Help!!!New RVr 1990 Dolphin

[terrieo]

Hi everyone! I've only had pop-up before, know nothing about RV"s, manual not very helpful, never got to talk to prev owner, I plugged it up to outside house outlet when I got it home, freezer on fridge was getting cool & nightlight in BR was on, A/C was running, then nightlight went out & fridge quit cooling, didn't know how old battery was so put in new one & replaced all the fuses in converter box, but none of the outlets or fridge will work. Also are there any other drain valves I need to close besides the ones under the cabinet that would cause leakage around gray water tank? Found them & think I closed them, hard to tell, will try tomorrow am if not so hot to see if that stops the leak, pray so, as already fixed broken faucet leak in br & apparently there for awhile as floor under sink will have to be fixed. Hoping since I fixed that & closed valves won't see water running off gray tank again. Will be extemely grateful for any advise. Also what are those airbag things & is that what the 2 plugs on side near door are to? Sorry, didn't find anything in manual about that. Thx again for any help!!! TerrieO.

[waiter]

Frig - remember, the coach needs to be reasonably level (front to back) for the frig to work on gas or electric.

110 Vac - The fuses and battery have nothing to do with the 110 Vac circuits. 110 Vac runs off shore power or your generator (if you have one)

Double check the Circuit Breaker panel in your house to make sure you didn't pop the breaker for the outlet. If your running all this (and your A/C) through a standard 3 prong wall outlet, your at the limit (15 amps), especially if you have a long extension cord. If you run the A/C you really need to use the 30 amp plug (big plug, looks like an electric dryer or electric stove plug)

NOTE - if you plugged your Toyhouse into a GFCI plug (ground fault) you may have tripped the breaker on the outlet. check it also.

If you run your A/C, You may be able to get by with a standard 3 prong, but you need to keep the extension cord short, and it should be #12 wire. AND you cannot run anything else on the 110Vac circuit (no coffee pots, microwaves, etc). remember - your at the limit, the A/C will draw 15 amps, (it will draw more when the A/C compressor first kicks on.)

Double check the cord where you plugged in at, (unplug, inspect, plug back in) if your using a 3 prong adapter (adapts the big 30 amp plug to a smaller 3 prong 15 amp wall plug), look for overheating on the adapter. Replace the adapter if there is any sign of overheating.

Check the circuit breakers in your Toyhouse converter box, switch it to off, then back ON. On the standard converter, one of the breakers is the A/C and the other is the outlets. If you lost both, I suspect its the plug or the breaker in your house.

Water Valves - The two under the stove are winter drains.

Purger your water lines (get the air out) run the hot water in the bathroom and kitchen sink to get the Hot Water heater full of water. Turn the faucets off but leave pressure on the system and look for leaks around the water heater.

Water Pressure - Make sure you use a regulator anytime you connect to city water. City pressure could blow pipes and fittings.

Air Bags - Yes, those two fittings are your air bags - keep a little pressure in them all the time 10- 20 psi will keep the bags from deforming and getting pinched. Pump them baby's up to 65psi (100 psi max) to level the truck. (I keep mine at 65psi all the time)

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[terrieo]

