Polarity issue??

[BLANJI511]

Jim here. I'm a newbie so bear with me please. I do love this forum site.

I have a 2018 Flagstaff Micro Lite trailer we bought in January of last year. The wife and I have camped in it many times with no problems. We also stay overnight some weekends at our daughters house. There we plug into an extension (12/3 100 foot cord). We have the adapters to plug into our cord on the camper which is 30 amps, and to this point had no problems running off a 15 amp breaker from their garage. (just the standard 3 prong outlet)

Now the fun. My son came to me asking if I had looked at the extension cord to the camper. I checked and it had fused itself together with the 15 to 30 amp adapter. No breakers had tripped which I thought was a little odd. I shut the power off, pulled the old cord out along with the damaged parts. I bought a heavier new cord (10/3 100 feet) and this time put my surge protector on line.

Everything in the trailer still runs, and I am really grateful for that. But when I turn my AC on my surge protector light tells me to reverse polarity. But the light on my power cord plugged into the camper stays blue. ( I think on the cord red means a problem, blue means it's ok?) Turn off the AC and everything goes back to normal. Two green lights on the surge protector, a blue light on the cord.

I'm at a loss as to what to try next. I'd like to avoid taking it back to Camping World but will if I have to. That and I want to be sure it's safe before we spend another night in it. Any advise is much welcomed. Thanks in advance.

[rockfordroo]

Start by getting one of these circuit testers:



About $5 at Walmart, Home Depot, etc.

Plug the tester into the garage outlet and see what it says.

Then plug your surge protector into the outlet and plug the tester into the surge protector and see what it says.

Then plug the extension cord into the surge protector and plug the tester into the extension cord and see what it says.

[5picker]

Welcome to the forum, I see it is your 1st post.

Did you have the surge protector in-line when the parts melted?
Maybe it now has issues?

As you have found... running the A/C and other components in your R/V, draws a good deal of current and a 100' 12 ga. cord is a no-no.

Even the new 10 ga. cord at 100' will have enough voltage loss that you are on the fringe of of being able to run the A/C and/or any other 120v appliances you might use, especially on a hot day where the sun is beating down on the stretched out cord making it even hotter and less efficient.

[JPin AZ]

Do not run your AC with that set up. I am surprised it even worked. The 100' cord can not handle the amp draw. You really should not run the AC on 15 amps either. Also the outlet may be reversed.