Thanks all for taking the time to read. I searched but couldn't seem to find anything but please feel free to direct me to another post on the subject that I missed. So last night I'm sitting up way past my bedtime typing emails for work in my trailer and catch a whiff of burning plastic on the air. I immediately head over to the power center and find it very hot and putting off a decent amount of smoke. I threw the main and went outside and unplugged (30A) shore power. This morning when I had enough light to see by, I pulled the cover off the converter and rather than the blackened inverter I expected, I found all the wires in the neutral terminal bar melted and blackened.I also checked the shore power plug in the daylight and noticed what appears to be some blackening on the terminals that I don't 100% remember seeing but can't say for sure wasn't already there (I know, I should pay better attention!).So, my question is, anyone have an idea what could cause this? We're full timing in this 2005 Keystone Springdale 295BHL for the 5 months I'm in town for work and haven't had a problem of this sort to date. I've been running an electric heater that has tripped the breaker a couple of times but aside from that I can't think of anything. My thought is to buy a whole new power center and replace it but I'd really like to sus out the cause of the problem first. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

First photo shows a loose connections. Need to clean up each conductor, coat them with electrical grease. You may need to cut wires back a little to get good clean copper.Second photo of the thirty amp connector is from corrosion and loose connections, most likely in the female receptacle. Easy to replace with good quality one.Third photo shows corrosion on the adapter. I do not care for this type. the dog bone style works a little better. This looks like it has been under heavy loads in a moist atmosphere.Coating your connectors with electrical grease should reduce the corrosion somewhat.

Seems odd to have them all burned. Lose or dirty connection causes the heat. Almost looks like some arching on the plug may have exasperated marginal connection on the neutral bus. But what was drawing so much power? Not that it takes a whole lot. Is the battery OK?

Thanks for the replies. At the time of the incident I was running an electric heater (11.7A draw on a 20A breaker), the fridge on electric, a couple lights and my laptop charger. Nothing out of the ordinary. The batteries are fine and before I pulled the negative cables just to be safe, I still had 12v power (lights, etc.). So should I try to clip back to clean wire (i.e. cut the melted bits off) and coat with electrical grease after cleaning things up and give it a try?

This may not be the right thing to do, but I would repair the damaged wires as stated above, check the voltage at the post, then trip off all the breakers. Then plug it back in and if all seems OK then turn on each breaker One at a time while monitoring what is happening. It may also be a good idea to replace the load center.

If you look at the second photo, the fourth conductor from the left seems to got the hottest. This is most likely the one the heater was on.You may need to get some wire and wire nuts to extend some of the conductors. Use electrical grease inside of the wire nuts.

Power Center smoking/melting help (WFCO 8955) | Good Sam Community

enblethen
Nomad
Feb 14, 2015
First photo shows a loose connections. Need to clean up each conductor, coat them with electrical grease. You may need to cut wires back a little to get good clean copper.
Second photo of the thirty amp connector is from corrosion and loose connections, most likely in the female receptacle. Easy to replace with good quality one.
Third photo shows corrosion on the adapter. I do not care for this type. the dog bone style works a little better. This looks like it has been under heavy loads in a moist atmosphere.
Coating your connectors with electrical grease should reduce the corrosion somewhat.
time2roll
Nomad
Feb 14, 2015
Seems odd to have them all burned. Lose or dirty connection causes the heat. Almost looks like some arching on the plug may have exasperated marginal connection on the neutral bus. But what was drawing so much power? Not that it takes a whole lot. Is the battery OK?
Robbystone
Explorer
Feb 14, 2015
Thanks for the replies. At the time of the incident I was running an electric heater (11.7A draw on a 20A breaker), the fridge on electric, a couple lights and my laptop charger. Nothing out of the ordinary. The batteries are fine and before I pulled the negative cables just to be safe, I still had 12v power (lights, etc.). So should I try to clip back to clean wire (i.e. cut the melted bits off) and coat with electrical grease after cleaning things up and give it a try?
powderman426
Explorer
Feb 14, 2015
This may not be the right thing to do, but I would repair the damaged wires as stated above, check the voltage at the post, then trip off all the breakers. Then plug it back in and if all seems OK then turn on each breaker One at a time while monitoring what is happening. It may also be a good idea to replace the load center.
enblethen
Nomad
Feb 14, 2015
If you look at the second photo, the fourth conductor from the left seems to got the hottest. This is most likely the one the heater was on.
You may need to get some wire and wire nuts to extend some of the conductors. Use electrical grease inside of the wire nuts.
Robbystone
Explorer
Feb 14, 2015
enblethen wrote:
If you look at the second photo, the fourth conductor from the left seems to got the hottest. This is most likely the one the heater was on.
You may need to get some wire and wire nuts to extend some of the conductors. Use electrical grease inside of the wire nuts.

