replace transfer switch with 50amp plug?

[hertfordnc]

I have a friend who's on some hard times and living in an older HR pusher in a park.

It sounds like his transfer switch has croaked. For a while he would lose power from the pole and it would only run on generator.

Then it stopped getting power from either source.

He really does not have $150-200 for a new switch.

My suggestion is that he wire it the way my much older coach is wired,

The AC cord goes to the breaker panel. The generator goes to a female 30 amp plug. Instead of a transfer switch i plug the RV cord into the plug to operate from the generator.

I am a fair electrician but i have not been out ot see just what htis would entail

Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated.


thanks

[Mile_High]

tropical36 wrote:

Mile High wrote:
That transfer switch is on the way David - Hope it works out for him and everything fits!

Very generous of you, but have to wonder if the OP, has even bothered to look inside the switch, during all this time and during discussion. That said, it's much easier, replacing parts in these switches, than for replacing the whole thing in many cases, so maybe the parts or short wire runs, can be utilized. Still making a bet on the loose connections and crystallized wiring, as being the culprit or initially so.

Thanks. I agree on possible repair, but I don't have any intel on what kind of system it has, condition, or how tough it will be to install. The ATS I sent offers some built in surge protection as a bonus so might be worth the work to install anyway. Beats having it unused in my garage.

[MrWizard]

I think the OP said it was about friend, and he has not been to the friends RV yet, it is not local to him, and he has to drive up and see him

[tropical36]

Mile High wrote:
That transfer switch is on the way David - Hope it works out for him and everything fits!

Very generous of you, but have to wonder if the OP, has even bothered to look inside the switch, during all this time and during discussion. That said, it's much easier, replacing parts in these switches, than for replacing the whole thing in many cases, so maybe the parts or short wire runs, can be utilized. Still making a bet on the loose connections and crystallized wiring, as being the culprit or initially so.

[Mile_High]

That transfer switch is on the way David - Hope it works out for him and everything fits!

[tropical36]

Tom/Barb wrote:

DrewE wrote:
What exactly do you mean by "reversed polarity"? .

Substitute the red or black wire with the white at the pole. it sure fried ours.

but it also fried the inverter/converter.

$4500. later we had a rewired coach with new inverter/converter, transfer switch, and surge protector.

Yeah, I imagine it did create some smoke, but has nothing to do with some strange and would be polarity. What actually did happen, was with the changing of the input voltage from it's nominal 120vac to 240vac and thus overpowering it, by 100%. Can't imagine who would do such a thing :? :h, but then...................:S

[larry_cad]

Bumpyroad wrote:

larry cad wrote:

No, not true. My son's first motorhome had a manual transfer switch. It had a knob mounted on the outside of the box that you could use to switch between shore and genny power.

so on your son's MH he could connect two sources of power to the rv at once? didn't the "switch" automatically switch sources when the kob was moved?
bumpy

HAHA, yes, just like the lights in your house come on automatically after you flip a switch, or your car starts automatically after you turn the key!!!

:S:?

[Mile_High]

wa8yxm wrote:

camperdave wrote:
What's the point of the transfer switch? When would you ever run the generator while plugged in? just wondering. My rig is wired like you are suggesting, there is a generator outlet I plug the shore cord into when driving, then plug it into the pedestal when at camp.

Ok.. You pull into a park (have done this)
it starts Raining (Seen that happen too)
Some Ten T type (His license plate is 1 D 10 T) spins out on the wet pavement and WHAM hits a tall creosote soaked post and down come the high tension power lines (Well actually. it was not raining. he did not spin out (he just did not turn. the road turned but he did not and BANG.. NO POWER.

OR the Construction worker on the back hoe (Happened to me twice. once in college. once in campground)

Or the Hurricane comes calling (Been there too)

Well it's like 2 Am and you need power cause it's hot/cold and no way on earth do I want to go out in that rain and play with the power plug to transfer from Shore to Generator.

The ATS does it for me.

Or even less dramatic than that - you're away, the power goes out, and your Onan autostart starts the generator and the ATS restores power. You get back and the dog is still basking in air conditioning! Can't do that without an automatic transfer switch 🙂

[wolfe10]

Tom/Barb wrote:

DrewE wrote:
What exactly do you mean by "reversed polarity"? .

