30 vs 50 amp electrical issue help

[ODG255]

Hello,

I recently purchased a 2023 heartland mallard 32ft travel trailer. When I bought it at dealer they assured me it was a 50 amp service during purchase and during walk through. During walk through it was already hooked up via 50 amp cord and that is the cord I was given.

We camped two nights and lost all power during the night, come to find out we were running solely on solar despite the cord being plugged into appropriate 50 amp outlet at the camping ground.

Turns out the trailer is 30 amp! Above power receptacle on trailer it states 30 amp only. This is all confusing but I figured I would ask if anyone has had similar experiences… my concern is that at some point 50 amp power went into the trailer rated for 30 amp and fried it all. Thank you for input.

[wa8yxm]

Another way to tell if it's really a 30 or 50 is to post a photo of the INLET
50 amp inlets have 3 blades (And a 4th contact you might not notice)

[valhalla360]

Quote....We are taking trailer to phoenix this summer for two months for medical care and one AC won’t cut it.

If it has two aircon units it almost certainly is 50amp.

If you don't have a buddy who is good with electric, it may be worth spending a couple hundred to pay an electrician to take a look and explain it to you...in front of the salesman.

Hoping the dealer will figure it out and give you a straight answer is unrealistic.

[Grit_dog]

^So it has 2 Air conditioners? If so then it most likely/assuredly IS a 50A panel in the camper.
And your batteries died because the converter was/is somehow not working.

Or some mystery?

[ODG255]

dougrainer wrote:
The OP stated the shore cord was connected at walk thru. SO, if so, and there WAS a miswire, then how did the 120 appliances operate during the walk thru?????????????????????????? The OP needs to respond if the dealer did a good walk thru and the OP SAW that the TV and Microwave and Roof AC operated. Me thinks that he has a BAD power converter and THAT caused the battery system to go dead except for solar and his 120 appliances still operate. On a 30 amp trailer which has an outside input and you plug in the shore cord a 50 amp cord will NOT connect to that 30 amp wall plug on the trailer. Different size and connections. Doug

During walk through it was connected to shore power and we did indeed turn on AC. But AC also worked while camping but presumably off solar. It was near perfect out so AC ran very very little.

The 50 amp shore line does plug in and the LED on the trailer and cord ultimates when plugged in. Presumably indicating that power has tracked from pedestal to trailer. At least to the outlet?

I have told the dealer to not make any repairs until they tell me what’s going on. The last I heard from the sales guy after his adamant “it’s 30 amp” was “apparently it is 50 amp”.

During walk through the tech, not sales guy was adamant that it was 50. If it wasn’t I would have backed out deal all together. We are taking trailer to phoenix this summer for two months for medical care and one AC won’t cut it.

[dougrainer]

The OP stated the shore cord was connected at walk thru. SO, if so, and there WAS a miswire, then how did the 120 appliances operate during the walk thru?????????????????????????? The OP needs to respond if the dealer did a good walk thru and the OP SAW that the TV and Microwave and Roof AC operated. Me thinks that he has a BAD power converter and THAT caused the battery system to go dead except for solar and his 120 appliances still operate. On a 30 amp trailer which has a outside input and you plug in the shore cord a 50 amp cord will NOT connect to that 30 amp wall plug on the trailer. Different size and connections. Doug

[Bobbo]

opnspaces wrote:
I'll bet the assembly line workers ran out of 30 amp cords and added a 50 amp instead because they had it on hand. The question is did they only connect one of the two hot wires (this would be good as it's 120v 30 amp). Or did they do some kind of bonehead move and twist the two hot leads together under one screw creating 240v (This would be bad).

Twisting the two hot wires together would be an immediate short at the pedestal. HOWEVER, if they hooked up the two hot wires to separate screws and left the neutral wire disconnected, you have a 240v circuit and lots of damage.

[toedtoes]

katysdad wrote:

I'll bet the assembly line workers ran out of 30 amp cords and added a 50 amp instead because they had it on hand. The question is did they only connect one of the two hot wires (this would be good as it's 120v 30 amp). Or did they do some kind of bonehead move and twist the two hot leads together under one screw creating 240v (This would be bad).

