Need Help No Power

[BombDoc]

New RV'er. Towed my new 32RCTS to visit family. Leveled the unit, and attempted to hook up the power. I know I have 50Amp service, but my father does not. He has a 30 Amp outlet on a pole in the yard. I hooked up the "dog bone" and plugged it in. Breaker popped in the breaker cabinet. Reset breaker. NOTHING. Got out the voltmeter. Power is present at the pole. He also has a 120v outlet installed. Checked it with meter. 123V present. Plugged it in to the 110V adapter and have nothing there either.

Is there a re-set button somewhere I am missing? What have I done?

[jimh]

if u have 110v between one of the legs and each of the other two, u may want to check the breaker inside the trailer.

some of the 30 amp outlets resemble the old 220v drier sockets. i'm hoping that wasn't wired 220v instead of 110v.you should not run into that if u adapt to the 20 amp outlet

[BombDoc]

I think I'm in trouble. It's wired for 220V. What do I do now? Am I done until I take it to a dealer?

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by BombDoc

I think I'm in trouble. It's wired for 220V. What do I do now? Am I done until I take it to a dealer?

Yes your in trouble. Some what.

Your converter/charger may be damaged.
But it is fused protected.
Pm sent.

[jimh]

you may be but something should have survived. i would check the outlets and see if u have any 110 available.
i would turn off all the breakers and turn them back on including the main. sometimes a breaker may trip and not appear to be.
you may want to check the fuzes on your converter, you may have a bad one or two there.
i would think ur DC side survived. you may want to just try turning on some DC lighting and see what happens. the battery should be supplying that without being plugged into shore power.
if u have anything on the DC but the converter doesn't come on, u should be able to hook up a battery charger to get enough DC for frig and and lighting.
in checking the AC, i'm assuming that u adapted to the 110V 20 amp.

i would try the easy (as above) before i actually opened up anything and started checking voltages. i don't know ur comfort level working inside a breaker box.

Some have hooked into 220 inadvertently and had more survive than they expected. if it wasn't on, it may have survived.

I'm using AC= alternating current. DC=direct (battery power). sometimes i have to read a post awhile to figure what AC or TV mean. ie television or tow viehicle.

[treaves]

I've read two posts this week alone from people doing this. That's why I plan on installing protection before it leaves the dealers lot. The Progressive Industries EMSHW50C costs about $350, and would have prevented this. I truly do not understand why these are not standard in all but the cheapest manufacturers units.

Whereas I empathize, it's the users responsibility to know what they are doing. You won't know how much damage was caused until you go through the entire electrical system, but, it could very easily be in the thousands.

[bikendan]

boy, we sure have had a rash of these lately!

that's about the 4th one i've seen this week.

i guess i'm lucky that i hardly ever have hookups. seems like there's campgrounds with mis-wired posts and electricians that don't have a clue about RV electrics, setting up home 30amp hookups.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by bikendan

boy, we sure have had a rash of these lately!

that's about the 4th one i've seen this week.

Yes, it's happened several times as of late, and is an all too common occurance that I wish the dealers would do a better job of educating their buyers on....but as I said that would take money out of the dealers pockets, since they get paid to fix these mishaps. This is the first one I read where it was a 50 amp RV. It's usually the 30 amp ones this happens too.

Hopefully the damage is minimal and maybe it's just your converter that got fried. That's not too hard to fix.

We were just discussing what 50 amp service for RV's actually is in another forum earlier today, and how it's really just split into two 110/120 volt sides each with 50 amps, and that everything in these RV works off of 110/120 volts.......not 220 volts.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...tml#post337666

I'm thinking he may be lucky that since he used a 50 to 30 amp adapter, he should have only shot 220 volts thru one side of his trailer, since the dogbone only uses one side......and not both sides of the 50 amp service.....but would need to see a wiring schematic to see how it all enters the RV. That may keep any damage from being too bad.

[TURBS]

I've talked to bombdoc and luckly all 12v items seem to be working.
I think in the morning he's going to remove the distribution panel cover and check for 110v.
Then we can see where to go from there.

Turbs.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by f1100turbo

I've talked to bombdoc and luckly all 12v items seem to be working.
I think in the morning he's going to remove the distribution panel cover and check for 110v.
Then we can see where to go from there.

Turbs.

Great news. Keeping our fingers crossed for him.

[jimh]

i would like to know what was miswired. i was treating the problem like he was 30 adapting to 50. i'm now trying to figure how it would work with the 30 trailer but not when adapted to the 50.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by jimh

i would like to know what was miswired. i was treating the problem like he was 30 adapting to 50. i'm now trying to figure how it would work with the 30 trailer but not when adapted to the 50.

