Hey 120v NOT 240v!

[Texan2921]

Here's a short story of caution: If you ever happen to have an electrician wire in a 30amp outlet in your garage, DO NOT take it for granted that he knows travel trailers are set up for 120v!

Brought the trailer home for a quick weekend get away, wanted to start cooling down the refrigerator and with one swift connection of my trailer to the wall I fried the invertor!

We are still waiting to get the final repair tally, I miss my trailer already!

[TURBS]

Common problem!
See it all the time.

Good time to get a progressive industries ems surge.

Sorry this happened to you.


2008 2500hd Duramax
2015 Columbus 320RS
2016 nights camped "0"
2015 nights camped "34"

[AquaMan]

I know someone that did this!


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

[TURBS]

I know two guys that did it!



2008 2500hd Duramax
2015 Columbus 320RS
2016 nights camped "0"
2015 nights camped "34"

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by Texan2921

Here's a short story of caution: If you ever happen to have an electrician wire in a 30amp outlet in your garage, DO NOT take it for granted that he knows travel trailers are set up for 120v!

Brought the trailer home for a quick weekend get away, wanted to start cooling down the refrigerator and with one swift connection of my trailer to the wall I fried the invertor!

We are still waiting to get the final repair tally, I miss my trailer already!

Yep, unfortunately it is too common. This is why we keep a sticky in the FAQ section for just this occurrence. It's a pdf file to print out and hand to electricians who may not have experience with RV's.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...let-27223.html

As I stated in the sticky above, I really wish they would hand this out with all new RV purchases.

[bob caldwell]

Originally Posted by Texan2921

Here's a short story of caution: If you ever happen to have an electrician wire in a 30amp outlet in your garage, DO NOT take it for granted that he knows travel trailers are set up for 120v!

Brought the trailer home for a quick weekend get away, wanted to start cooling down the refrigerator and with one swift connection of my trailer to the wall I fried the invertor!

We are still waiting to get the final repair tally, I miss my trailer already!

Convertor....not invertor...

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by bob caldwell

Convertor....not invertor...

Could have been inverter, probably doesn't know the converter is trashed to if he has both.

[wmtire]

When this happens you most always lose the converter immediately or it will give up the ghost very soon after (never been involved in one of these threads where it didn't). The television and microwave are other likely candidates for replacement, but depending on brand sometimes you're lucky enough for it to be a blown fuse.

Electric Fireplaces, if equipped, also can be fried or fixed, again depending on what it is. Same thing for fridge control boards.

It happens, and once you get over the initial sickness of it, you'll be stronger for having went thru it. I know that sounds hollow at this point.

You may want to consider some perusing at this link, and also possibly purchasing an EMS that would help prevent things like this from happening (but that is looking forward, not in hindsight). The link below will tell you how to test ALL outlets before plugging in, as well as make plug-n-play testers if you don't have an EMS.

http://www.myrv.us/electric/index.htm

They have a statement there that we cannot spread enough times to our members here on the forums, as excerpted below:

It is imperative that the Electric Service used for RV’s are wired correctly. DO NOT TRUST anyone, yourself, friends, relatives or ANY Professional Electrician. ALWAYS check out all RV Electric Service BEFORE plugging in the first time. The majority of the mistakes and the most damage to the RV’s are made with the incorrect installation of the 120-volt 30 amp Service. For some reason people including Electricians just DON’T GET IT when it comes to the 30-amp 120-volt Service. All you need to do is look at the online Forums where RV’s were damaged by incorrect installations.

[B and B]

Interesting the Electricians can not read the outlet itself and what it says right on it! It says 120 V 30 amp,,,Twist Locks are all rated for voltage and current as well. The box it comes in says what it is as well. I say they pay the bill for lack of care.

[byrdr1]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Yep, unfortunately it is too common. This is why we keep a sticky in the FAQ section for just this occurrence. It's a pdf file to print out and hand to electricians who may not have experience with RV's.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...let-27223.html

As I stated in the sticky above, I really wish they would hand this out with all new RV purchases.

You got a 50amp one like this one. This one is very clear and understandable.
I guess I can look
HA
randy

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by byrdr1

You got a 50amp one like this one. This one is very clear and understandable.
I guess I can look
HA
randy

120/240 50 amp split phase service outlets are nothing unique. It's the same outlet used in many applications.

