electrical problem

[Cajun_Bill]

Looking for suggestions: The situation is that I went to my camper today and found out that I did not have 120V into the camper. I found that my shore cable had a burnt spot on the female end of the cable where it plugs into the side of the camper. I'm 30VAC in a Grey Wolf. I remembered that the last time that I was there, about 3 weeks ago, my TV would go on and off occasionally, but I attributed that to the power company. Apparently, it was problems with my cable. Anyway, when I got there today, I turned on the AC and it started, but then quit. In searching for clues, I found that my voltmeter that I keep plugged into a receptacle inside was showing 0 VAC so I began trying to isolate the issue. I ended up cutting out the female plug completely and wiring it directly into the #10 wire leading into the camper using wire nuts so I would know that I had a solid connection. Bottom line, I have measured the voltage on the outside of the camper where I put the wire nuts and it is a stead 125VAC , but when I checked the voltage on the inside receptacles, I'm only getting about 75V so something is shunting down the voltage. Another clue is that I turned off all the breakers in the camper control panel and I continue to read 110V on the outside cable at the wire nuts as I turned on the circuits one at a time until I turned on the breaker labeled "converter". At that point, the voltage drops down to the aforementioned 75V. Wondering if maybe the power arced at the outside plug causing something to go wrong in the converter. If so, how best to check that? substitute a new converter or what? Any assistance will be appreciated.

[CA_Traveler]

Good find and that's one reason why I have a EMS that would shut done the power.

Baring a good EMS device use a 30/20 adapter and household 3 light device to check a pedestal. Not nearly as good but it does show up opens and reverse polarity.

[Cajun_Bill]

wolfe10 wrote:

Cajun Bill wrote:
Turns out their ground on the top of the spot pole was corroded which made the voltage in the trailer swing from 0 VAC to 75 VAC to 125 VAC to 175VAC. (Yikes!!) I could literally sit and watch the volt meter continually swing with nothing going on at all, then the voltage would stabilize at 125 VAC and as soon as we put any load on the circuit, the voltage would drop down to 0 VAC then when we took the load off, it would shoot up to 175 VAC and bounce as if it was trying to go higher.

Actually, it was a bad connection on the NEUTRAL that caused the wide fluctuations in voltage.

Okay, maybe so, but I'm wondering if anyone can help me with something else concerting this issue: When I was chasing the rabbit from the camper control panel back to the pole, I could not find where the wire coming from the plug in connector on the side of the camper (the connector that the shore cable plugs into) connects to the heavy wires that feed the control panel. I know there is a connection point somewhere because the wire feeding the shore cable plug in is a solid orange romex #10 that goes up into the wall from where it connects to the shore cable. And the wires that feed the control panel are stranded #8 0r #6 and are red and white. Anyone have any idea how/where these end up being connected? The only near electrical device is a 110V outlet that I could figure out how to access because it has no outside screws. If the connection is not there, it must then go into the roof and cross over somewhere, maybe behind the fridge or something. Any ideas anyone? The camper is a 26DBH Grey Wolf.

[wolfe10]

Cajun Bill wrote:
Turns out their ground on the top of the spot pole was corroded which made the voltage in the trailer swing from 0 VAC to 75 VAC to 125 VAC to 175VAC. (Yikes!!) I could literally sit and watch the volt meter continually swing with nothing going on at all, then the voltage would stabilize at 125 VAC and as soon as we put any load on the circuit, the voltage would drop down to 0 VAC then when we took the load off, it would shoot up to 175 VAC and bounce as if it was trying to go higher.

Actually, it was a bad connection on the NEUTRAL that caused the wide fluctuations in voltage.

