Something To Check Before Camping

[rockwood06]

Just a thought, there are some of us that are getting ready for our first camping trip as the season is getting closure. For those members that have there campers at home you may want to take advantage of this time to check and make sure all of the electrical connections in your breaker box are good and tight and anything else you can get to. This could eliminate some problems while at the campgrounds. Loose connections can cause the amperage to increase and burn up your equipment. This is a standard practice for me not only at home but at work as well. This a preventive maintenance, and could save you money.

[Bama Rambler]

Excellent advice! Check both 120 volt and 12 volt sides.

[archham]

I am no wiring expert, but shouldn't the battery be disconnected and the TT unplugged from any power source before doing this?

[dichayer]

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Loose connections can cause the amperage to increase and burn up your equipment. This is a standard practice for me not only at home but at work as well. This a preventive maintenance, and could save you money.

Loose connections will cause arcing. This arcing causes carbon build up and heat. The result is a voltage drop at the loose connection. The result is less voltage is available for the devices you are using. Low voltage on devices like Air Conditioners will cause the motors to run slower. When a motor runs slower it does not create the inductive reactance to keep the current down and the motor overheats because of the current being drawn. Also because of the added current, more heat is generated at the loose connection. In a worse case situation you could burn out your AC or start a fire. The most common place you have loose connection is at the ground buss bar because there are usually more than one wire per terminal. After firming up the connections, lightly tug each wire to ensure that they are really tight.

Sorry abought the long winded reply. All of the this information is important to understand the process that causes the "increase in current" and what problem this can cause.

I hope this information will help.
Dick

[cfsoistman]

By all means check the connections at the terminals where your shoreline cord is connected. We had one that was loose and had it not been for the warning on my Inverter Control Panel indicating a low AC input on leg 1 I would have not known there was a problem. What I found was that the wire connected to L1 had fried the lug due to not being properly tightened. I ended up cutting off the cord to where I found the copper wire was not discolored. It was about a foot away. Then reconnected everything. This could have been catastrophic had I not found it and made the correction. Thankfully there was a spare lug I could switch the wires over to.