Power inverter

Hi all.....we are so green we smell like fresh mowed grass lol. My husband and I have always dreamed of tiny living and traveling,  our solution was we traded our property for a 1999 Fleetwood bounder 34j. We have lived in our motorhome full time boondocking since April of this year no problems. However, lol, yesterday we moved locations.....when my husband unhooked from our power source he said our power cord was melted ? got to our new location, replaced cord....plugged in and heard a loud pop, he came over opened our under storage and white smoke came boiling out from where our power inverter is. It did not pop any of the fuses. But fried the inverter. My question is what happened? I'm afraid to replace the inverter because I fear we have something grounding out somewhere. Is this a common problem? Am I over thinking this? I don't have the money to have someone come install and check this issue out. Help! The inverter was intelli power 9100 model pd-9155. Thanks

You have a converter, not an inverter.  Since you had a destroyed power cord, how were you able to operate at the previous site?  It does sound like you have a dead short in or near the converter.  Perhaps the repaired or replacement cord was not done correctly.  Call Randy at http://www.bestconverter.com/ for help in choosing the best model for you.

Welcome to the forum. We'll help you get to the bottom of this.  Just make sure you answer every questions that gets asked.

My guess is wrong cord. or wrong cord onfiguration... Alas it's not all that easy to describe via the net. Easy hands on (For me) but not long distance.

Some questions IS your RV 30 or 50 amp. 30 amp have a 3 prong (2 flat one round) plug 50 have 3 flats and a round.

If a 30 amp outlet is miswired, or a 50 amp plug or outlet are mis-wired. exactly what you describe can easily happen.

And if you hire an electrician to install a TT-30 (30 amp rv outlet) at home.> VERY VERY Good chance he (or she but bigger chance with a he) will mess it up.. I managed to catch ONE before he did that.. And I wired my own so I did not have a problem

How can you  very easily tell if a pro wired it wrong?
Easy only tools needed eyes and fingers
Look in the breaker box for the new breaker(s)  if it's Breakers.  WRONG.

Tigereyes43361 said:

We have lived in our motorhome full time boondocking since April of this year no problems. ....when my husband unhooked from our power source he said our power cord was melted ? got to our new location, replaced cord....plugged in and heard a loud pop,

Click to expand...

First Welcome to the Forum.  Next, okay I'm confused.  Boondocking describes RVing where you are in the "boonies" so to speak (or Walmart, Cabelas, etc,) and staying WITHOUT electric, water, and/or sewer hook-ups.  Yet, you indicate that you have unhooked an electric power cord, and then plugged one in again at a new location.  While possible, I don't think one can boondock for  6 months without dumping your waste tanks - that is, unless you're using the great outdoors against all conventions and rules. I don't think this is the case. Also you may be finding dump stations at private RV parks for example. From what happened I guess we assume you have actually been plugged into an electric power source, since April?  The same location?

Regardless of that, and $$ or not, are you using an Electrical Management System (EMS).  This is either a stand-along unit that plugs into the power pedestal prior to hooking up your RV to it, or it is a hard-wired unit that lives somewhere in your RV.  The EMS protects your RV power system against power surges, power drops, reverse polarity, low or high power, frequency changes, etc.  Again, since we don't know yet just what happened, I can't state categorically that an EMS would have helped,  - someone on the Forum will likely know, but I do recommend you get one and use it if you are not already doing so.  I guess I'm thinking more about how did your power cord melt?  Must be some pretty extreme heat, which is where I'm wondering if an EMS would have prevented this.

