Hot Neutral Reversed

[Vach]

My son just bought a small 1999 camping trailer. Being a good dad I offered to check out a few things for him. Stuck the outlet tester into the wall and it says hot neutral reversed while plugged into shore power. Used noncontact voltage tester and no hot skin problem. Now what? Simple fix? How dangerous is this problem? Thanks.

[Chris_Bryant]

And good for you for checking!

[newman_fulltime]

if the plug n the trailer has been changed i would start there

[ktmrfs]

the reason you don't have a hot skin is that neither the hot or neutral is bonded to ground in the trailer or to the trailer frame. ground neutral bond can only occur at the main breaker panel and the panel in the trailer is considered a subpanel. so ground goes to the frame, neutral and hot are isolated from the trailer frame, or should be by code.

and old biscuit has the best instructions. work your way from the main power source till you find the problem.

[MrWizard]

the most common mistake
is getting the wires wrong, when replacing the shore plug

or wall outlet

pretty hard to get white and black mixed up in the power center
or when connecting wires in a junction box

[time2roll]

Start at the source, not the RV.

[Bobbo]

As others have said:

1. check outlet at house. If that is good then
2. check wires in shore cord plug. If they are correct
3. check wires attaching shore cord to RV. If they are correct
4. check wires attached to main breaker.

In other words, start at the house and check EVERY place where wires connect to anything. You will find the problem.

[Dutch_12078]

X2 what Old-Biscuit said...

[Old-Biscuit]

1st,.......
I would check the 'POWER SOURCE' outlet that trailer is plugged into

IF that one is wired correctly THEN start checking trailer outlets beginning at the MAIN AC power panel

Problem will not be with converter as that is an AC load and then supplies DC Power (AC power goes in/DC power goes out)

[MrWizard]

start at the shore power cord
verify the wires are connected correctly at the cord end
and inside where the cord connects

does the shore cord connect directly at the breaker box in the power center
or is there a connection box inbetween there and the shore cord

the 'converter' is only ONE piece of the power center
and connected at the breakers, not the shore cord

[Ron3rd]

wa8yxm wrote:
You need to find out where it was reversed One trailer I had it was the plug.























but use a voltmeter or test light to find the error else fixing it can cause other issues.

I agree, and if all receptacles are reversed, then yes, it might just be switched at the converter, ie, wired wrong at the converter, easy fix. Not too hard to trace down if you're a bit handy with basic wiring.

[Ron3rd]

wa8yxm wrote:
You need to find out where it was reversed One trailer I had it was the plug.

I agree, and if all receptacles are reversed, then yes, it might just be switched at the converter, ie, wired wrong at the converter, easy fix. Not too hard to trace down if you're a bit handy with basic wiring.





































but use a voltmeter or test light to find the error else fixing it can cause other issues.

[wa8yxm]

You need to find out where it was reversed One trailer I had it was the plug.





































but use a voltmeter or test light to find the error else fixing it can cause other issues.

[ken56]

Yep, hot/neutral reverse is potentially dangerous. You have to track down exactly where it is. It could be just that one outlet but it affects all other outlets down line. Start taking them out and checking they are on the proper side, if not just switch the hot and neutral to the proper sides, then check the outlets down line and continue checking to be sure all the others are on the proper side.

[Vach]

All outlets test the same. When you say switch the wire, switch hot and neutral at the converter? Thanks.