Testing a 50 amp male plug?

[CP]

I have been having issues with loosing ac power on the coach when I am connected to a 50 amp service at my house. I run through an magnum ms pure sine inverter in my coach. I have had the issue if I use a portable surge protector or direct to the house. When I use a tester on both the surge protector and the house they both read  I am getting 120 from each hot side. When I unplug the cord and retry (sometimes once sometimes more) direct to the house, the magnum remote shows the batteries are charging again. So I am wondering if there is a test I can do on the male end of the 50 amp cord from the MH to see it that is bad?  I have a fluke electric tester but I Don't have a great understanding of electric issues and testing. There could still be an issue with the house connection, but I want to see if the cord is OK to eliminate that possibility.

Thanks for your thoughts.
CP

 

[glen54737]

Are you sure you are loosing power?
The inverter charger only charges when necessary. Just because it doesn't show charging doesn't mean there's no power to it.
did you try turning on the a/c ? or some other 110v appliance that's not powered by the inverter.

You could check the continuity of the cable by disconnection both ends and using the multi-meter on resistance to check the wires are connected

 

[John From Detroit]

When you unplug and test the voltage that is what I call a NO LOAD test, without any load there is NO loss and you are reading the voltage at the breaker/distirbution panel in your house.

NOT THE VOLTAGE AT THE OUTLET.

Plug in a 1500 watt space heater and re-take the voltage measurement .. YOu may be surprised. get as close to the surge guard's plug as you can get with that meter or read the outlet voltage on the surge guard.. that may take a custom box.  But get as close to the surge guard as you can.

 

[CP]

Thank you for your help. I now understand that there could be a voltage drop if something is on in the MH.

FYI for my magnum inverter/charger I was told if I was receiving ac from either the gen or house the magnum remote would show changing from inverting mode to charge mode automatically. It would then enter a 4 stage charge process from bulk to float or something like that. So when I see it saying inverting and I am plugged into ac, that I believe means the system is not picking up the ac to charge the batteries.

Again many thanks for your help! Safe travels to you both.
CP

 

[Larry N.]

You're right that the Magnum display should show Float, Full Charge, Bulk, etc. if you have AC to it. But just to be sure, Chuck, are you waiting a minute or two after plugging in to be sure that the invert indication is not changing to charge? There is a definite delay before the changeover. And what are you plugging into at the house that is 50 amp service? Did you have an RV pedestal installed, or did you just get a single 50 plug wired in, or...?? After all, the house end isn't infallible either, so a weak/bad circuit breaker or a poorly wired connection in the plug or electric box could also cause this, especially since you say it's intermittent.

With a new Newmar, you might consider having the dealer check this out under warranty, because it shouldn't have a problem unless some damage has occurred. And I can tell you for sure that Newmar has been very interested in finding out what I think of any service work at their dealer (even an oil change), how I was treated, did it get fixed right the first time, etc.

 

[Kevin Means]

Hi Chuck. What indication are you getting in the coach that makes you think you've lost A/C power? I may have misread something, but your charging profile looks normal to me. The next time you think you've lost A/C power, you might try turning on an AC unit, or heat pump (depending on the temp.) They won't run off your inverter, so if they power up, you've got A/C power.

Kev

 

[CP]

Thanks everyone. I have not tried turning on the heat pumps etc. when it says inverting to confirm loss of ac. I am going strictly by the magnum remote saying inverting and not charging when this happens.  The strange part is it will be on charge mode and then when I check back normally next day or two it says inverting. I am becoming more suspicious of my house 50 amp service. But I wanted to eliminate the cord plug if it was easy to do first.  I had a dedicated electric box and circuit put in the house for the MH. But the actual box I plug into seems  dry flimsy. I might replace that with something more substantial.

 

[Larry N.]

I might replace that with something more substantial.

A few years back I had an electrician install an RV pedestal next to the spot where I park the coach. It's the same one you find in a lot of RV parks, with 20/20/50 amp, each with individual circuit breakers and the big metal cover. It's substantial and has worked great.