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

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Feb 14, 2015
I often "joke" Many RVers have a few screws loose.

Loose screws in the power distribution center cause just exactly that to happen

So will trying to draw the maximum power in many cases.

WFCO is not my favorite company.. IF you decide to replace consider Progressive Dynamics products,, They make a unit that should replace with little, if any, modification.
enblethen
Nomad
Feb 14, 2015
Didn't find it on Home Depot. Here is lowes version.
De-ox compound
Robbystone
Explorer
Feb 14, 2015
enblethen wrote:
Didn't find it on Home Depot. Here is lowes version.
De-ox compound

Nice, that looks like a different brand of the same stuff. Thanks for checking that for me, I appreciate it.
Robbystone
Explorer
Feb 16, 2015
Well, everything is repaired, replaced and restarted and nothing is burning! I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. My total costs were, $1.54 for plastic cable connectors for the rear of the power center housing (so I could extend the wires), $4.98 for a new neutral bar, $2.72 for a 1/2oz tube of Noalox grease and about 3 hours of my time (which would have been less than an hour had I realized I needed the connectors on the first trip to Home Depot). So $9.24 (gotta love no-sales-tax-Oregon, lol) and I have power running again. Thanks so much to everyone who chimed in with the helpful advice!
dougrainer
Nomad
Feb 16, 2015
Your problem is a COMMON one. The evidence is your BURNT spades on your 30 amp plug. You have been overloading your 30 amp RV. One BIG misconception people have is, IF you overload your RV 30 amp service, a Breaker will trip. NOT SO. When you have the BURNT spades (NOT corrosion as others have stated), that is where the resistance first builds up and that generates heat. Then you go to the Neutral BUSS that is burnt. When the Heat builds up from overload, the smallest wires heat up and then start to burn. You need to monitor your amp draw after you fixed the problem. Doug
enblethen
Nomad
Feb 16, 2015
Thanks for the update!
No smoke is a good thing!
Robbystone
Explorer
Feb 16, 2015
dougrainer wrote:
You need to monitor your amp draw after you fixed the problem. Doug

I think you're probably right Doug. I've been running the fridge on electric while my tanks are being re-certified (both came up at once, gotta love it, and the shop doing it is taking forever!) and with the electric heater, I'm sure I'm running real close to the limit and maybe a bit over it when I occasionally plug some other appliance in. Since this happened I've run a 12ga extension cord to a separate 120 (20A) line and have that powering my heater. I definitely feel like I dodged a bullet so I'm going to take this lesson to heart.

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