Please help! Major Electrical issues just happened :(

[Leah]

Sorry in advance since this is a little long... (just want to make sure I'm not leaving out any little detail that might be important).

Well just a few days ago I decided that due to financial problems, I have to sell my New Horizon motor home I love it sooo much, but paying my bills is more important at this point...

So everything was working well when I decided to sell it and I recently spent $1,100 getting it all tuned up, etc.

The first problem I noticed was when I was checking everything out right before a long trip to the mountains -- the onboard Onan generator would crank up when I pressed the start button inside, but it was revving extremely loud/high and even though it was on, it wouldn't power anything like the AC or microwave as it normally does. I just figured I would take it in for a generator tune-up after my trip and until then just plug my RV into an onsite Honda generator to power all the electrical things.

A few weeks later I noticed that even though my New Horizon was plugged in via an extension cord, one morning I woke up and all the overhead lights, interior power and outlets etc. were still working perfectly but when I checked the power panel the whole thing seemed to be dead, none of the lights on my panel were showing anything and the water pump button also wasn't working since it's on the panel. In addition, there is a stereo on the wall right next to the power panel that wouldn't come on or light up. I thought perhaps my power panel was just crapping out on me, but when I unplugged from the outdoor generator there was absolutely no charge being held by the deep cycle battery.

So anyway I drove it back home thinking the problem was the panel, but maybe it could also be the fact that it had been plugged into a generator instead of regular house power or maybe the extension cord I'd been using might have some issue. I plugged it up 2 weeks ago to an outdoor outlet at my house and the panel sensor lights came on again, I could see the water tank levels again, etc and the water pump came back on although it was pumping very weakly/slowly, but it still showed that the onboard battery wasn't charging up and that stereo next to the panel still wasn't turning on.

Then last night I unplugged that extension cord to try a different one just in case that was the problem. Right before that it felt like something wasn't grounded because the metal door handle on coach of the RV was shocking us a little when we touched it. Anywho, as soon as we plugged in the cord to the house outlet it tripped the outlet and I had to push the reset button to get power back on to that part of my house. Thought it might just be a problem with that outlet, so I plugged in to a different one but the same thing happened Now it seems as if something electrical has shorted out in the motor home, with the very little charge that the battery was holding after being unplugged the lights inside still seem to be working since they did come on (albeit they were very dim) after this happened, so I'm pretty sure the whole electric system wasn't fried? But now I can't plug into shore power at all and right after that I tried the generator and it wouldn't even crank up?? However, none of the breakers inside the RV tripped, they all still are in the on position. The deep cycle battery is top of the line, only 2 yrs old, and everything seems to be connected in its compartment. The Toyota motor still cranks up and I can drive it, so the engine battery seems fine.

Arggg.... I just don't know what to do! I already needed to sell it to pay bills, so trying to come up with a bunch of money to try and diagnose and repair my motor home isn't really an option. If any of you could provide some insight or advice I would appreciate it sooo much! Thank you in advance

~ Leah

Edited November 25, 2011 by Leah

[Maineah]

I think what I would do is take the fuses out and clean the brass contacts with a bit of sand paper where they fit and the fuses too there are probably some in the battery compartment also. The shock thing is not good and wired properly it should not happen I can tell you the older converters/chargers some times will trip GFI's The converter/chargers are not on a MH breaker the are connected directly to the city power cord and are fused at the point where you plug the camper in house, campground, generator. If you are sure you got a shock it needs to be checked by some one that understands MH or house trailer wiring it is a bit different then normal house wiring don't take a chance. I would try cleaning your fuses and holders your low voltage problems kind of point in that direction.

[90toydolphin]

shock from the door? sounjds like your 120 volt system is shorting out. i've never been shocked, at least felt a shock from 12 volt. somewhere in the 120 v system there is a short. the reason the shock wasn't much is you were pretty well iinsulated by the tires on the ground. very dangerous if that is the case and needs to be fixed big time. the use of a continuity tester and someone who knows ac current could probably chase it down without too much work. hope it works out for you and things get better on the $ side.

