Electrical Issues

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Wingsfan19

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May 21, 2017
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Having some electrical issues in our 2012 Revere.

Everything is working good except the AC, toaster or coffee maker so far. Whenever we tried to run those the lights would dim and those appliances won't work. 

I checked all fuses and they are good, flipped the breaker (shore and rv) , reset the gfci and it was OK. Park maintenance guy tested the pedestal, all fuses for me on the panel (WF 8900) and the battery tested ok too with his multimeter.  Anything else I could/should check?

Only thing I haven't checked is to see if there are any fuses directly in the converter as it's behind a plate. Is there anything else in there that I could check that may be my issue or could it be a ground/short issue somewhere? Also noticed that when our power tongue jack is used there is a spark sometimes right on the tongue and I have had to replace the 30 amp fuse on it one time already this season. This may or may not be related to my issue.


 
here's what I would do.

check the trailer battery and see if it's gone bad.  it may be the converter is working really hard to supply power to the lights and needs a lot of the incoming A/C voltage...

if your battery is good....and your fuses are all good,  then take an A/C volt meter,  and check the actual A/C voltage you are getting at a wall plug under loads,  watch it as you switch things on,  120 to 110 is perfect, 106 and below in the middle of the day is bad...it may be you are getting low incoming current from the pedestal.

the lower the voltage, the higher the amperage....the higher the amperage, the higher the heat... and heat kills electrical things.
 
Wingsfan19 said:
Having some electrical issues in our 2012 Revere.

Everything is working good except the AC, toaster or coffee maker so far. Whenever we tried to run those the lights would dim and those appliances won't work. 

I checked all fuses and they are good, flipped the breaker (shore and rv) , reset the gfci and it was OK. Park maintenance guy tested the pedestal, all fuses for me on the panel (WF 8900) and the battery tested ok too with his multimeter.  Anything else I could/should check?

Only thing I haven't checked is to see if there are any fuses directly in the converter as it's behind a plate. Is there anything else in there that I could check that may be my issue or could it be a ground/short issue somewhere? Also noticed that when our power tongue jack is used there is a spark sometimes right on the tongue and I have had to replace the 30 amp fuse on it one time already this season. This may or may not be related to my issue.
Click to expand...

Wingsfan19
I suspect you will find a tripped curcuit breaker on your inverter/converter/charger.
 
Forget the fuses - all those items are strictly 120v power, controlled by circuit breakers. 

You say the lights dim when you attempt to use those items. Do they seem to try to work and then quit, or no sign at all? The lights are 12v and supplied from an AC/DC converter, so normally the 120v appliances would have almost no effect on them. It appears your rig lacks sufficient amp capacity to power the AC/DC converter and anything else, which leads me to suspect a loose or corroded 120v connection, possibly in the shore power cord. A voltage test will show OK, but under load the power drops away quickly (and thus the lights dim).  One common source of this trouble is the shore cord male plug end,which gets a lot of abuse and the wires break inside.
 
Ok, A/C is normally powered directly by Shore Power (or Generator power) and those puppies eat liek a Saint Bernard (LOTS AND LOTS) or Marmaduke (Comic strip Great Dane, I've met a Dane named Marmaduke... BIG DOG)

Toaster and Coffee maker also run on 120vac (Usually less you got 12 volt units at a truck stop or RV store) but may be powered by an inverter in addition to the others.

IF you have an inverter I'd suspexct batteries or battery connections on those items.

But I'm at a loss as to why the A/C would dim the light  .... UNLESS

Plug in a voltmeter (line monitor type)  you can also use a neon path light.. or a multimeter

But the plug in meters like the Kill-a-watt (Set to read volts) are the easiest.

Note the readings as the A/C is engaged.. I'm guessing like 80 volts will be the response.
 
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