RV electric power, half not working

FWIW... I have a similar problem. Only a couple of my outlets are working, the GFCI in the bathroom and the one for the microwave. None of the others are working, including the one the fridge plugs into - so it only runs on gas for now.

I've searched and searched, inside every cupboard and compartment, I can only find one GFCI reset, in the bathroom - and that's one of the outlets that DOES work.

I have pulled a couple outlets out of the wall, and it does appear that they are all connected. So I think I probably need to pull them all out and find out where the breakdown is.

Sounds like you might have similar or same.

Although, mine are exhibiting additional strangeness, so maybe not. I say they aren't working, and they are not. But, when I put a meter in one of them to check, it will show 190 volts once in awhile, other times show only 4 or 5 volts right at first then quickly go down to 1 volt. Just shows zero most of the time.

- Coyote

I had the same problem awhile back in mt travel trailer. I could trace it to the GF Plug as everything hooked upto it was out. Then every so often it would start working. I figured the GF plug was bad so I bought a better one that has the green light. When I was switching the plugs one of the stripped wires broke. It must have been hanging by a thread or making some contact. What had happened was the guy wiring my trailer had put too much pressure on the wire strippers and gone through nearly the entire wire. It finally let go. I installed the new plug and everything works fine.

The receptacles may *look* cheap but they are specially designed for use in RVs and manufactured homes. They have any necessary industry safety standard certification. They do not require an outlet box like in a house.

Manufacturer info: self-contained devices

The problem with these is that wiring should be installed using a special tool that presses the wires onto the "stabs". Sometimes this is not done or it is not done properly. You can push the wires on with a screwdriver or pliers but you have to be really careful and patient. There are two stabs per hot or neutral conductor. Up to 4 cables can be connected to one of these devices.

In our last TT, the one and only receptacle that I pulled out of the wall (to relocate it) did not have the wires pushed in properly. The wires were only pushed onto one of the two stabs so it only had 1/2 the current carrying capacity. Not impressed.... Am guessing that there are some RVs out there with improperly connected wires to these.

You should not use wire nut connectors (aka marrett connectors) in an RV unless inside an outlet box (along with the appropriate wiring device). If for any reason the connector comes loose, there could potentially be a shock or fire hazard.

I finally got the power issue resolved. I started checking power at the outlets and found the one behind the coach in the slide out and the one in dining area only had 45 volts when touching the hot and neutral slots in the receptical. They had 110v when I would touch the ground wire on my meter to the ground slot I the receptacle. So now I new it was a white neutral wire problem. All connection in breaker box were good and tight. I started removing receptacles and checking their connections. I never removed an rv receptacle before, I can not express CHEAP enough. The wires go in or through the receptacle and they are pushed down into a metal slot that cuts through the wire insulation to make contacts. The receptacle with two sets of wires work ok. The one in the dining area had three wires. The outside wire was the power feeding the other two sets of wires and the neutral wire was out of the metal slot. Putting three wires into the slot opened the slot too wide so the outside wires could not make good contact. I removed the receptacle and used wire nuts to connect them together, BINGO, all plugs work. I just need to replace the receptacle now. I checked each receptacle in the rv one at a time and all the ones that were not working are powered from the bathroom gfci. The breaker for these is labeled "back". There is another breaker labeled "front" that powers all the receptacle in front of the rv. I have no problem with these but they are all labeled gfci protected and I can not locate another gfci. None of the front outlets are near water so am wondering if maybe they are not protected by a gfci but were labeled as such because they got a good deal by purchasing a bunch at a time. Maybe this post will help out someone else who has a similar problem. Thanks to all for your feedback.
Randy

I'm with RedRocket204, it might not be a GFCI, bu rather a regular outlet that is not letting the current downstream. You're probably going to at least start by pulling outlet covers and looking to see if there are any loose wires. Or pull the outlets all out of the walls and inspect each one.

Check under the trailer along the frame rails, in the hot water heater compartment and behind it where the bypass valve is, refer compartment outside, storage area's. Jesters right, they stuff those GFI's in weird places if there is a thought that moisture might be near.

peirek wrote:

rlhay wrote:
The gfci outlet and one other one stops working when tripped.
I have 3 outlets that are not working, under kitchen cabinet, outside, and one other in dining area.

And I think maybe you have another GFCI outlet hiding somewhere? With the circuits around the kitchen sink involved in the mystery no power, it is causing me to draw this theory. Also, reading some of the other comments in this post.

The 3 that aren't working could also be the down stream outlets, all on the same circuit, which has lost its connection at an outlet upstream of the non-working outlets. Problem is finding that outlet where the wiring has become very loose or disconnected.

I would probably be removing all outlets until I found that loose wire, making sure you aren't connected to shore power first. The other option could be if the wire was cut behind a wall from drilling or ???

rlhay wrote:
The gfci outlet and one other one stops working when tripped.
I have 3 outlets that are not working, under kitchen cabinet, outside, and one other in dining area.

And I think maybe you have another GFCI outlet hiding somewhere? With the circuits around the kitchen sink involved in the mystery no power, it is causing me to draw this theory. Also, reading some of the other comments in this post.

The gfci outlet and one other one stops working when tripped.
I have 3 outlets that are not working, under kitchen cabinet, outside, and one other in dining area.

rlhay wrote:
The bathroom outlet is a gfci outlet, when I trip the gfci the bath room outlet and one living room outlet stops working.
The outlets that are not working include the kitchen outlet under neath
The cabinets, the outside outlet and one other kitchen outlet.

This smells like a GFCI circuit. Now it is just finding the darn GPCI outlet......... Might check under the kitchen sink cabinet etc.. Did you check inside the frig area as suggested?