Thanks John Mc, had leveled on driveway with those plastic blocks, had hooked up to house with the heavy black cord came with & a new converter plug (spare from popup), not getting warm, breaker in house not thrown as A/C still running, Have 4 breakers in converter box, Main 30 ,A/C 20, then a double 15 marked Microwave & general purpose, ( will have to trace line on microwave one to see which outlet goes to as no microwave in it), the general purpose half hummed for a minute then quit when flipped back on (does this mean breaker is bad?) Outlets still don't work. Really need to get outlets working as LP lines to everything real degraded & rusted so will be replacing fridge with electric unit until cann afford to have LP lines replaced, so won't be using anything LP anytime soon. Oh Lord the water lines! Didn't get past turning on the city water (yes, had regulator on hose, remebered some stuff from camping with my pops, he would've loved working on this with me!), found where the big leak is, coud hear water hitting wall in shower, there is leak or crack right at connection where kitchen line hooks into bathroom lines at under wall by stove & under shower, Took out the shower pan last night, can I replace these hard lines with softer water & drink fountain grade line from Farm & Home ( the clamps I can get do not clamp tight enough onto that grey pipe in RV, found that out when fixing broken br faucet), think I'll just replace all the water lines while I'm under there as that seems to be the hardest spot to get to, also do I have to buy showerpan from camper place or will somewhere like Lowe's have one that fits it? The one I removed has small crack in it where one of bolts look like tightened too far, or do u think I can just seal that from under side? I also have to replace flooring under there as apparently been leaking long time & floor is totally rotten, hope I don't have to replace whole bathroom floor, it seems pretty firm. Been reading the forums & taking notes, any advise on this stuff is extremely welcome as I will have to do most of it myself & figure it out as I go,,, kind of scared about tearing into that floor though, Please anyone advise with any suggestions, I don't want to make anthing worse as would like to go to that mid-west rally in Sept, am excited to get suggestions & ideas in person. Thx again John for your help, it is invaluable! TerrieO.

[waiter]

The original PEX water tube is OK, you can get tube and fittings at most big box stores. Sounds like maybe the lines froze and cracked. You need to do a really do a good job winterizing. Drain, then blow with compressed air, then put a couple gallons of antifreeze in fresh tank and run pump to get antifreeze to all the low spots.

LP lines should be copper. I think there is a black iron feed pipe, it might have rust on it, but shouldn't be rusted to the point of leaking???

Time to learn to use a voltmeter - When you said the A/C is still running, are you talking about the RVs A/C ????? If its running, then you have 110Vac from shore power.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[terrieo]

The original PEX water tube is OK, you can get tube and fittings at most big box stores. Sounds like maybe the lines froze and cracked. You need to do a really do a good job winterizing. Drain, then blow with compressed air, then put a couple gallons of antifreeze in fresh tank and run pump to get antifreeze to all the low spots.

LP lines should be copper. I think there is a black iron feed pipe, it might have rust on it, but shouldn't be rusted to the point of leaking???

Time to learn to use a voltmeter - When you said the A/C is still running, are you talking about the RVs A/C ????? If its running, then you have 110Vac from shore power.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

The A/C in the Rv roof works on the eletric whenRV is plugged into the 20 amp outlet on the outside of my house. Also tried the RV outlets & fridge when A/C was off & they will not work.

[5Toyota]

TerrieO you can fix the grey pipe to new pex with shark bite pushon fittings they work great

[waiter]

If the A/C is working, then you know your getting 110Vac to the coach.

WARNING - Make sure you unplug shore power before getting your fingers inside the breaker panel.

Time to get the volt meter and start opening covers. Take the cover off the circuit breaker panel and start there.

HINT - Before I do anything, I get my digital camera out and take pictures. i.e. take the cover off and take a couple of photos from different angles of the inside of the panel. That way when something comes apart in my hands, I can refer back to the photo and see where it was connected to. ( I probably have thousands of photos that show the internal guts of my Toyhouse)

I suspect you probably have a loose connection inside the breaker panel. give the wires coming out of the circuit breakers a little pull and see if they are loose. Also check any wire nuts (several wires going into a twist thing) for loose wires.

After this inspection, plug into shore power . Use the voltmeter to read the output of the circuit breakers to ground. Should read between 110 and 125 Vac.

If you have a bad circuit breaker, they are probably standard Cutler Hammer breakers. Unplug shore power, loosen the screw where the wire connects, pull the wire out, Lift the screw end of the breaker, it will swivel a little like its on a hinge, then pull out. Take the breaker to the store and buy new ones.

JOhn Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[terrieo]

If the A/C is working, then you know your getting 110Vac to the coach.

WARNING - Make sure you unplug shore power before getting your fingers inside the breaker panel.

Time to get the volt meter and start opening covers. Take the cover off the circuit breaker panel and start there.

