electrical problems

[Don Bradner]

I may not have been clear: It was the coach end of the shore cord, not the
connector that is part of the coach. The pole end is a molded connector, but the
coach end is not; don't know if that is original?

There is a plastic ring cinched down to the cord, just behind the connector. I
never gave it much thought, but now I wonder why that is there. It lends itself
to be the point that is grabbed to pull the connector out, but that puts strain
on the wires in the connector. Clearly I should grab the connector body to pull
it out, not the wires.

On 8/28/2008 at 8:31 PM Curt Sprenger wrote:

>Don,
>
>Great Post...Everyone...All of us with our older coaches need to do what
>Don
>just did, check our coach connectors. I'll add that we should also check
>our
>shore cord coach ends.
>
>.On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 5:34 PM, Don Bradner
>wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>--
>Curt Sprenger
>1987 PT38 8V92 "MacAttack Racing"
>Anaheim Hills, CA