Linda

Ok so apparently I'm not as savvy with terminology as I thought lol. When we originally parked the power cord on the RV was fine, we had no interruption of power when we were parked or anyting else. And you are correct it was not a converter it's an inverter and it's a 50 amp. When my husband unplugged it last night he had asked me if I knew that the cord was burnt he was the one who unplugged it and it had been fine previously to him unplugging it. So I'm not sure when the burn in the cord happen. But it had only been since April. We are just plugging the RV into the plug that was set up just for the RV we are on family property. We only moved it a hundred yards or so to put it in a new place because we realized we have developed a leak on the roof so we moved it from where it was sitting to under the barn to where we can do work on the roof we live in North Central Florida so we have a lot of rain coming through right now. I also know without a doubt that everything that has been done to this RV has been done professionally being as we got it from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and this was their baby. I have all the paperwork on the RV since it's been bought all the way down to the commode and everything else I have all the paperwork for anything that's been installed. And like I said I know it's been installed professionally. However I do not have one of the protectors that was mentioned I was looking into this but I've just recently joined this log to learn what I can and I've been reading religiously every night every single post through here trying to learn something or other lol. Like I said there was no power Interruption but the cord had to have melted at some point while we were plugged in since April when I have no clue because the cord didn't look bad. We are connected to the family sewer so we don't have to go dump anywhere so like I said I guess I was not as Savvy on terminology as I thought I had been LOL.

Thanks so much for providing the full story.  No sure why none of the electrical experts haven't chimed in here  . . .but it sounds like maybe the power from the residential source is not set up correctly for a 50 amp RV.  I'm not an electrical guru, but I've read dozens of posts here where those who are caution that electricians will VERY often install a 240 V (?) line, when something else is needed because the RV actually has two legs of power at 50 amps each - or something like that.

I'd suggest you do a search, maybe something like "residential power" or residential electrical", to see if you can find some of these.  The response from John mentioned about electricians failing to get it correct, but didn't provide full information.

Meantime, we'll hope someone else replies.

Thanks again
Linda

Alright....I spoke to the repair man at the rv store where we just bought our new converter ($200 fix)....however the old one is now obsolete, that being said he told us that it just happens sometimes. I don't know exact date that the old one was installed however it had to be old. We could hear the old one running and now that we have installed the new converter it is running everything is back to normal and its quiet. Apparently whatever the issue was it had been going on for some time. No issues, cords are still cool to the touch.  We now have a 55amp?....he said we can go up in ampage with no problem we just couldn't go down and the 55 was the smallest that this new brand carried but it came highly recommended. Thank you all for the support and feedback I received, now I know where I can come for answers in the future.

So if I read this right...

Original cord since april was plugged into a 30 amp outlet?
The RV is a 50amp convertor
You unplugged and saw pin burning?
You moved 100 yards farther from the outlet?
You plugged in a new cord and the converter popped and smoked out...

My belief is you have used 30 amp cords.  A 30 amp cord is marginal to run an RV beyond like 30 feet. Distance creates resistance, resistance creates heat. Heat is bad. If you used a 20 amp chord you are lucky the thing lasted since April and only burnt the pins.

If you then plugged in a 100+ yard 30 amp cable I suspect you could have melted the cord and created a dead short.

Before plugging in a 100 yard run with your new converter I think you need at least a 50 amp cord are something of at least 8 gauge wire.

I am not an "expert" on long range 115V wiring but it's a pretty good theory.

Just a quick tip. Before plugging in or unplugging, always shut off the circuit breaker to that outlet. That will prevent arching inside the outlet.

For future reference, the converter/charger amps have nothing to do with shore power amps. If you are asked about 30A vs 50A RV, the question concerns the shore power cord ad plug.    A converter that provides 55A of 12v power is actually drawing only about 6 amps from the shore cord. I know, it's confusing if you aren't knowledgeable about electric power (and most people are not).

In any case, your failed converter/charger probably has nothing to do with the burned/melted shore cord. That happens when you draw near0maximum power through the cord for extended periods, say a couple hours non-stop.  A 30 amp shore cord will get hot and potentially get damaged if it exceeds 24 amps for more than about 30 minutes.  A worn cord plus or campsite power outlet can make that happen sooner or at lower amperage.

50 amp RV is 240 volts. 30 amp RV is 120 volts. The original cord was loose in the outlet. That is what burned up the plug. it is obvious that there was a problem with the cord repair. I'm calling "operator error.