electrical problems

[bubblerboy64]

Don, I know so little about this I shouldn't even comment but do you
think you were shorting across to the ground wire? You know we tend
to grab those plugs and pull and tug on them and if a wire gets loose
it can't be a good thing. Could the problem have started by plugging
into a socket that was shorted which damaged the male end of your
power cord resulting in the problem with the inverter. People have
been know to drive off having there bus plugged into the electrical
connection. If they do that and do damage how many of them would
stop and tell the owner of the camp? I guess we take our chances
everytime we plug into a strange hookup when you think about it.

John Heckman
central Pa
1973 FC
>
> I've experienced two serious electrical problems on our current
trip. I'm hoping the second problem (solved) was the cause of the
first, but I can't get my head around exactly how it would be, so I'm
hoping someone with more RV electrical experience than I have will
have a clue. I will rest easier if I know what caused the first
problem.
>
> The first problem I talked about here earlier, but will run through
for clarity:
>
> With a lot of draw going on, I had the 50-amp breaker on the park
pole blow, plus the main inside breakers, plus the breaker for the
inverter. Power was lost on the inverter circuit, and did not return
when breakers were turned back on with reduced draw. The inverter, a
ProSine 2.0, is toast - burnt components obvious when opening the
case. I removed the inverter and wired input/output together for
power on the inverted circuit when on park power, and bought a small
charger to keep the batteries up while parked.
>
> Xantrex sent out a new ProSine 2.0 (half-price, well out-of-
warranty) and I will get it tomorrow. I've been worrying about
hooking it up without knowing what caused the failure.
>
> Problem number 2: Yesterday I moved, and on arrival at a park in
Ogallala the 50-amp park breaker blew as soon as turned on. After
turning off the internal main breakers I was able to get the park
breaker to hold after one more failure. The breaker was "spongy" so I
wasn't sure if it was just weak. Turning on the main breakers inside
worked fine.
>
> Moved again today, and the problem repeated except that nothing
would make it work. In trying various things I found that my 30/50
cord worked fine.
>
> So, I took the coach connector apart and found:
>
> Screw for black wire fell out, and was quite black on the end.
White and Red attached, but screw not tight. Green was not attached
at all - screw all the way in, and wire laid across the top.
Contacting case, but who knows how well.
>
> It is amazing I had power at all. I cut the end off and rebuilt the
connector, and had no problem turning on the power.
>
> It would seem to be an odd coincidence if problem one was not
caused by problem two, but since the ProSine 2.0 should in theory
work regardless of what occurs on the input side I'm not sure what
the connection is. Anybody have thoughts on this?
>
> Don Bradner
> 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
> Posting today by satellite from Grand Island, Nebraska
> My location: http://www.bbirdmaps.com/user2.cfm?user=1
>