He took his camper to his family's place which had a pre existing 50 amp outlet..
Bombdoc just used his dog bone adapter to go from 50 to 30 amp not even thinking the outlet was wired 220 or if it even mattered.
So no one technically wired it for the camper as it was already there most likely for a welder or something.

Turbs

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by BombDoc

New RV'er. Towed my new 32RCTS to visit family. Leveled the unit, and attempted to hook up the power. I know I have 50Amp service, but my father does not. He has a 30 Amp outlet on a pole in the yard. I hooked up the "dog bone" and plugged it in. Breaker popped in the breaker cabinet. Reset breaker. NOTHING. Got out the voltmeter. Power is present at the pole. He also has a 120v outlet installed. Checked it with meter. 123V present. Plugged it in to the 110V adapter and have nothing there either.

Is there a re-set button somewhere I am missing? What have I done?

Jim, from what I am reading he has a 50 amp service trailer. His father had a 30 amp service already installed but it was a 220 volt 30 amp service and not 110 volt 30 amp service.

The OP has a 50 amp trailer, which utilizes a 220 volt service. However, a 220 volt service is actually split into Two 110 volt services where the trailer plugs in at the pedestal. These RV's have nothing inside that uses 220 volts. If it did then it would combine the two 110 volt sides, instead of split them. That's what confuses a lot of people as they think their trailer is wired for 220 volts but it's not. It's wired to use TWO 110 volts inputs that are split from a 220 volt output at the pedestal.

By using the adapter, he actually only had one side of electrical input to his trailer, but instead of this one side being 110 volts as it should have been split at the pedestal, it was 220 volts.

I'm hoping by only shooting 220 volts thru one side of 110 volt input of this trailer, that any damage is minimal.

I would think anything that was wired for the other/second 110 volt input would be fine, as no electricity hit it......but here again I would need to see wiring schematics to see how everything is separated int he trailer.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Jim, from what I am reading he has a 50 amp service trailer. His father had a 30 amp service already installed but it was a 220 volt 30 amp service and not 110 volt 30 amp service.

The OP has a 50 amp trailer, which utilizes a 220 volt service. However, a 220 volt service is actually split into Two 110 volt services as it enters these RV's and nothing inside uses 220 volts. If it did then it would combine the two 110 volt sides, instead of split them. That's what confuses a lot of people as they think their trailer is wired for 220 volts but it's not. It's wired to use TWO 110 volts inputs that are split from a 220 volt output.

By using the adapter, he actually only had one side of electrical input to his trailer, but instead of this one side being 110 volts as it should have been, it was 220 volts.

I'm hoping by only shooting 220 volts thru one side of 110 volt input of this trailer, that any damage is minimal.

Yes sorry I meant 30 amp 220 @ pole and a 50 amp camper service.

[jimh]

it took me awhile...he apparently put one leg of the 220 on the neutral and the other on the hot. i can see that path. if that is what u just tried to tell me, i had to wrestle with it until it clicked. so apparently no one ever plugged into it with a 30A trailer.

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by wmtire

I would think anything that was wired for the other/second 110 volt input would be fine, as no electricity hit it......but here again I would need to see wiring schematics to see how everything is separated int he trailer.

Problem is the 220 VAC is applied in the 30A circuit with 110 volts down each of the hot and neutral leads. If the loads are not on such as A/C they will be spared. However forget Microwaves, TV's or any other device using 24/7 circuits with presets or clocks. The 30 amp breaker clears when these devices shortout with double voltage. This power problem happens mostly in the Spring when folks forget what they learned last year!

[caper]

The outlet must have been changed to accept the RV plug. A welding outlet looks the same but the blades are different. They are made this way so you cannot plug into the wrong outlet.

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by caper

The outlet must have been changed to accept the RV plug. A welding outlet looks the same but the blades are different. They are made this way so you cannot plug into the wrong outlet.

You are correct one is 90 degs. However the old dryer standard is a close 2nd and can be forced in 220V with common.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by caper

The outlet must have been changed to accept the RV plug. A welding outlet looks the same but the blades are different. They are made this way so you cannot plug into the wrong outlet.

Caper, I never even noticed that, and the OP didn't specify that he changed anything. This does raise other possibilities.

I also need to clarify something I misstated in a previous post and clicked in my head after I signed off. I said no electricity would be on the second side, but this may not be right. The two 110 volt input sides are going to share the ground and neutral wires from the pedestal in a traditional 50 amp service.

So if the OP shot 220 down one side, most likely he shot 110 down a neutral, which could be shared on both sides.

I am fixing to see if I can find a wiring schematic on these kind of trailers, as it has me curious to see how they are wired now.

[BarryD0706]

A Progressive Industries EMS surge protector would have prevented these disasters.