outlets not working

Hi,

I've replaced all but three of the outlets on the RV. Two I don't use, and the one for the microwave--which is rarely used.

Broken or loose ground would not cause the problems you described, although it is a safety concern. Broken or loose neutral would, since it would not allow for a complete circuit. Fridge going on and off of electric power is an indication of this; an intermittent problem causing power to come on and off. Usually what happens is this, you have a tenuous connection (hot or neutral) that works when cool; as your refrigerator runs, the current flowing through the bad connection causes it to heat up. The heat causes the connection to fail, or to introduce a large amount of resistance which impedes the flow of current. The circuit opens, cutting off the electricity. After a while, the connection cools and electricity begins to flow again. If this happens often enough, it may very well start a fire inside your walls.
As mentioned previously, the cheap receptacles used in RV construction are very much to blame for this. Also, if the rest of your outlets have stopped working, it is a pretty good indication that the circuit wiring has broken or burned downstream of the refrigerator outlet. Hopefully your electrician gets this fixed correctly for you, as this is a potentially deadly situation.

I'm back. The tech came out yesterday to asses the problem. According to him I have a ground that is broke or loose between the fridge outlet which was bad too and the outlet in the back room. He changed out the outlet to the fridge which is now staying on electric power not switching back and forth like before (cost me a tank of propane BTW). He was not able to fix the problem yesterday cause of time restraints but gave me a temporary fix for now. He will have to run a new ground from the fridge outlet to the back room outlet but will have to do it from underneath which will entail the removal of the under belly cover. So till further notice.:D

I had similar issues on my TT last year and decided to make sure my wires were all tight at the panel and found that a couple wires at my grounding bar were loose. Tightened them all up and problem went away. Let us know what you find and what the solution was.

Make the best of it and try to watch the electrician and pick up what you can
So don't want you to learn anything but others are glad to help you understand what/how
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Good Luck, Mike

cnieto wrote:
I am the original owner, and I do have a meter. The gadget shows me hot/ground reverse. I'm not an electrition, I have checked every box and nothing is loose in them. According to what I have read hot/ground reverse occurs when you have a loose or bad neutral. I have no formal training in electricity so I can only go off of what I read and understand on forums such as this one. Well I guess I'll have to just pay somebody else to fix this like I stated before.

What you have at hand is a voltage and phase indicator. A multimeter measures AC/DC voltage, resistance, and, possibly, amperage. It is a tool that every RV'er should carry, IMO.

I think you've made a wise choice to bring in someone more knowledgeable. I've seen a lot of mistakes made by folks that are not conversant with electrical systems. Those mistakes are sometimes very costly.

If you want to make one last effort, I would try to discern if there is a problem with one of the non-working receptacles. The one I would look at is the one closest to the GFCI receptacle. Most RV's have the 120V AC daisy chained and if the first receptacle in line has a bad connection, everything downstream will remain unpowered. You could also pull the GFCI and connect the hot, ground, and neutral wires that enter/exit the GFCI receptacle (bypassing it). That will eliminate the GFCI as the fault if the other receptacles remain unpowered. Please, if you try the above, do it with the power off. Your lighted indicator will help you with that.

cnieto wrote:
I have a 12V panel like the first one but have yet to find a 120V panel. But if I have power to the GFCI which I'm guessing is 110 then the problem would be in the trailer not the pedestal (correct). Don't know called a guy yesterday he charges $50 to come out and $92/hr. So I'm gonna bite the bullet and let him figure this one out. I hate to do so I like to figure stuff out for my self but this time its really irritating. If I change out the outlet that started this issue would that help I looked at it and it looked fine. But sometimes they go bad and look fine. Just guessing at things now hate it when I can not figure things out.

Just to let you know since no one else has since pics were posted. The top pic is a compo 120volt and 12volt panel usually used in all types of RVs. Also a point to look at is with power off pull out offending recptical and make sure the wires are tight in it, you will be supprised with what you see if you are execting it to look like the ones in your house. They do come loose. If you think it is ok then try to find the one in front of it and pull it out. Several recepticals run off of one c/b. Good luck.

Hi cnieto,

Did you check the plug at your home where the shore power is connected? It might be wrong.

As the dealer you bought it from where the power center is?

I am the original owner, and I do have a meter. The gadget shows me hot/ground reverse. I'm not an electrition, I have checked every box and nothing is loose in them. According to what I have read hot/ground reverse occurs when you have a loose or bad neutral. I have no formal training in electricity so I can only go off of what I read and understand on forums such as this one. Well I guess I'll have to just pay somebody else to fix this like I stated before.

Hi,

Did you talk to the previous owner and ask him?