No AC Power

Tucsons Dad · 06-22-2021, 10:33 PM

2015 Cardinal 3450 RL
Came home today and had no AC power. Started at the pedestal and found dogbone with a burnt neutral. Swapped out to spare cord, checking breakers…..still no power. Opened up the male end of the twist lock receptical and had 122v so I have power going to the 5er. No ac power to converter, plugged it in to an extension cord and works so I can run residential fridge on inverter. No power to 50 amp breakers in house. I have 2 gfi outlets but even when they are off my Air Conditioners work. I swapped one of them that wouldn’t reset with a new one. Tested the new one prior to installation worked. Now won’t reset (maybe got the down stream circuit it the wrong position
Going to be 101* here tomorrow and have a diabetic dog that can’t do that kind of heat. Lol me either. What am I missing? Kind of a 911

dalford · 06-22-2021, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tucsons Dad

2015 Cardinal 3450 RL
Came home today and had no AC power. Started at the pedestal and found dogbone with a burnt neutral. Swapped out to spare cord, checking breakers…..still no power. Opened up the male end of the twist lock receptical and had 122v so I have power going to the 5er. No ac power to converter, plugged it in to an extension cord and works so I can run residential fridge on inverter. No power to 50 amp breakers in house. I have 2 gfi outlets but even when they are off my Air Conditioners work. I swapped one of them that wouldn’t reset with a new one. Tested the new one prior to installation worked. Now won’t reset (maybe got the down stream circuit it the wrong position
Going to be 101* here tomorrow and have a diabetic dog that can’t do that kind of heat. Lol me either. What am I missing? Kind of a 911

First, don’t worry about GFI outlets.. they have no bearing on your issue. Oh, welcome to the forum!

You are not getting AC to the breakers? Are you measuring the voltage at the breakers>

Why are you using a dog bone>? Do you have a 50 amp unit? Are you on a 30 amp or 50 amp pedestal?

You say you open up the male twist lock. I’m assuming this is the one mounted to the 5ver. 122 vac on those wires going to breaker panel but no power at back of 50 amp breakers?

Tucsons Dad · 06-22-2021, 11:43 PM

Hi
Thank you for the response.
The “dog bone” was a 50 amp with a 90* that I used with a short 50 amp cord. I used the multi meter at the house 50 amp breaker and not seeing power.

Tucsons Dad · 06-22-2021, 11:44 PM

Also. Yes I measured on the back side of the twist lock after detaching it from the coach…..no voltage on wires at breaker

dalford · 06-22-2021, 11:59 PM

The wires from from that male recepticale should go directly to 50 amp breakers. Do you have 120vac on both legs? It’s odd both legs are dead?

Did you inspect the wires when you had the receptacle out to make sure they were not burnt?

I just have to ask, no offense intended but I’m assuming you are AC savvy working with 120 volt 50 amp circuits?

It just seems odd to me that both 120 vac legs are not getting from the RV plug on the unit to the breakers…

Tucsons Dad · 06-23-2021, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalford

The wires from from that male recepticale should go directly to 50 amp breakers. Do you have 120vac on both legs? It’s odd both legs are dead?

Did you inspect the wires when you had the receptacle out to make sure they were not burnt?

I just have to ask, no offense intended but I’m assuming you are AC savvy working with 120 volt 50 amp circuits?

It just seems odd to me that both 120 vac legs are not getting from the RV plug on the unit to the
breakers…

This is why I’m at a loss. This did happen once before, but then I had burnt connection at the RV connection. Replaced both male and female ends of the plug/receptacle. That time yes I did have half the coach energized. Measured 120v at box, surge protector ,end of female plug then again 120v at the male recept going in. 🤯🤯
If the prongs had and discoloration I might think something melted on the romex in the coach. BTW not a single breaker tripped anywhere.
Dunno

**Flybob** · 06-23-2021, 06:00 AM

I am confused. You said No power to 50 amp breakers in house. I have 2 gfi outlets but even when they are off my Air Conditioners work. If you burned the neutral connection in the outside cable, it is possible there was also damage to the neutral inside. How are you checking the power at the distribution panel? If there is no power at the two 50A breakers, the A/C can not run. Carefully check the voltage on the breaker busses to ground.

Half Ton Heavy · 06-23-2021, 11:08 AM

If you burned the neutral, that means it was a crappy connection.

Make sure that is repaired properly first.

Travler · 06-23-2021, 11:47 AM

Does this unit have the generator prep? If it does you might have to check the transfer switch. Most are wired so that the generator has first preference and then the outside voltage source. So when you plug in the transfer switch has to pull in to make the connection. If switch is not pulled in then you do not get voltage into the coach.

llr · 06-23-2021, 12:56 PM

Also if you did burn the neutral as suggested you could have damaged other things too. I doubt if breakers and air conditioning, but convert, TVs etc are a real possibility.

Also a bad connection will generally read good voltage with no load and low to zero with a load

CHICKDOE · 06-23-2021, 01:04 PM

lots of suggestions have been offered. the only real way to know is to use the multimeter to take measurements at each junction in the shore power electrical path.

forget about the gfci's for now. they will not reset when they are not receiving power. from what you say none of the branch circuits in you power center are receiving power.

as mentioned earlier do you have a generator or generator prep? if so you will have a transfer switch. also do you have a EMS system installed in the incoming shore power path? if so, is it detecting an error condition and not passing incoming shore power.

other than these obvious point of failure just take the multimeter and start at the shore power receptacle and test for proper voltages at each junction. you want 120 volts from each hot leg to neutral and 120 volts from each hot let to ground.

common places where people have reported a break in the electrical path are:
shore power cord ends
reverse side of shore power receptacle mounted on rv.
a junction box anyway the shore power passes through
the transfer switch
loose or burnt connections within the power distribution panel

you're just going to have to trace the power path to see where the break is.

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