Air Conditioner issues

Insufficient power to run it

What happens when plugged straight into garage?

The fuses in your camper likely are only for the 12v circuits. You should have a breaker box with circuit breakers for the 120v AC loads.
Do you have a tripped breaker or GFCI outlet in your garage?
I suspect the length of the garage circuit and your extension cord was too much. It caused excessive voltage drop which caused excessive current draw which tripped a breaker somewhere.

Try again with a shorter and / or heavier extension cord.

Not sure I follow the way you have the A/C hooked up... not sure why you need a converter (inverter?) if you're using shore power. One or the other is fine, but not both.

You did use a thick extension cord, correct? Not the thin basic one's.

What is your battery voltage?
Check the 120v breaker of your home electric panel.
Is it 15 amp? Your A/C really should have dedicated 20 amp circuit.
Extension cord should be #12 wire minimum.

RimCountry wrote:
Not sure I follow the way you have the A/C hooked up... not sure why you need a converter (inverter?) if you're using shore power. One or the other is fine, but not both.

So are you saying that I should be plugging the extension cord directly into the plug coming out of pop up and the other end of extension cord, directly in to the power plug in garage?

Thank you,

Tina

Yes. If your A/C unit runs on house current (120 VAC), you don't need an inverter to test it. It's also unlikely that it will run for long through an inverter (12V DC to 120 VAC) before it runs your batteries down. A/C units typically need shore power or a 120 VAC generator.

As for testing the A/C unit, you should be able to run an extension cord directly from the external shore-power plug on your pop-up to any 120VAC outlet in your garage. As others have noted, the extension cord should be a heavy orange one, not a thin brown or white one made of zip-wire.

If the unit does not function, disconnect from shore power and check your pop-up's inside breaker box. It should be mounted near your galley, opposite the external shore-power plug. There you will find a panel with AC breakers similar to what you might see in your home. With all external power cords unplugged, you should be able to re-set any thrown breakers, and then plug everything back in and try firing up the A/C unit again.

RimCountry wrote:
TINACAP wrote: So are you saying that I should be plugging the extension cord directly into the plug coming out of pop up and the other end of extension cord, directly in to the power plug in garage?

Yes. If your A/C unit runs on house current (120 VAC), you don't need an inverter to test it. It's also unlikely that it will run for long through an inverter (12V DC to 120 VAC) before it runs your batteries down. A/C units typically need to be plugged in to shore power or a 120 VAC generator.

As for testing the A/C unit, you should be able to run an extension cord directly from the external shore-power plug on your pop-up (through the proper adaptor) to any 120VAC outlet in your garage. As others have noted, the extension cord should be a heavy orange one, not a thin brown or white one made of zip-wire.

If the unit does not function, disconnect from shore power and check your pop-up's inside breaker box. It should be mounted near your galley, opposite the external shore-power plug. There you will find a panel with AC breakers similar to what you might see in your home. With all external power cords unplugged, you should be able to re-set any thrown breakers, and then plug everything back in and try firing up the A/C unit again.

Not sure about everybody else A/C, but mine gets plugged into an Outlet in the Pop Up and can only be used with Shore Power. In my case, if hooked to Shore Power, and plugged into the Pop Up Outlet and it kicked off, I'd try to eliminate the Pop Up and run a heavy Extension Cord and plug the A/C directly to the house (Shore Power)