Jump to content

Kirk, John. Electrical folks one and all. Please help.


Daveh

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 65
  • Created
  • Last Reply

If you mentioned a cord reel, I missed that. Those reels have sliprings to maintain contact electrically while allowing the cord end to rotate mechanically in order to wind the cord. No doubt that a bad slipping/brush could cause problems of that sort and multiple bad sets could give you symptoms that come and go. 

A bad spot on a slipping will only cause a problem when it happens to stop under it’s brush. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/21/2018 at 3:55 PM, Chalkie said:

My Progressive caught and blocked the issue you describe in a campground.

My Progressive caught a similar problem at the RV site we own! It was the same issue but was more difficult to detect because it was intermittent.  The Progressive kept turning off the power and then turning it back on.  Fortunately, the display showed the "previous error" which was high voltage on one leg.

When the power company technician came out he told me "you RVers are the only ones with equipment sensitive enough to detect this sort of thing."  He tightened every connection in the pedestal and at the power distribution transformer.  The problem immediately went away and hasn't reoccurred.

FWIW, we had had a Surgeguard EMS until that event.  It kept cutting off power and restoring it, but without the "previous error" diagnostic output there was no way to figure out what was happening.  Since the device was a number of years old, I replaced it with the Progressive and was immediately able to understand the problem.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Dave, I tend to agree the problem is either your No 1 or No 2 scenarios.

In over 40 years in the electrical industry and a 47 year RV owner/dealer, I saw wind up/rotating electrical cord or other similar devices using slip rings or brushes etc. over time and use FAIL, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were the problem.   Sure perhaps a loose/resistive Neutral connection in that Bonded, or even if it were a Floating Neutral, may have been cured by the electrician ???

If you can rig up a by pass for that cord n reel then it will be easy to apply a load such as one AC and measure voltages to see if there's an I x R voltage drop across a loose/resistive Neutral. That can address your No 3 scenario. Remember if there are two identical loads on legs 1 and 2 any loose/resistive Neutral wouldn't be obvious. You need to load the Neutral conductor to find an I x R voltage drop.  With the electrician having checked and tightened connections and iffffffffff it passed an actual load test ???? with the cord n reel by passed I wouldn't be surprised if alls well now ??????????    

Not being there and having no way to know conditions before and after makes it nearly Impossible to diagnose the problem over the net buy hey I try my best. Let us know and thanks for the feedback

John T   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/28/2018 at 6:34 AM, Daveh said:

Okay, folks here is the update. We got back to the park in Manistique, Michigan, I plugged in the 50 amp and everything works. All voltages good.  No sign of the problem.

After we decided to come back I decided I would tighten everything electrical in our fifth wheel just to be sure (I found nothing loose).  One of the workampers, a retired farmer, saw me with everything torn apart and asked if he could help. I explained the problem and went through my whole system with him. When we got to my electric cord reel  I showed him the junction box connecting the shore cord and reel to the main AC input wiring in the trailer. All the connections were tight and everything looked good. He then said that the cord reel, which is powered by a 12v motor, had to have some kind of system in it to allow the cord to wind without everything jamming up. I did some research and could not find schematics of the, ridiculously expensive,  Shoreline electric cord power reel   (  https://www.hollandrvparts.com/product/50a-power-cord-reel-cc50d/ ) but I did find an old post from about 2004 of an RVer complaining that he had an electric power reel and that he had seen high voltages. He said he took it apart and it had brushes and contacts that held position against rings on the reel to maintain the electrical contact. He said it showed signs of wear and concluded he had a bad ground (other posters then chimed in and said "no with those symptoms you have a bad neutral"). He then bypassed the reel and had no problem.

This confirmed to me it was a possibility and another variable I could eliminate. The question remained why did I  have a bad neutral at the Manistique campsite but not at the two subsequent sites I tried. Well, one possible explanation was that the reel had bad spots and if it stopped at the wrong location the problem would show up. If that theory was correct I was playing Russian roulette each time I spun out the cord reel.  The theory explained why the park could not find the problem and why I did not see the problem again. We could have tested the cord by putting in in different locations but I never really liked the thing. SOOO, I cut the cord, wired a direct attachment back to the outlet box,  and pulled the entire cord reel.

I got here and everything works. Was that it?  I think probably but I don't know. Seems to me there are at least three possibilities.

1. The cord reel had bad contacts as discussed above.

2. The park had problems that they corrected in the course of checking things over.

3. The park still has problems that depended specifically on the loads being drawn on that particular day and the problem will reappear.

1 and 2 seem like the most probable and as much as I don't like to admit it I am leaning toward 1. I still have the cord reel so one of these days I should be able to do some testing of continuity on the neutral with the reel in different positions.

 

Thanks everyone so much for your help on this electrical mystery. Welcome your thoughts and second guessing.   Dave

 

Slowly spinning the real with an Ohm Meter connected to the input/output of the reel may show if there is a bad spot.

 

 

2011 Cameo 34SB3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Daveh said:

I don't have the reel with me right now as we left it with our quasi home campground but will do this wjen we get back.

Yours is easily removable? If it isn't in service now, how could it be the problem?

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is not easily removable. I took it out as I strongly suspected it was the problem and besides the 12v wind up motor was beginning to fail. So I cut the cord and now I am hardwired and just roll up the cord into the compartment that housed the reel. The odd thing is that the process is now actually easier.

Dave and Lana Hasper

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alloy

The type of cord makes a big difference.  I got my coach used, and the first thing I did was replace the cord.  The very back end of the cord had been patched, and not noticed when I inspected it.  I did not know that the type of cord material mattered, but it does.  Now have the correct cord, and now only mildly impacted by cold.  Enough to notice, but not to make a difference. 

Mine does not occupy a storage compartment, which is a good thing in my setup

Rich and Carol

2007 Dynamax DQ 340 XL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Daveh said:

So I cut the cord and now I am hardwired and just roll up the cord into the compartment that housed the reel. The odd thing is that the process is now actually easier

Dave, sounds good. The more fancy bells n whistles an RV has the more things to go wrong lol KISS. As I posted earlier if that RV parks latest more competent electrician did his job and you have now eliminated a potential problem, things may be okay now. For 47 consecutive years as an RV owner I've always managed to get by rolling up the cord myself lol

John T   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


RVers Online University

campgroundviews.com

RV Destinations

Find out more or sign up for Escapees RV'ers Bootcamp.

Advertise your product or service here.

The Rvers- Now Streaming

RVTravel.com Logo



×
×
  • Create New...