Clueless- how do I get my travel trailer running again?

And read The 12volt Side of Life so you won't have to go through this again.

CA Traveler wrote:

WestTXskies wrote:
Westend-
I apologize, the converter smoked while electrician was trying to hook the the trailer up at my mother in law house. We visited my mother in law for vacation, she lives 6 hours away. We are back home now. I did not have a battery but will purchasing one today. Hoping electrician will make it today. Thank you for the advice, I will have converter checked before disposing of it.

Most likely you have a 30A rig and the electrician connected it to 240V. He should pay for replacement of all damaged equipment which can include TVs etc.

You need either a battery and charger (of some kind) or just a charger.

Most of the rig requires 12V for the appliances to work. This can include but is not limited to lights, water, refer, HW, AC, furnace, etc. Some of these may/may not require 12V. Yes the refer, HW and AC may require 12V for the controls.

X2 on the electrician paying if at fault. That's what their insurance is for. If the damage is extensive first see if the electrician will cooperate (if at fault). If no cooperation, contact an attorney who will contact the electrician's insurance carrier, assuming insurance is in place.

WestTXskies wrote:
Westend-
I apologize, the converter smoked while electrician was trying to hook the the trailer up at my mother in law house. We visited my mother in law for vacation, she lives 6 hours away. We are back home now. I did not have a battery but will purchasing one today. Hoping electrician will make it today. Thank you for the advice, I will have converter checked before disposing of it.

Most likely you have a 30A rig and the electrician connected it to 240V. He should pay for replacement of all damaged equipment which can include TVs etc.

You need either a battery and charger (of some kind) or just a charger.

Most of the rig requires 12V for the appliances to work. This can include but is not limited to lights, water, refer, HW, AC, furnace, etc. Some of these may/may not require 12V. Yes the refer, HW and AC may require 12V for the controls.

WestTXskies wrote:
Westend-
I apologize, the converter smoked while electrician was trying to hook the the trailer up at my mother in law house. We visited my mother in law for vacation, she lives 6 hours away. We are back home now. I did not have a battery but will purchasing one today. Hoping electrician will make it today. Thank you for the advice, I will have converter checked before disposing of it.

Thanks for clearing that up, somedays I'm slow on the uptake. If you're getting a battery now, you could always buy a cheap automotive charger to get you by until your better half gets home or until you have a new converter in hand. Also, if worst came to worst, the subcontractors could jump charge the trailer battery once a day.

Good luck with the trailer, it sounds like you have a lot going on.

If your electrician was not familiar with RVs he may have taken a look at the plug on your cord and assumed it was a 220v service (it's the same as older houses used on clothes dryers). Be sure and have that plug at your mother's house checked. In case you need to use it again make sure it is 120v and label it as such.

"We hired an electrician to hook up the travel trailer to my mother in laws electrical box. Everything was working fine before leaving town"

Do you mean everything was working fine AFTER the electrician wired the box, or working fine only BEFORE the wiring was done. If it smoked AFTER the wire job was done, 100% guarantee the job was done wrong, ie wired for 220 volts. Electricians unfamiliar with 30 amp 120 volt RV plugs do this all the time because the plug looks similar to a 220 volt plug and they've never done any RV work.

"Electrician" most likely connected it to 240 volts not 120 volts.
Someone needs to verify the receptacle voltage. If it is in deed 240 volts, the "electrician" needs to come up with dollars to repair everything affected in the rig. Converter, microwave for a couple. Air conditioner only if it were on.

WestTXskies wrote:
Westend-
I apologize, the converter smoked while electrician was trying to hook the the trailer up at my mother in law house.

Bingo!

Westend-
I apologize, the converter smoked while electrician was trying to hook the the trailer up at my mother in law house. We visited my mother in law for vacation, she lives 6 hours away. We are back home now. I did not have a battery but will purchasing one today. Hoping electrician will make it today. Thank you for the advice, I will have converter checked before disposing of it.

This narrative, to me, is not understandable.

Did the converter smoke and give you problems when plugged into the mother in law's house or later, somewhere else? This statement--"Unfortunately, it is too far to get answers or help from the electrician used" makes me think the problem occurred later, somewhere else than your mother in law's house. If so, then all the 120V--miswired 220v advice can be disregarded.

Do you have a battery in the travel trailer, now? If so, and if it is charged, you should have 12V power to run everything. If not, you need a battery and shouldn't be on the road without one.

If the above is correct, you need to get a battery and probably, a new converter. You can check to see if the converter is working by measuring the output voltage of the converter across the battery terminals. it should be at least 13.2V.