[Lias]

I had something similar happen to me just the other day. I hadn't driven my RV for a while and when I went to test all the systems i found that my panel wasn't lighting up. So I connected to the electric and the panel lit up but when I tried to run the water pump I found that it seemed to be running but that no water was coming out of any of the faucets. I left it connected to electric for about 2 hours and when I disconnected it seemed to have recharged the battery since the panel lit up and again the water pump started working but still no water. Then I tried my generator and it wanted to start but there wasn't enough juice in my house battery.

Well, couldn't figure this out myself so I took it to an RV mechanic who trouble-shot it and narrowed it down to a bad isolator and fried or shorted battery, it read reverse when he attached it to a battery tester/meter. It was a new battery too and he said that sometimes these things happen. He also checked the isolator and we ran the engine and it wasn't feeding any charge to the battery so it was pronounced deceased.

Once I had a new battery in and isolator he checked it again and it was recharging my battery. We then ran the water pump and it fed water to the faucets. The generator also started. So you may have a bad battery and isolator.

Hope that helps.

[Maineah]

Any metal framed living space MH's, camper trailers and mobile homes all have a floating neutral most houses do not. Here is how it works the neutral is isolated from the ground and the line the reason is all about poorly wired stuff on the other end if it was not and the camp ground wired an outlet backwards you could have a potentially hot frame. In theory the ground would present a short circuit to ground but it is best to not relay on grounds to protect you. Now if it is reversed with a floating neutral there is no connection to any thing metal and the line becomes the return. It is definitely not a good thing to have reversed wiring but it won't kill you. So if some one familiar with house wiring but not very well versed with any thing else bonded the neutral to the ground (like most houses are) this is where the trouble beginsand that is how you could end up getting shocked but it did not "just happen"some one messed with it. If in doubt check it out!

[waiter]

Getting a shock from 12 volts is possible, but very, very unlikely. So the shock is most likely coming from the 110 volt AC circuit.

I'm not familiar with how the Onan is tied in so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Getting a small shock, tripping the Ground fault breaker on shore power, and the Onan not working may all be related.

Ground Fault

Every electron that flows into the load via the L1 wire, must return to the source via the N (Neutral) wire.

If any electrons are flowing through the G (ground ) wire, this is a condition know as ground fault. You can think of a Ground fault circuit breaker as a counter - Every time it sees an electron going out on L1, it wants to see one coming back on N - if it doesn't, then it trips.

Grounds are a safety feature and generally are connected to the metal frame of the appliance, truck body, generator frame, etc, etc. to ensure that the frame of one appliance isn't somehow attached to L1, and the frame of another appliance isn't connected to a Neutral. When you touch one and the other, you have the potential of electrocution .

For you electrician types, you already know this, A toyhouse would be considered like an outbuilding. Its ground is isolated from its neutral. the ground can either connect to a ground rod (10 ft anode driven into the ground), OR, the ground must be taken back to the distribution point (the house) via its own wire. This is what you should have, the neutral goes back on one wire and the ground goes back on another, They should NOT be tied together at the toyhouse.

Somewhere in your toyhouse, the L1 electrons coming into the Toyhouse are not all being returned via N, Some of them are somehow getting into the G wire. When you touch the truck frame, your completing the G circuit to ground and hence, get a little shock.

WARNING - UNPLUG SHORE POWER BEFORE OPENING CONVERTER PANEL

The photo is of my original Convert / breaker panel - Yours may be similar.

If this problem seems intermittent, then check the connections in the AC circuit breaker panel (Put a screwdriver on every connection and snug it up a little.. I've seen loose connections AND connections that have come apart - Check wire nuts (The red twisty thing in the photo), make sure they are tight and give each wire a little pull to make sure its in the wire nut securly.

If the problem persists, unplug the Onan, or turn off its circuit breaker to make sure its out of the circuit. There could be some internal shorting of the Onan that would cause a ground fault when connected to shore power.

Good luck

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[WME]

If you getting a shock its 120v and dangerous. Go to a hardware store and get a AC polarity checker, they are less than $10. Use it starting on your house outlet and then work your way back into the RV.