It's the 30 amp 120 volt RV outlet that screws everyone up. They for some reason think it's supposed to be wired for 240 volts, since it looks like old dryer plugs or something.

That pdf file for wiring a 30 amp outlet came from the myrv.us link. You can also go to it and get one for a 120/240 50 amp outlet if needed. Just click the 50 amp tab on the lefthand side of the main page.

RV Electric

and here it is in pdf form like the 30 amp one:

http://www.myrv.us/Imgs/PDF/50-amp%20Service.pdf

Hope it helps everyone. As stated, we cannot share this information enough for our fellow campers.

[DSQR]

Originally Posted by B and B

Interesting the Electricians can not read the outlet itself and what it says right on it! It says 120 V 30 amp,,,Twist Locks are all rated for voltage and current as well. The box it comes in says what it is as well. I say they pay the bill for lack of care.

No surprise to me after 20yrs as an HVAC contractor following electricians who "repaired" my equipment. Code knowledge does not equal practical knowledge.

[bob5560g]

Hey wmtire: Now you've got me worried. I installed my own two weeks ago but have yet to use it. I just now measured it and want to verify it's wired right. I get 120V from the hot slot to ground hole, zero volts from the neutral slot to the ground hole, and 120V between the two slots. This is right, right?

[TURBS]

You should have.
One hot
One neutral
One ground

And yes 120v


2008 2500hd Duramax
2015 Columbus 320RS
2016 nights camped "0"
2015 nights camped "34"

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by bob5560g

Hey wmtire: Now you've got me worried. I installed my own two weeks ago but have yet to use it. I just now measured it and want to verify it's wired right. I get 120V from the hot slot to ground hole, zero volts from the neutral slot to the ground hole, and 120V between the two slots. This is right, right?

That is correct, which I assume that the part I emboldened in blue you mean between the hot leg and neutral. One easy way to verify for a 30 amp outlet is it all should be run from a single pole breaker in your electric panel at your house.

If it's a double pole/2 pole breaker, then Houston we have a problem.

For everyone reading this, the following site has a lefthand tab on 'outlet testing' both for the 50 amp (14-50R) and 30 amp (TT-30R)) that is a good read.

RV Electric

[glen1971]

I wouldn't be paying the bill and would be handing your "electrician" a bill for all of your repairs, including another electrical contractor in to repair the outlet...

[pinkstonj]

Well since this has come up again, I guess I will tell my (not proud of) story. About five years ago I bought a TT, and being a Jack of All Trades and Master of None I wired up a 30 amp RV outlet in my garage, everything was fine. Well a few years later I upgraded to a Solera 24M. After having it for a year I had a pad poured and an RV shed put up to keep it under. Well it came time to wire up a RV outlet and I wired it up the same way as the one in the garage (or so I thought). I wired the one under the shed 30amp 240v and I would have bet a paycheck that I had wired the one in the garage that way. I WAS WRONG!! Well needless to say things went bad; I fried the power convertor, microwave, the heating element and the fuses on the control board of the refrigerator. Luckily I didn’t fry the A/C not for the lack of trying as I tried to start it a couple of times while on the 240v or the water heater only because I had the breaker off on it. ANOTHER THING TO CHECK IS THE POWER TRANSFER SWITCH if you have one. A few months after the big fry on a 1600 mile trip I had a short in my transfer switch. What I think happen was that on the day I plug into the 240v I partially melted a wire nut and after moving around on the trip it managed to touch the cover and short out this could have been bad so check it just in case. After about $300 and a lot of work everything is fine, but I don’t feel any better about making such a mistake. But I did learn from it, one, I wasn’t the only one that has made this mistake and a few other things that might help others. Here is some good that came of it. I replaced my WFCO 9855 power convertor with a Progressive Dynamics 9260 and having good friends in low places was able to replace a fuse and full wave bridge rectifier in the old WFCO convertor and get it back to working and now have it for a backup for $10. The ADVANT P90D23AL-G1-FR03(MW912B) microwave was replaced with a RIVAL RGST902 from Walmart for about $130 and it is built on the same chassis as the Advent and the rubber feet off the Advent bolt right up to the Rival as it didn’t come with them, and the outer cover of the Advent swapped over to the Rival to allow for the air to be pushed out the front.