[Cajun_Bill]

Okay, problem solved today. As I promised, here is what was found: After chasing the "rabbit" all the way back from the outside plug-in where my shore cable plugged into the side of the camper and changing the female end of that, we then changed the 30A receptacle at the pole, then cleaned all the ends of all wires leading into the breaker box and breakers until there was nothing more to do other than check the power company's connection so I called them and thankfully, they quickly responded. Turns out their ground on the top of the spot pole was corroded which made the voltage in the trailer swing from 0 VAC to 75 VAC to 125 VAC to 175VAC. (Yikes!!) I could literally sit and watch the volt meter continually swing with nothing going on at all, then the voltage would stabilize at 125 VAC and as soon as we put any load on the circuit, the voltage would drop down to 0 VAC then when we took the load off, it would shoot up to 175 VAC and bounce as if it was trying to go higher.

End of story, after the power company removed the corrosive connection to their ground, everything is now working. AC blowing cool, fridge started calling, etc. Just hoping no permanent damage was done to my compressors, etc. Good lesson to learn. Thanks to all who kept telling me the problem was not in the camper, but somewhere back from there to the breaker box and pole.

[wa8yxm]

On My 50 amp rig I had to replace both outlet and inlet.
And the plug
Outlet twice
It is worse on 30 amps I think it's the neutral has a tendency to melt

[Cajun_Bill]

Yes if you have a surge or EMS device at the pedestal remove it and recheck.


I do and I will try again to remove it from the circuit to eliminate that possibility.. Thanks for all the suggestions. I tend to agree that the problem is between the power panel at the pole and the RV. I just bought a replacement (female) plug for the shore cable. I also bought a new female receptacle 30A and will replace the existing one in the box at the pole. (It is a rented spot on an acre of land and I'm the only one connected to this meter/panel/etc.) Where the camper is, is subject to some salt air and it's possible that the connections at the pole are oxidized so I will check that also and redo all connections to insure continuity.

I'm going to take everyone's advice and assume the converter is fine. Will advise. Going back there tomorrow am. thanks again

[CA_Traveler]

Yes if you have a surge or EMS device at the pedestal remove it and recheck.

[smarty]

Do you have a surge protector as part of your system?

[CA_Traveler]

Dropping 50V means you have a wiring problem, not a converter problem. If the converter was the problem the rigs CB would trip.

You have isolated the problem to upstream of your hardwired connection. NEXT STEP is to measure the pedestal voltage. What is it under load?

Again the problem is the pedestal or wiring to the outside connection.

[Cajun_Bill]

wnjj wrote:
OP direct wired around the connectors so they are no longer the issue.

As CA Travler said, the converter is likely just a heavy (normal) load that is highlighting a resistive connection. If you’re measuring the 75V at the wire nuts, the poor connection is between there and the park pedestal and not inside the RV. With connections poor enough to burn the connectors and cause outages, it’s likely you have other issues, ideally you would replace the shore cord or at least all of its connectors.

You are correct, I bypassed the female end of the shore power plug and the male end of the camper connector so that can't be the problem I'm thinking. Maybe it was the cause, but not anymore. Now, just to clarify, with all control panel CB's off, I measure 110 (actually 125) VAC at the hardwired connection outside the camper. Then, as a buddy turned the breakers on one at a time, I continued to measure 125VAC until the converter CB was turned on. At that point the voltage dropped to 75VAC at the hardwired connector and also on the inside receptacles.

Regarding the "trouble shooting" for the converter, where would I find such a thing?

[wnjj]

OP direct wired around the connectors so they are no longer the issue.

As CA Travler said, the converter is likely just a heavy (normal) load that is highlighting a resistive connection. If you’re measuring the 75V at the wire nuts, the poor connection is between there and the park pedestal and not inside the RV. With connections poor enough to burn the connectors and cause outages, it’s likely you have other issues, ideally you would replace the shore cord or at least all of its connectors.

[CA_Traveler]

You have a partial open which allows the voltage to drop to 75V w/o tripping the CB. I'd bet a donut that if you connected a high draw appiance with the charger CB off you would see the same results.

Start with connecting new male and female plugs with the wire cut back to good clean wire.

[WNYBob]

Get on line trouble shooting instructions for your converter. Should tell if you have a bad converter.

[Flute_Man]

You need to replace the female connector of the male connector that was burned. Maybe even the male connector is well if it’s burned to badly. That should fix it all. You may call me if you wish.