A 50amp lesson learned

[jmcgsd]

We have had our new 5th wheel for about a month now. It's our first RV with 50amp service. All previous have had 30amp.

I moved it about 50 miles yesterday to a new RV park. When I arrived I plugged into the 50A service at the site. Both lights lighted on the power cord indicating to me that everything was connected properly. When I went into the rig I noticed that the clock on the microwave had not started. I chalked that up to the plug perhaps becoming is connected while bumping down California's freeways. All other AC appliances were working properly.

My wife and I went out to dinner. When we returned the LED lights in the trailer appeared dim check the battery voltage and it was low. That really got me to cursing and swearing at the manufacturer for a sloppy build. In any case I watched some tv (in the dark) and got up early in the AM to troubleshoot the problem.

I decided I'd plug in battery charger to one of the outside AC outlets and charge up the battery. Low and behold the charger didn't come on! Plugged in to one of the inside outlets and it worked properly.

That got me to looking at the breaker panel again I noticed the breakers for the microwave, converter and outside outlets were all physically next to one another. I figure the breaker module was bad.

Oops forgot to say when the charger wouldn't work on the outside outlet I checked it with a voltmeter and got a reading of 20V. When my selling dealer opened I called the service advisor and was hot under the collar! He listened to my description and said he'd get back to me which he did in about 10 minutes.

When he called back he asked if the space also had 30A service and whether I had a 50 --> 30A pigtail. I answered yes to both. He suggested I plug in to the 30A which I did and voila - Problem Solved! It was the parks service, not the RV.

Now I know not to believe the idiot lights on the cord. One leg of the service must have been at 20V which was enough to light the LED but of course not enough to power anything. ??

[Chuck_thehammer]

a coach here in the campground.. been plugged in for 2 months..

got up one morning.. 1/2 of coach was electrically dead.. called a RV Service...

was a bad breaker on the Pole... Campground did pay the charge. no pun.

[Dtank]

pianotuna wrote:
Check voltage and polarity before you plug in anywhere.

*You* can - or the PI EMS will do that or you, but if you don't have one (yet), here's an example of why you should......

The Electrician said "Oops!"

Additional (info) post/s by the author on the succeeding pages of the thread he started.

An RV Net "Jewel"..:C

.

[jaycocamprs]

jmcgsd that exact same thing cost us a microwave. Lesson learned now we have a Progressive Industries EMS PT-50C.

[pianotuna]

Check voltage and polarity before you plug in anywhere.

[BBFD]

mgirardo wrote:

JnJnKatiebug wrote:

BBFD wrote:
When I saw the title I thought it was going to be one of those 'I plugged my 50 amp RV into the 220v welder outlet in my BIL's garage....' type posts. Good thing an easy lesson learned and a good prompt that I have been meaning to get one too. We've all experienced some 'iffy' power situations before.

My welder and 50 amp RV have shared the same plug for years.

I think he meant 30 amp RV into a 220v, 30 amp outlet.

-Michael

Yes, exactly what I meant but did not word it properly. Thanks.

[mgirardo]

JnJnKatiebug wrote:

BBFD wrote:
When I saw the title I thought it was going to be one of those 'I plugged my 50 amp RV into the 220v welder outlet in my BIL's garage....' type posts. Good thing an easy lesson learned and a good prompt that I have been meaning to get one too. We've all experienced some 'iffy' power situations before.

My welder and 50 amp RV have shared the same plug for years.

I think he meant 30 amp RV into a 220v, 30 amp outlet.

-Michael

[JnJnKatiebug]

BBFD wrote:
When I saw the title I thought it was going to be one of those 'I plugged my 50 amp RV into the 220v welder outlet in my BIL's garage....' type posts. Good thing an easy lesson learned and a good prompt that I have been meaning to get one too. We've all experienced some 'iffy' power situations before.

My welder and 50 amp RV have shared the same plug for years.

[mike-s]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
A transient voltage spike event is not a "surge".

Once again, you're wrong. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers says so.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

As a former president once slimed ... " It depends on the meaning of the word 'is'"...

A transient voltage spike event is not a "surge".

If you've ever been on the mouth of a river that dumps into the ocean during a big storm you learn the meaning of the word "surge".

[BBFD]

When I saw the title I thought it was going to be one of those 'I plugged my 50 amp RV into the 220v welder outlet in my BIL's garage....' type posts. Good thing an easy lesson learned and a good prompt that I have been meaning to get one too. We've all experienced some 'iffy' power situations before.

[mike-s]

wa8yxm wrote:
A spike is a fast rise in voltage, lasting generally less than 1 60th of a second, Spikes on a 120 volt line can easily hit 1,ooo volts. A SURGE can be seconds, or even minutes, not as high as a SPIKE but (Typically only about double the proper voltage) but the Spike supressor can not absorb that much power.

You're making up terminology. IEEE Std 100 defines a surge as a "transient wave of current, potential or power in the electric circuit".

What you're calling a "surge" is properly called a swell or perhaps simply over voltage.

Surge - 1-100 us
Temporary Over Voltage (TOV) - 100 us - 8 ms
Swell - 8 ms - 1 min
Over Voltage - > 1 min

Here's a whitepaper, which discusses these common industry terms.

[SoundGuy]

jmcgsd wrote:
Well now I know.

Fortunately no damage was done ... you got really lucky. Now go order a Progressive EMS. 😉

[jmcgsd]

Well now I know. ......

[C_B_]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
50A Surge protector.......Progressive Industries

Problem solved!

X-4




C.B.