Substitute the red or black wire with the white at the pole. it sure fried ours.

but it also fried the inverter/converter.

$4500. later we had a rewired coach with new inverter/converter, transfer switch, and surge protector.

CORRECT, though not sure I would call it "reverse polarity"

So between what "should be" One hot and one neutral= 120 VAC
IS
One hot to second hot= 240 VAC.

That "lets the smoke out" of a lot of equipment designed for 120 VAC.

[Tom_Barb]

DrewE wrote:
What exactly do you mean by "reversed polarity"? .

Substitute the red or black wire with the white at the pole. it sure fried ours.

but it also fried the inverter/converter.

$4500. later we had a rewired coach with new inverter/converter, transfer switch, and surge protector.

[DrewE]

Tom/Barb wrote:
When / IF your transfer switch has ever been hooked up to reverse polarity it's over there is no fix. they are after all a magnetic relay. destroy the magnet destroy the relay,.

What exactly do you mean by "reversed polarity"? And is this 30A or 50A?

On a 30A connection, the transfer switch doesn't have any reference to detect, let alone care about, whether hot and neutral are swapped. It's (usually) an AC coil relay, and 120V AC is 120V AC regardless of which end of the coil is connected to neutral. If it is one with a DC coil, there's a rectifier built into the transfer switch somewhere and that rectifier doesn't care which way the power is connected. (Generally the relay coil wouldn't either, even for a DC relay, but if there's a snubber diode that diode would care.)

On a 50A connection, having a leg and the neutral switched means that one leg (as seen from the point of view of the RV) is at 240V rather than 120V, and if the transfer switch isn't damaged, it's very likely that other things in the RV would be damaged in short order. That is a quite serious wiring problem.

[77rollalong]

since your are now loosing power from both the pole and the gen. would be checking the main breaker too. we have an auto switch part of the main breaker panel, maybe see if you can find an owners manual for the panel as well. Ours defaults to pole power, when generator starts there is about 30 to 45 sec delay built in before the transfer switch closes connecting the generator to the breaker panel and disconnecting the pole power from the rv.. You have to really start at the Pole for power and work all the way through till you find something wrong

[wa8yxm]

camperdave wrote:
What's the point of the transfer switch? When would you ever run the generator while plugged in? just wondering. My rig is wired like you are suggesting, there is a generator outlet I plug the shore cord into when driving, then plug it into the pedestal when at camp.

Ok.. You pull into a park (have done this)
it starts Raining (Seen that happen too)
Some Ten T type (His license plate is 1 D 10 T) spins out on the wet pavement and WHAM hits a tall creosote soaked post and down come the high tension power lines (Well actually. it was not raining. he did not spin out (he just did not turn. the road turned but he did not and BANG.. NO POWER.

OR the Construction worker on the back hoe (Happened to me twice. once in college. once in campground)

Or the Hurricane comes calling (Been there too)

Well it's like 2 Am and you need power cause it's hot/cold and no way on earth do I want to go out in that rain and play with the power plug to transfer from Shore to Generator.

The ATS does it for me.

[time2roll]

hertfordnc wrote:

time2roll wrote:
Nothing wrong with putting an outlet/connector on the generator that matches the main cord. Although you will probably be half way to the cost of a new switch by the time you do it properly.

+1 to unplug and inspect the existing switch before spending money.

For all we know the pedestal supply could be bad. Maybe have the RV park take a quick look before you go out there.

Initially he thought it was the park power. But his problems were intermittent.

It went from no power from the pole- then he got power to half his coach - then he switched to the generator and he had all power everywhere.

So the park moved his site (apparently the maintenance guy can't meter the pole)

This went on for a few weeks with intermittent success.

Finally, when the coach would not take power from the generator and when he called me to discuss it, we started to think it's the transfer switch.

SO i'm thinking at some point the TS was not fully switching both lines? That would explain the partial power, right?


And then it was not switching at all and defaulting to the generator?

And then it failed completely and created an open. ut i think we have a paln to get a new TS and I'l get up there in the next couple weeks to install it.

I love what a thorough discussion this forum has when you ask a question in January 🙂

Please post what you find when you get on-site for a review.

[Tom_Barb]

When / IF your transfer switch has ever been hooked up to reverse polarity it's over there is no fix. they are after all a magnetic relay. destroy the magnet destroy the relay,.