HINT - Before I do anything, I get my digital camera out and take pictures. i.e. take the cover off and take a couple of photos from different angles of the inside of the panel. That way when something comes apart in my hands, I can refer back to the photo and see where it was connected to. ( I probably have thousands of photos that show the internal guts of my Toyhouse)

I suspect you probably have a loose connection inside the breaker panel. give the wires coming out of the circuit breakers a little pull and see if they are loose. Also check any wire nuts (several wires going into a twist thing) for loose wires.

After this inspection, plug into shore power . Use the voltmeter to read the output of the circuit breakers to ground. Should read between 110 and 125 Vac.

If you have a bad circuit breaker, they are probably standard Cutler Hammer breakers. Unplug shore power, loosen the screw where the wire connects, pull the wire out, Lift the screw end of the breaker, it will swivel a little like its on a hinge, then pull out. Take the breaker to the store and buy new ones.

JOhn Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

John, Did everything you said, wire to the Gen Purp half of the double 15 breaker pulled easily out of the twist cap, so I fixed that, (I think), all the breakers tested 121-122 individually. Is the converter supposed to hum when that Gen purpose breaker is on? It didn't stop humming this time so I turned it back off. I used that sniffer stick thing on the individual outlets, the only one that showed it had ant poer to it was a white GFCI oulet mounted next to pump switch on front of sink counter, but nothing works when I plug it onto it. this is with air cond shut off. Should I goahead & replace that 15 gen purp breaker since it hums? I think I'm going to end up calling a friend who has a friend whose retired electrician or my cooling & heating guy to look at it.

[waiter]

Weird, you have power on all the breakers, but no power at outlets!!! Check that the reset/test on the GFCI works and is not popped.

If the breaker is humming, it could be bad, but there could also be a short somewhere that the breaker is feeding.

The outlets are daisy chained, find the outlet thats physically closest to the breaker, if you have power at the breaker, and nothing at the outlet, then the wire may have become disconnected at the outlet, take it out and physically inspect the wires.

The hum coming from the converter may be normal, there's a small transformer used for battery charging circuit.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[terrieo]

Weird, you have power on all the breakers, but no power at outlets!!! Check that the reset/test on the GFCI works and is not popped.

If the breaker is humming, it could be bad, but there could also be a short somewhere that the breaker is feeding.

The outlets are daisy chained, find the outlet thats physically closest to the breaker, if you have power at the breaker, and nothing at the outlet, then the wire may have become disconnected at the outlet, take it out and physically inspect the wires.

The hum coming from the converter may be normal, there's a small transformer used for battery charging circuit.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

It must be the breaker humming because it only hums when that 15 Gen purpose breaker is on.

Is that General Purpose breaker supposed to be charging the battery? I didn't rec a manual for the converter with the rest of the manuals.

The GFCI outlet has the reset/test button stuck in on one side so I am going to replace that, as the sniff tester show current there but nothing works plugged into it & it is the closest to the breakers.

On the fuse side of the box, everything on the ac side works, there is a 15 fuse plugged in on the dc side but there is nothing actually attached to it, what is usually there?

I.m going to change that GFCI today &see what happens, if still not working the outlets willhave to wait until I'm done with the plumbing & BR floor as I need to get that done asap.

Plumbing I'm familiar with, have never done much with electricity except putting new switches or outlets in my older home.

Thx for you help, it is much appreciated, & thx to everyone else who has replied. Will llet you know what I find out.

[Maineah]

Neutrals and grounds on a MH are not connected together unlike your house. DO NOT connect them together it is all about safety if the campground wires were crossed and the ground was weak you would end up with a hot motor home frame with you being the ground not a good thing. In your breaker box there is an insulated terminal strip and a box grounded terminal strip the white wires go on the insulated strip the greens or bare wires go onthe strip connected to the box, one goes to the frame and one green one is from the power cord. You'll need to check your power between the breaker and the white wires. If you see any where in your wiring the white and green (or bare) connected together fix it. The converter/charger is usually connected directly to the incoming power wire at the input to the main breaker so when it'splugged in it will run regardless if the breakers are on or not, breakers don't hum unless there is some thing really bad wrong and generally not for very long before some thing burns up. If there is no power to a GFI it will not trip test, when all is good the red button (or reset) stays in (even if there is no power). GFI's do go bad and will not pass power, that sounds likely because your A/C runs and it's not on a GFI. Stop at a big box or your local hardware store and buy a plug in 3 light tester they are less then $5 and leave it in your motor home even after you get your problem fixed they will let you know if you have power and if it's correctly wired at the camp ground end or a house for that matter.

