Electrical Pole Fine, but I have no Power!

[DXSMac]

This was a weird situation. Do I have a potential problem I need to look into?

Forest River Sunseeker, Model 3170, 2013 model, I'm still under warranty.

Last night, for some reason, I had NO POWER except for my lights running on battery. My TV's were working (Jensens, apparently running off battery), as I could turn the TV's on and off, but I had no TV picture (because the park requires TV's to be on converter boxes from Comcast and I needed electricity to run the converter boxes).

I checked the breaker box, none of the breakers had been "tripped." However, I turned every one of them off and back on, just to check.

I checked the GFCI outlet in the kitchen, couldn't get it to "trip." So, I turned on the generator and tried it, that didn't seem to be the issue.

I use a surge protector I bought from Camping World. The readout on the screen of the surge protector showed I was pulling 124 volts, but ZERO amps.

I try to keep the amps low. When I run the microwave, I always turn off my large space heater (1500 watts, 13 amps). At the time of the "shutdown," I was running the large space heater (13 amps), a small one in the bathroom (4 amps), the Frig (3 amps), and the entertainment center TV (??? amps). I went away from the RV for awhile, and when I came back, that is when I noticed the "shutdown."

So, I turned all my appliances off, and put on lots of jammies to sleep in the cold. I was going to try replacing fuses in the morning.

Got up the next morning to discover everything was working fine.

Do I have a potential problem I might need to address?

[Herk7769]

Check the connection outside on the side of the camper.

You most likely know this from your PDI, but the cord has a twist lock and if you just push the connection on without locking it in place your could get an intermittent connection.

Rotate the cord connection to lock it in place; THEN tighten the locking ring.

[TURBS]

Automatic transfer switch maybe.

[Herk7769]

Good point Turbs. I am a trailer guy and always default to a trailer solution.

[tmmar]

It could be that the surge supressor is having a problem. I had something similar happen. I was camping with both AC's running when in the middle of the night (naturally), everything went stopped. I too checked the circuit breakers inside and at the pole. Everything seemed fine. About 5 minutes later, everything went back on. This happened a few times during the night and the following day. When we were leaving I unplugged the surge supressor and when I was putting it away I noticed that something was rattling inside the supressor. I sent it to the manufacturer and they replaced it and everything has been ok since. I think something inside the supressor popped which was causing the problem.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by tmmar

It could be that the surge supressor is having a problem. I had something similar happen. I was camping with both AC's running when in the middle of the night (naturally), everything went stopped. I too checked the circuit breakers inside and at the pole. Everything seemed fine. About 5 minutes later, everything went back on. This happened a few times during the night and the following day. When we were leaving I unplugged the surge supressor and when I was putting it away I noticed that something was rattling inside the supressor. I sent it to the manufacturer and they replaced it and everything has been ok since. I think something inside the supressor popped which was causing the problem.

Also an excellent point and one I should have thought of!

The surge supressor is designed to check for all KINDS of power issues and will shut down power output if the pole power is bad. This could also be caused by a corroded ground on the pole that is intermittent.

[DXSMac]

Ok, it's now going off and on intermittently. I'm having maintenance check the pole, if that's not the problem, then I will change out the surge protector.