[Leah]

Thank you for all the replies! I really appreciate it; I'm not that mechanically/electrically knowledgeable, so I am passing on all this information to my boyfriend who is helping me.

I have an update-- yesterday we flipped off all 3 breakers in the motorhome (main, ac, and plugs). My boyfriend also looked around and found a loose wire that goes to the distributor in the engine, which he pushed back in place. We then plugged the RV back into shore power and this time it didn't trip the GFI on our house outlet, the electric panel lights came back on, and all the lights inside the coach are working again. So we flipped the main breaker in the RV back on and it immediately tripped the GFI again. Then we flipped the main back off and reset the GFI and motorhome lights came on again. We then flipped on the other 2 breakers one at a time (ac and plugs) and neither of these tripped the circuit. Other good news, we didn't notice a shocking sensation when we touched the metal door anymore.

But even though the lights are on again, none of the outlets in the coach are working (we plugged in a fan and also used an electric plug in tester- no juice), also the coach ac, microwave, and generator wouldn't turn on and the battery is still not charging. The only other thing we found was a broken fuse in the generator.

So I’m not exactly sure what this all means? What does the main breaker turn off…I thought it would be all the electric in the coach, but that is clearly not the case since the lights are all working.

Well hopefully this new info will help narrow down where the problem is! Thanks again for sharing all your expertise

[linda s]

Main breaker is turning off ac electric not dc 12volt. Your lights are 12 volt so they still work which means your coach battery is working. That circut breaker or wires running to it might be your problem.

LS

Thank you for all the replies! I really appreciate it; I'm not that mechanically/electrically knowledgeable, so I am passing on all this information to my boyfriend who is helping me.

I have an update-- yesterday we flipped off all 3 breakers in the motorhome (main, ac, and plugs). My boyfriend also looked around and found a loose wire that goes to the distributor in the engine, which he pushed back in place. We then plugged the RV back into shore power and this time it didn't trip the GFI on our house outlet, the electric panel lights came back on, and all the lights inside the coach are working again. So we flipped the main breaker in the RV back on and it immediately tripped the GFI again. Then we flipped the main back off and reset the GFI and motorhome lights came on again. We then flipped on the other 2 breakers one at a time (ac and plugs) and neither of these tripped the circuit. Other good news, we didn't notice a shocking sensation when we touched the metal door anymore.

But even though the lights are on again, none of the outlets in the coach are working (we plugged in a fan and also used an electric plug in tester- no juice), also the coach ac, microwave, and generator wouldn't turn on and the battery is still not charging. The only other thing we found was a broken fuse in the generator.

So I'm not exactly sure what this all means? What does the main breaker turn off…I thought it would be all the electric in the coach, but that is clearly not the case since the lights are all working.

Well hopefully this new info will help narrow down where the problem is! Thanks again for sharing all your expertise

[WME]

The main breaker is just that the MAIN breaker. Just like your house. The other 2 breakers are in-line AFTER the main. So with it off the other breakers are unpowered and nothing AC will work.

You have a problem with the basic AC line coming into the coach or between the main and the secondary breakers. I'm guessing somebody worked on the AC side of things and connected a wire wrong.

Do you have an auto transfer switch or do you have to plug the AC cord into the generator??

[Maineah]

Is the big plug on your shore power cord molded or does it have screws in it?

[Leah]

the extension cord plugs into a seperate small side compartment on the RV, which just has a big cord coiled inside for shore power that's attached to the motorhome. The generator is in it's own compartment, on the other side of the RV. I guess the plug on the cord is molded, i didn't see any screws

[Maineah]

OK you kind of confused me a bit if you have and extension cord it should plug into the big cord with an adapter nothing else yeah it's in a compartment but it still plugs into the big cord yes? I have seen cases where the big plug has been replaced and wired wrong that is why I asked if it is molded to the cord kind of like an appliance cord. I think your MH has a big socket that your power cord plugs into so it can run off the generator correct? It would be inside of the same door your cord is in.