[terrieo]

Neutrals and grounds on a MH are not connected together unlike your house. DO NOT connect them together it is all about safety if the campground wires were crossed and the ground was weak you would end up with a hot motor home frame with you being the ground not a good thing. In your breaker box there is an insulated terminal strip and a box grounded terminal strip the white wires go on the insulated strip the greens or bare wires go onthe strip connected to the box, one goes to the frame and one green one is from the power cord. You'll need to check your power between the breaker and the white wires. If you see any where in your wiring the white and green (or bare) connected together fix it. The converter/charger is usually connected directly to the incoming power wire at the input to the main breaker so when it'splugged in it will run regardless if the breakers are on or not, breakers don't hum unless there is some thing really bad wrong and generally not for very long before some thing burns up. If there is no power to a GFI it will not trip test, when all is good the red button (or reset) stays in (even if there is no power). GFI's do go bad and will not pass power, that sounds likely because your A/C runs and it's not on a GFI. Stop at a big box or your local hardware store and buy a plug in 3 light tester they are less then $5 and leave it in your motor home even after you get your problem fixed they will let you know if you have power and if it's correctly wired at the camp ground end or a house for that matter.

Eureka!!! I changed the GFCI outlet & now the outlets work, except when turn the gas/elec fridge on that came with RV, it throws the GFCI switch off, so I plugged in the little fridge from my other camper into the GFCI & it ran without throwing it off, so the old fridge will be coming out. I checked the breaker box & all white wires are on one strip & a green & severl bare wires are on the other strip, however on the outside back of the fuse box side there is a strip that has a bare wire coming from breaker box hooked to one end of it, a bare wire coming up thru floor hooked to other end of it, & white wires coming from under the box hooked in between the two bare wires, is this right? Gen Purpose breaker that runs the outlets still hums when on so I am going to replace it tomorrow & if it still hums then I'll figure it is the one charging the battery circuit as John Mc said. Until I can get a new RV fridge I'll just use my small electric one when parked & my coleman plug in cooler when on the road.

Thx John & Maineah.

TerrieO

[Maineah]

Yeah that;s OK they are the frame grounds I don't know about your MH 12 volt wiring colors they maybe for lighting grounds @ 12 volts and that's OK to be hooked up there. MH makers did not have to follow any codes with 12 volt colors some are green some blue etc. If the fridge trips the GFI it probably nothing more then the 120 volt heater, (replaceable and a lot cheaper then a fridge) GFI's are funny about resistive loads every thing has to be spot on it's pretty much the only thing that would trip the GFI if there was a short it would trip the breaker.

[Vanman]

It must be the breaker humming because it only hums when that 15 Gen purpose breaker is on.<br /><br /> Is that General Purpose breaker supposed to be charging the battery?

On Mary's 91 Dolphin that breaker has 2 wires on the bottom, one to the 120 AC outlets, the second is to the converter/coach battery charger. It was humming so I found out the small relay coil that seperates the batt charger from the 12VDC convereter output/coach DC got warm and made some humming noise, but the transformer on the converter made most of the noise. Unfortunatly after less than a hour of operation the transformer got too hot to touch without burning my finger, this level of heat isn't good and after hours of operation is began to make that bad electronics smell I am so familiar with. I was happy with the design of this unit, but wasn't able to find a replacement transformer as this is a Voltage Doubler type full wave rectifier and they don't seem to be using a lot of center-tapped transformers anymore.I replaced the unit with a Progessive Dynamics model PD4635V. If it's not getting hot you may be able to just keep an eye (finger) on it. If you keep the old converter and you spend long periods plugged in to shore power you may wish to lower the charge voltage of the trickel charger ckt board. It was at 14.6 volts, I think, and I setttled on 13.35 as I remember. The wiring diagram from Magnetek says to adjust to 13.8 to 14.2 , which is too high. Vanman

