That Burning Smell

[AllegroD]

Well, at about 2 AM we woke up to an awful "ozone" electrical burning smell. We could not locate the source. The smell returned at about 0900. Again, we could not find the source. We thought maybe the electric WH. Since we were leaving soon and the weather was fair, we just unplugged. When we got home, we did not plug back in.

Well, after some searching we found this:

and this:


It is in the shop now for replacing.

[AllegroD]

This is the front side, so you can see the input. Sorry it took a couple days.

[down_home]

Loose connections and low voltage high amp. Only time we've seen it is at the tower plug in. We were using a 30 amp pigtail adapter.The gauge in the house showed 105 volts or less. We had surge low voltage protector plus built in same.
I cut the gen on which broke the circuit to the tower, quickest way, I thought.
When I unplugged the cord it was melting and burned my hand.
I had cleaned the plug with contact cleaner before we hooked up to the tower.
Park had problems or maybe just the tower. We just used the generator the rest of the evening. We left in the morning not having to fool with unhooking in the am or take boards from under the jacks, since it was paved. This is the way RVing should be. 🙂

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I don't mean to spook anyone but actual fire is not the only thing that should be an issue.

The plethora of plastic in an RV lends itself to toxic smoldering that can kill even though there is no actual flame.

And through a confluence of error it is possible to create a short circuit in the shore power line that passes up the cord, into the rig and exits via the green ground circuit.

With absolutely no safety current limit.

Quicksilver has a marine 30-amp breaker on the neutral but this absolutely cannot be done with a 50-amp 240 volt system.

[AllegroD]

Boomerweps wrote:
What was the breaker feeding?

The whole panel. These are the input (incoming) 50amp breakers.

BTW, I did not post. This is on a 2013 Tiffin 36LA.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

You would be surprised what DeOxit D100 does for tight fitting but slight heating of blade type conventional breakers under load. Too many times I have treated the blades and the heat slumped to normal. This is no gimmick fix.

Same for tubular aluminum barrel soldering guns -- Weller

Remove tip. Scratch up the inside of the aluminum barrel. SOLDER the tip ends that fit into the barrels. Saturate with D100 then instead of lasting so many months the tips have lasted me for YEARS without having to remove them and clean the aluminum barrel again.

[time2roll]

Have had similar with stationary home systems. Had to replace all nine breaker panels with same issue.

[dougrainer]

It is caused by LOOSE connections in the RV breaker box. Either the neutral or HOT. Since the Black HOT and breaker burnt--it was loose BLACK wires in the breaker box. Doug

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Square D and Siemens type house breakers were never designed to go thumping down the interstate


But these breakers are.



Screws with lockwashers...

[sparkydave]

Yes, it happens. Just had to replace the service panel in my 1970s house because the bus bar corroded, and the fingers on the breakers were starting to arc and burn. Most notably on the electric dryer breaker and air conditioning breaker.

[BB_TX]

It happens. Mother-in-law had to have the distribution panel in her house replaced due to a burned breaker and buss.

[Boomerweps]

What was the breaker feeding?

[Dusty_R]

I replaced a 42 pole panel in a shop once where they were turning the lights on and off using the breakers. That caused the breakers to wear from the everyday movement.

[wa8yxm]

Have never seen that IN A MOTOR HOME or house.. HAVE however seen it. Reported it to park maintenance.. They came out with a new breaker and fixed it. (Well I detected it by other means but SAW it when the park handy-person opened the box. I mean I do not apply screwdriver to park hardware.. Just fingers).

[TenOC]

Yes, circuit breakers go bad most of the time due to poor electrical connections. They do make an anti-oxid grease that may (?) help.