You are correct sir, thank you. I luckily look to have enough extra length of wire that I won't have to tag on any extensions. The neutral wires all seem to be nice and tight but could that just mean they were dirty or maybe that the heat fused them to the bar?

I'm going to get everything all cleaned, rewired, greased and put back together and give her a shot (after I double check my insurance it payed up, hahaha). Thank again for the help.
DrewE
Explorer II
Feb 14, 2015
smkettner wrote:
Seems odd to have them all burned. Lose or dirty connection causes the heat. Almost looks like some arching on the plug may have exasperated marginal connection on the neutral bus. But what was drawing so much power? Not that it takes a whole lot. Is the battery OK?

Arcing at the plug wouldn't affect the neutral bus at the power center in the camper; it would only result in lower current draw. The wires are all toasted because the heat from the bad connection was conducted across the neutral bus and made them all get hot.

Robbystone: I strongly recommend that you replace the neutral bus bar, rather than reusing the old one. Once it's gotten so hot, all bets are off as to whether it will still clamp and make contact properly. Replacement bus bars are readily available at electrical supply places (and probably home improvement stores) and are pretty inexpensive, doubly so when compared with the costs involved with having an RV burn.
jrnymn7
Explorer
Feb 14, 2015
Clean up that 30a plug while you're at it, and get the owner of the 30a receptacle to inspect it, and replace it, if necessary. Also, use a surge protector. (And maybe install a smoke detector near the power center) :)
Matt_Colie
Explorer II
Feb 14, 2015
Robby,

Forensic failure analysis is what I did for a while.

What happened here (and some are very close) is that forth conductor was not making good contact and so heated the whole block. This can make the other conductors heat in proportion to the load they were carrying at the time. This is why the feeder was also damaged but not as badly. That says you were not actually overloading the systems design.

Fortunately, you were on the ball and got it shut down before it cascaded and . . .

Problem: The connecting surfaces of that neutral buss have also been heat affected and should be cleaned.

To repair:
Get a tiny round file, some emery paper, white 7mil vinyl tape (just like black tape but white) and some De-Oxid or other contact grease (it will be near the tape).

Take each screw all the way out if it will,
Pull out each the conductor,
Polish the conductor, and replace the damaged insulation with tape
Clean the face of the screw,
Use the file to clean the inside of the neutral bar.
Replace the screw and coat the conductor with the grease, put it back in the bar and tighten the screw.

The plan with the grease is that it has copper filler and will not insulate the joint, but it will keep the oxygen out of the joint.

There is no reason these can't all be done at the same time, but all must get the complete treatment.

Matt
Robbystone
Explorer
Feb 14, 2015
Matt_Colie wrote:
Robby,

This is why the feeder was also damaged but not as badly. That says you were not actually overloading the systems design.

I like that this makes it sound like I didn't screw it up, lol. I just bought a whole new bar (only $4.95) to be safe (thanks DrewE). I have some dielectric grease from doing spark plug boots but should I use something like Noalox (anti-oxidant joint compound) instead? It's all I could find at Home Depot and the teenage girls they had working weren't much help.

Thanks everyone for your help; I love this Forum!

Forum Discussion

Power Center smoking/melting help (WFCO 8955)

About Technical Issues

Related Content

Center Console Swap

Center of Gravity

TC Centering Guides

Making new center console UPDATE!

Quest QS53E distribution center