This would not put 240V into trailer. It would be a direct short at the pedestel and immediatly trip the pedestel breaker even if not connected to trailer input.

I also think it's unlikely this happened IF the 50amp cord is detachable as the OP suggests. If that were the case, then the connection to the RV would have remained 30amp.

If the cord is detachable, then that suggests that both the port on the RV AND the cord were switched to 50amps.

[katysdad]

I'll bet the assembly line workers ran out of 30 amp cords and added a 50 amp instead because they had it on hand. The question is did they only connect one of the two hot wires (this would be good as it's 120v 30 amp). Or did they do some kind of bonehead move and twist the two hot leads together under one screw creating 240v (This would be bad).

This would not put 240V into trailer. It would be a direct short at the pedestel and immediatly trip the pedestel breaker even if not connected to trailer input.

[Grit_dog]

Except he never said any appliances were fried.
If I follow the symptoms as described, the fireplace issue seems it could be unrelated.
There’s a mystery in this somewhere. Not the least of which, if anyone found a place to hook the 4th wire (of a 50a RV) in a 120v breaker panel….

[CA_Traveler]

Assuming everything is fixed and you keep the RV insist on new batteries as discharged batteries have compromised life. And before you take the RV back spend half a day doing a complete PDI, and or hire an independent professional to check everything.

[Cptnvideo]

I think opnspaces nailed it. What I don't understand is how the appliances lasted as long as they did on 240 vac.
And with appliances fried, what caused the batteries to run down to the point of being unable to run the slides in?

Looking forward to the final analysis.

[toedtoes]

If the trailer model normally comes with a hardwired 30 amp cord and your particular trailer has a detachable 50 amp cord, then it sounds like someone switched out the original cord.

Looking at the two 32ft mallard trailers online, neither shows and option for 50amps.

If you bought this new, I would definitely be suspicious of the dealer.

Personally, I would return the trailer and find another dealer.

Even if they didn't add the 50 amp cord, they should have identified the issue right away.

If the did add the cord, then they have shown themselves to be incompetent at best.

[Grit_dog]

ODG255 wrote:
If I could upload pictures on here I would but my power cord is without a doubt a four prong 50 amp cord. Dealer did admit to that. They said “I have no idea why you would have that cord”. They have gone back and forth on the trailer being 50 or 30 several times.

So it’s 4 prongs on both ends and obviously the male plugin on the trailer is as well?
Or it’s a pigtail cord and only has a male end to connect to shore power?

Either way without pinning out the wires or even knowing if there’s 4 wires in the cord or if it’s only wired to 1 leg of a 50A, you’re Air conditioner wouldn’t have been working if you didn’t have AC power (and fridge assuming you had it on AC mode). Fireplace is likely a separate issue.
(Assuming you don’t have a big ole battery bank and big inverter in a fresh from the dealer camper)

Good news is nothing is likely “fried” and better news, if it is, you have warranty.

[opnspaces]

I know you have said more than once that it's at the dealership and you need to wait and see what they say. My opinion is that is you really should be more proactive in this.

I'll bet the assembly line workers ran out of 30 amp cords and added a 50 amp instead because they had it on hand. The question is did they only connect one of the two hot wires (this would be good as it's 120v 30 amp). Or did they do some kind of bonehead move and twist the two hot leads together under one screw creating 240v (This would be bad).

I would at the very least insist that the dealership tells you what they found before they do any type of repairs. If only one hot wire is connected then it's all good. Request the proper cable and move on with life.

If both hots were hooked under the same screw I would be insisting that the trailer goes back to the manufacturer for proper disassembly and repairs.

Taken another way, if the dealership needs to replace electrical components like the microwave, fireplace, converter/charger etc; That's a pretty good indicator that 240v was fed into the system.

[Cptnvideo]

OP states solar was working. This suggests an inverter and res fridge.

OP states couldn't turn on fireplace even though fridge and A/C were running. All 3 could trip a 30 amp main. But a tripped main would kill A/C & fridge. Sounds like some things will run from an inverter that doesn't go thru the 30 amp main.

OR, the factory really screwed up during build.