New 2018 Catalina Electrical Problem

[kbart314RS]

Hello! I wanted to post this for anyone that runs into a similar problem, as it turned out to be a safety concern

We have a new 2018 Catalina travel trailer still under warranty (picked up last November), and started having intermittent electrical problems a few weeks ago. It started tripping shore breakers, even with all internal breakers off and battery disconnected. It was still under warranty, but we were out with it and the dealer couldn't look at it for 2 months so I started poking around. I have 2 daughters and an infant so I needed to make sure it was in safe working order and the A/C was operational. At first I thought I found the problem at the splice point between the cord and internal wire which is located back in the kids bunk room. The neutral line was nicked (see attached picture) when it was stripped, so I cut that out and reconnected it

It worked for a a day or so and I thought I had it resolved until the shore breaker tripped again. I happened to see an arc flash during one particular instance of the shore breaker tripping intermittently, so I traced the main electrical cable from where it transitions from the cord to the onboard 10/2 cable that goes through the floor to the underbelly. I opened a section of the enclosed underbelly to find the main electrical cord smashed between two pieces of the frame, which undoubtedly happened during assembly (see attached picture). This was located underneath the rear bunk room. I temporarily mounted a junction box underneath and ran a new piece of 10/2 up to the cord junction box, and scheduled a time at the dealer for them to rerun the entire cable. This could have caught fire. Other than a lot of my time and frustration, there were no other casualties but I do worry about the longevity of the appliances going forward.

I was surprised to find this on a brand new travel trailer . If you have electrical problems don't make assumptions and look at everything or wait and have it looked at by the pro's! I hope this is not a common occurrence, has anyone seen this?

[SeaDog]

its the new trailers that have the problems the old ones have been fixed, glad you are handy and found it.

[kbart314RS]

Originally Posted by SeaDog

its the new trailers that have the problems the old ones have been fixed, glad you are handy and found it.

Thank you, I hope all our trips give it a full shakedown before the warranty expires

[bikendan]

Just so you know, you can always use an independent RV shop or mobile RV tech for warranty work.
You have to get pre-approval from FR and be willing to be reimbursed.

[kbart314RS]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Just so you know, you can always use an independent RV shop or mobile RV tech for warranty work.
You have to get pre-approval from FR and be willing to be reimbursed.

I didn’t know that, thanks! I’ll check for mobile repair, sounds way more convenient