EDIT: also check the white wires on the buss bar on the top rear of the power box, you'll have to prop up the couch to work on these, but the buss is too big for the small size wires. The large ones with a slug were loose, but the small ones were really loose, one actually fell out as I was just checking. They are secured with a short screw and the head of the screw bottoms out on the top of the buss before making a tight connection. You could replace the screws with longer, or with slugs, what I did was strip the wires more and bend the wire back on it'sself, what we used to call doubleing the copper. That gave me a good connection. The RV rides rough and it seems to loosen all kinds of mechanical connections, but loose electrical connections can cause arcing which starts fires, not a good thing.

[waiter]

Vanman;

I replaced my converter and upgraded the AC paned with additional circuit breakers. I highly recommend the converter upgrade, especially for anyone who leaves their Toyhouse plugged in.

Check out this link;

http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3517

JOhn Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[terrieo]

It must be the breaker humming because it only hums when that 15 Gen purpose breaker is on.<br /><br /> Is that General Purpose breaker supposed to be charging the battery?

On Mary's 91 Dolphin that breaker has 2 wires on the bottom, one to the 120 AC outlets, the second is to the converter/coach battery charger. It was humming so I found out the small relay coil that seperates the batt charger from the 12VDC convereter output/coach DC got warm and made some humming noise, but the transformer on the converter made most of the noise. Unfortunatly after less than a hour of operation the transformer got too hot to touch without burning my finger, this level of heat isn't good and after hours of operation is began to make that bad electronics smell I am so familiar with. I was happy with the design of this unit, but wasn't able to find a replacement transformer as this is a Voltage Doubler type full wave rectifier and they don't seem to be using a lot of center-tapped transformers anymore.I replaced the unit with a Progessive Dynamics model PD4635V. If it's not getting hot you may be able to just keep an eye (finger) on it. If you keep the old converter and you spend long periods plugged in to shore power you may wish to lower the charge voltage of the trickel charger ckt board. It was at 14.6 volts, I think, and I setttled on 13.35 as I remember. The wiring diagram from Magnetek says to adjust to 13.8 to 14.2 , which is too high. Vanman

EDIT: also check the white wires on the buss bar on the top rear of the power box, you'll have to prop up the couch to work on these, but the buss is too big for the small size wires. The large ones with a slug were loose, but the small ones were really loose, one actually fell out as I was just checking. They are secured with a short screw and the head of the screw bottoms out on the top of the buss before making a tight connection. You could replace the screws with longer, or with slugs, what I did was strip the wires more and bend the wire back on it'sself, what we used to call doubleing the copper. That gave me a good connection. The RV rides rough and it seems to loosen all kinds of mechanical connections, but loose electrical connections can cause arcing which starts fires, not a good thing.

Vanman & Maineah,

Thx for your suggestions, I did check wires on buss bar, all were tight. Can't get the 15/15 breaker here in town, guys at Farm & Home & RP Lumber both told me would be ok to replace with a 20/20 breaker, in fact would be better. Is this true?

[terrieo]

Yeah that;s OK they are the frame grounds I don't know about your MH 12 volt wiring colors they maybe for lighting grounds @ 12 volts and that's OK to be hooked up there. MH makers did not have to follow any codes with 12 volt colors some are green some blue etc. If the fridge trips the GFI it probably nothing more then the 120 volt heater, (replaceable and a lot cheaper then a fridge) GFI's are funny about resistive loads every thing has to be spot on it's pretty much the only thing that would trip the GFI if there was a short it would trip the breaker.

Maineah,

Can't find anything on my fridge parts diagram called a 120 V Heater, can u tell me what part that may be shown on diagram that its next to maybe, or maybe should I just have the LP gas guy check it? I've never done any elec or gas fixin before, have only replaced all plumbing in house, my dad did all the camper repairs when he was living, but I'm learning, found out 1 thing though, I'm too out of shape to do the contortions I had to do to get the bathroom sink out!