not have power to: the 8 downstairs wall outlets, the power outlet for the refrigerator (it is a residential type fridge, not a typical RV 3-way), the ceiling fan in living room, the ceiling fixture over the dining area in the living room slide out, the wall sconce in the living room slide out. I feel like there is either a breaker somewhere that needs to be reset or a GFCI tripped, but I cannot find the right reset to fix this issue. Does anyone have any suggestions on where another breaker box or GFCI plug in my 5th wheel that I can reset? Or any additional troubleshooting suggestions?Thanks in advance!

GFCI, possibly in the bathroom or kitchen. Unplug everything and reset them.

If no breaker or GFCI is tripped, start looking for a burned or broken wire or receptacle. Space heaters use alot of current and can burn up an outlet with a loosely connected wire. Start with the outlet where the heater was plugged into that is closest to the distribution panel. These outlets are daisy chained together and the closest one without power to the circuit panel will be the culprit. If no outlets are working, then look in the circuit panel for a broken wire or a bad breaker. I've seen all of these scenarios.

Is your rig a 30amp or 50 amp service? Do you have a transfer switch? Sounds like you lost a leg of a 50amp service thru a lose connection somewhere to include at the transfer switch if you have one.

I suggest using your furnace. Heats much better and quieter.

We are connected to a 30 amp. I really don't know if I have a transfer switch.

Lost power in part of 5th wheel | Good Sam Community

17 Replies

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Nov 02, 2015
"If you don't have an inverter, forget I said anything."

:) :)

Made me smile. Gracias.

A would might believe the outlet closest to the breakers would be the logical starting place to look. No power into that receptacle, then it's back the the breaker box itself, yank the cover and start searching for cooked wiring.

I trust RV wiring integrity as much as I would trust trying to pet a Black Mamba that had been slapped around. Stupid, doesn't quite make the grade.

One single hare-brained bad connection can start a burn-to-the-ground fire. Regardless of what the breaker capacity is. Have ANY of you thought of checking voltage in the receptacle's ALTERNATE socket when a 1,625 watt load is put on the circuit? I thought not. Start a second high load and still not check? Say three Hail Mary's and fall asleep.

Yeah I'm being rude about this. Ain't funny having a rig burn to the ground with people inside. Do not EVER trust your life to kill-over-a-nickel construction. An RV is not a house. There are NO code inspectors checking rigs rolling off the assembly line.
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Nov 02, 2015
Highly doubt a 2002 vintage 5th wheel has an inverter that is feeding all of those outlets...unless previous owner installed one and had wiring done at time of build.

Either a 120V AC circuit breaker for that string is tripped in panel OR there is another GFCI outlet that is tripped upstream on that branch circuit.

GFCI.......typically bathroom, kitchen .....possibly in an outside compartment.
myredracer
Explorer II
Nov 02, 2015
It is possible to be a GFCI but maybe not if it happened due to two heaters plugged in on the same circuit. Sometimes there is a GFCI hidden somewhere that you didn't know about. Two heaters won't work on the same circuit unless set/adjusted for max. 1500 watts total and no power is likely due to overload. You could try each heater at home on a GFCI and see if it trips, then you'll know if it's a faulty heater or not.

I'd check the connection at the breaker first. Is there maybe a splice behind the panel. Shut the breaker off and see if any more recepts. go dead. If yes, then there is a bad connection at one of them. Knowing how poorly RV recepts. can be installed, I'd pull each dead recept. one at a time, pull the back cover off and check for proper connections. There is a special tool for pushing the wires onto the IDC terminals but sometimes maybe they don't use one and push the wires on with pliers or screwdriver and do a bad job of it.

Maybe a bad splice in a junction box if there is one in the circuit?
Carl_n_Susan
Nomad II
Nov 02, 2015
A 2002 Challenger 5th wheel didn't come with an inverter and even if the OP had added one, he surely wouldn't be running 1500W heaters through one.

The kitchen outlet is protected by a GFCI circuit. That circuit likely has multiple outlets. If the bathroom outlet works and the kitchen outlet doesn't then there should be another GFCI in the kitchen circuit. It is unlikely all the couch outlets are wired on one 15 or 20 Amp circuit. There are at least two, if not more, circuits.
lanerd
Explorer II
Nov 01, 2015
lanerd wrote:
Ok, common problem. If you have an inverter, there are usually two push button type of circuit breakers on the side/end of the inverter box itself. Check and make sure one or both are not tripped.

If you don't have an inverter, forget I said anything.

Ron

Posted By: wa8yxm on 11/01/15 04:24pm

I Love the folks who automatically say GFCI.. odds are that's not the problem

If you have an inverter than you have TWO breaker panels. One is your main power distribution center.. The other may be a 2nd panel located somewhere else or it may be breakers ON the inverter itself.. SUSPECT #1 is said inverter breaker panel.

Like minds..

Ron
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Nov 01, 2015
I Love the folks who automatically say GFCI.. odds are that's not the problem

If you have an inverter than you have TWO breaker panels. One is your main power distribution center.. The other may be a 2nd panel located somewhere else or it may be breakers ON the inverter itself.. SUSPECT #1 is said inverter breaker panel.

#2 is the connections to the inverter itself. and #3 is one of the outlets (not sure which, need not be the one you plugged into)

Also junction boxes epically if there is a slide out in the power path.

RV wiring is "Rated" (Supposedly) for Space Heaters.. but I and others have found it's not really up to the task.. I wound up installing special outlets for the Heaters.
Can-AmDuo
Explorer
Nov 01, 2015
If you have a GFCI outlet on the outside of the trailer you may want to check that one.
joebedford
Nomad II
Nov 01, 2015
Dave H M wrote:
I discovered it by loosening all the screws and then retightening them until all of a sudden all the lights came on.
I hope you were using a non-conductive screwdriver! :)
Dave_H_M
Explorer II
Nov 01, 2015
If you cannot fix by running down all the suggest stuff, I had partial power failure that was not GFI related and it turned out to be a loose common on the panel in the fifth wheel.

I discovered it by loosening all the screws and then retightening them until all of a sudden all the lights came on.
joebedford
Nomad II
Nov 01, 2015
The receptacles in RVs IMHO are generally not up to running very heavy loads like heaters. I've done it with success so far but I plan to replace the receptacles I use for heaters with residential receptacles. If all your breakers are reset, you may have burned up a connection inside a receptacle.