2004 Conquest by Gulfstream Electric Problem
Hi everyone, first time poster here! I had a terrible experience this past weekend and I'm hoping someone can provide some insight as to what I should do.
I have a 2004 24ft Conquest by Gulfstream TT. When I winterized it at the end of last season, I noticed that the adapter I was using for my shoreline plug was completed melted and it burned my shoreline plug a little (just a bit melted, no exposed wires). The electrical box was completed destroyed. Before this season started, the campground I am in (seasonal site) agreed to replace the electrical post and put in the correct outlet so I don't need to use an adapter.
I went up for the first time this season 2 weeks ago, plugged the cable in and the power was working fine! The fridge, lights, outlets all worked. When the weekend ended, I went home and had piece of mind that it was working.
I got back up there this past Friday evening, and there was no power. I checked the shoreline and it still looked fine and was plugged in. I checked the breakers inside the trailer and none of them were set off. The fuses were all fine, not blown. I then went to the main breakers at the campground. One of the breakers had went off, so I turned it back on and went back to my trailer. Still no power! It was late at night so me and the wife just decided to stick it out and camp old school (no power and a few beers).
In the morning I spoke with the park manager and he mentioned the owner of a new trailer in the park was doing some work and hit a water pipe, so he figured he must have also cut the electrical line to my trailer. He checked my line with that little electrical stick that detects electricity (I'm not sure what it's called haha) - no power at the line.
He then checked the line for cuts and found nothing. It's a mystery at this point so he just ran a whole new line. He checked it for power and it was good to go, the stick was lighting up.
I went back to my trailer and checked the lights - nothing. I checked the outlets - nothing. The park manager checked my outlets and the stick lit up - there was electricity but it wasn't powering anything - very weird. We turned all the breakers in the trailer off and then back on - nothing. As we are looking at the motherboard scratching our heads we hear a massive pop followed by a cloud of smoke coming out from behind the motherboard - scared the you know what out of us. Then it happened again immediately after, this time with a quick flame - I ran out of the trailer and unplugged the shoreline.
It was VERY loud - people from nearby sites came running over to see what the explosion was. We unscrewed the panel and there was still smoke coming from the fan in the converter. No flames anymore at this point. We decided to leave the trailer unplugged - the park manager thinks it was the converter that shorted out so I am going to have to replace that.
We then run an extension cord from a working electrical outlet across the road and manually plug my fridge in so I can keep my food cold - the fridge did not work. No light went on, we kept it plugged in for 12 hours and it did not get cold - so it looks like the fridge was blown by whatever happened as well.
So at this point the park manager is telling me that before we got up there was a huge thunder storm with lightning and hail. He believes it's possible that lightning caused a surge and blew the converter and the fridge. OK that makes sense to me I guess. He also said the fridge might not be blown and the extension cord may have just not been supplying enough power.
We had another camper take a look as he is a registered electrician, he checked it out and said the power going to my outside outlet was in a good range. He concluded that for whatever reason there is a short on one of our hot wires in the trailer. He said we may be able to replace the converter and the fridge but it also could be a problem with melted wires inside the walls of the trailer now. So the dollar signs are adding up now.
The park manager is saying he can't say for sure what caused it, and he can't say it was the parks fault or my trailers fault. All I know is that I brought a perfectly good trailer into the park in May of 2013 and now I've got a lemon.
I've decided to contact my insurance company and they will cover repairs as long as it's caused by an external source such as lightning. The electrician said he can't be sure what caused it but it may have been the lightning. So now I'm going to have a specific RV electrician take a look and write a report for my insurance company so they can see whether it's covered or not and then send an adjuster out to asses the damage. The only problem even if they do cover it, is that I have a $500 deductible.
Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, similar experience, etc? Do you think the onus to pay should be on the campground or the camper?
Thanks a lot everyone and I apologize for writing such a long story haha.
I have a 2004 24ft Conquest by Gulfstream TT. When I winterized it at the end of last season, I noticed that the adapter I was using for my shoreline plug was completed melted and it burned my shoreline plug a little (just a bit melted, no exposed wires). The electrical box was completed destroyed. Before this season started, the campground I am in (seasonal site) agreed to replace the electrical post and put in the correct outlet so I don't need to use an adapter.
I went up for the first time this season 2 weeks ago, plugged the cable in and the power was working fine! The fridge, lights, outlets all worked. When the weekend ended, I went home and had piece of mind that it was working.
I got back up there this past Friday evening, and there was no power. I checked the shoreline and it still looked fine and was plugged in. I checked the breakers inside the trailer and none of them were set off. The fuses were all fine, not blown. I then went to the main breakers at the campground. One of the breakers had went off, so I turned it back on and went back to my trailer. Still no power! It was late at night so me and the wife just decided to stick it out and camp old school (no power and a few beers).
In the morning I spoke with the park manager and he mentioned the owner of a new trailer in the park was doing some work and hit a water pipe, so he figured he must have also cut the electrical line to my trailer. He checked my line with that little electrical stick that detects electricity (I'm not sure what it's called haha) - no power at the line.
He then checked the line for cuts and found nothing. It's a mystery at this point so he just ran a whole new line. He checked it for power and it was good to go, the stick was lighting up.
I went back to my trailer and checked the lights - nothing. I checked the outlets - nothing. The park manager checked my outlets and the stick lit up - there was electricity but it wasn't powering anything - very weird. We turned all the breakers in the trailer off and then back on - nothing. As we are looking at the motherboard scratching our heads we hear a massive pop followed by a cloud of smoke coming out from behind the motherboard - scared the you know what out of us. Then it happened again immediately after, this time with a quick flame - I ran out of the trailer and unplugged the shoreline.
It was VERY loud - people from nearby sites came running over to see what the explosion was. We unscrewed the panel and there was still smoke coming from the fan in the converter. No flames anymore at this point. We decided to leave the trailer unplugged - the park manager thinks it was the converter that shorted out so I am going to have to replace that.
We then run an extension cord from a working electrical outlet across the road and manually plug my fridge in so I can keep my food cold - the fridge did not work. No light went on, we kept it plugged in for 12 hours and it did not get cold - so it looks like the fridge was blown by whatever happened as well.
So at this point the park manager is telling me that before we got up there was a huge thunder storm with lightning and hail. He believes it's possible that lightning caused a surge and blew the converter and the fridge. OK that makes sense to me I guess. He also said the fridge might not be blown and the extension cord may have just not been supplying enough power.
We had another camper take a look as he is a registered electrician, he checked it out and said the power going to my outside outlet was in a good range. He concluded that for whatever reason there is a short on one of our hot wires in the trailer. He said we may be able to replace the converter and the fridge but it also could be a problem with melted wires inside the walls of the trailer now. So the dollar signs are adding up now.
The park manager is saying he can't say for sure what caused it, and he can't say it was the parks fault or my trailers fault. All I know is that I brought a perfectly good trailer into the park in May of 2013 and now I've got a lemon.
I've decided to contact my insurance company and they will cover repairs as long as it's caused by an external source such as lightning. The electrician said he can't be sure what caused it but it may have been the lightning. So now I'm going to have a specific RV electrician take a look and write a report for my insurance company so they can see whether it's covered or not and then send an adjuster out to asses the damage. The only problem even if they do cover it, is that I have a $500 deductible.
Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, similar experience, etc? Do you think the onus to pay should be on the campground or the camper?
Thanks a lot everyone and I apologize for writing such a long story haha.
