HELP!!!

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Night Nurse

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Sep 23, 2011
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27
HELP!!

We are leaving in the AM for our Camping trip. all was ready A to B.  UNTIL NOW!!  My furnace will not turn on AND the Fridg will only run on Propane. WHAT the heck?? 

A side note,,  2 weeks ago I was checking EVERYTHING and it was all working. Cracked a cold brew and sat back when all of the sudden the power goes out. I was hooked up to the house so I jumped out of the TT to check the fuse box. That is when the wife says I think I ran over your power line with the lawn tractor.  Yup she had, melted the adaptor 30amp to 110v. I figure since all was working no harm. now nothing. Did this fry my electric board??  hot water works, water pump, A/C works just the heater (ducted) and Fridge only with gass.


Please any advice would be worth it's weight in gold

TED
 
Oh I did replace the cord and the Fridge and heater are not working now. The fridge only works with gas. All was well BEFORE the incident

TED
 
You wired it wrong.  You have breakers tripped in the trailer.
 
No tripped breakers. The cord is a pre made extention cord ( home Depot) . I did not have to wire anything. No fuses blown either.

TED
 
are you sure there are no breakers tripped in the house?? Just for the heck of it unplug the fridge and connect it to an extension cord to the house. That will tell you if the fridge is ok or it is an RV problem.
 
It may be an easy fix.  try replacing all fuses and see if that fixes the problem. May have tripped your breaker, and the fuses may have blown out.
 
I did the same thing and it turned out a GFCI outlet not only tripped, but it fried.  I had to replace it. The weird thing is that I didn't even know that socket was there until I fried it.  It covered both the outlets outside and in the Garage, and was hidden down below another plug.  So check to make sure a lamp will work on the socket before you plug in the TT, so you know you have power to the TT.
 
There are other fuses associated with the fridge that are often overlooked. In the back of the fridge there are 3 glass tube fuses on the circuit board which is usually skillfully hidden in a plastic box. The cover of the box can be removed to reveal the fuses and the circuit board. There is a 5 amp 120V fuse there which, when blown, will cause the exact problem you describe.  Try testing those with your VOM!! (May be F7?)

Speaking of GFI outlets, the outlet used for the fridge has, on occasion, been found to have been fed from the GFI always found in at least one spot in the motorhome or trailer. A GFI outlet can feed up to 6 other plain outlets so checking the fridge outlet with a lamp would be wise, just to be sure it is functioning and if not, reset the GFI as a first step.

If by 'heater' you mean the furnace....  The thermostat and the  furnace are 12V only (+propane) so check the 12V fuse distribution.

 
Night Nurse said:
No tripped breakers. The cord is a pre made extention cord ( home Depot) . I did not have to wire anything. No fuses blown either.

TED
Click to expand...

Exactly how did you check the fuses?  Did you actually turn the 120VAC breakers off and back on?
 
I do have power to the TT. I flipped every breaker back and forth. I pulled every fuse in the panel and they are all good.  Going to check for the GFI's in the TT, don't know if I have any. I'll report back in a few. I'll also bypass the fridge with another extention cord.

Thanks Ted
 
UPDATE

I did find more fuses in the back panel of the fridge. all good.  all outlets work both GFI and non-GFI. I reset all of them as well BUT they don't seen to trip like house ones. I pluged in the fridge to 110 via extention cord to the house and disconected power to the TT and Nothing.  The fridg will still work on Gas and Nothing from the Furnace.

Family in the driveway looking at me,

TED
 
The fridge and furnace are unrelated electrically, especially since the fridge continues to work on LP gas, which means its 12v supply is ok. It's conceivable the electric heat element in the fridge was damaged when the shore cord got cut, but that seems very unlikely. And the furnace uses no shore power at all, under any circumstances.

We need more details about what does - or doesn't - happens.
1) When you set the fridge to AC mode, what happens? Does it immediately shift back to LP mode, or does it stay on AC but no cooling?
2) When the thermostat is turned up, does the furnace fan run? Do you hear it try to ignite (a series of snapping sounds as sparks are made)?

You can go camping - use the fridge in LP mode and bring an electric space heater!
 
The fridge go right in to LP mode
The furnace will do NOTHING, not even the fan. I checked for power at the fan it self and nothing

The fuses all have power and the breakers are good as well

TED
 
Looking at a fuse is often not good enough. Use a voltmeter or a 12V test lamp and measure voltage on both the input and output or remove the fuse and use an ohmmeter.

The furnace start up is controlled by the circuit board after receiving a signal from the thermostat so, depending where you looked, no 12V at the fan may be quite normal.

The thermostat places 12V on the "W" lead (White) towards the furnace circuit board. First, check if the thermostat is powered by the 12V and -12V (Ground) leads (Red and Blue, I think) and if it is, remove it from the wall. The small wires leaving the thermostat are usually plug-ended or may be wire nutted to heavier wires before going off to the air conditioners and Furnace. You should be able to connect +12V to the W lead at that point by connecting temporarily the +12V to the W lead  going to the furnace using a small piece of wire and it should start it up. If that doesn't work you will have to check the 12V supply at the furnace itself. Did you find the 12V supply fuse and check that??

First, plug a lamp or drill into the socket at the back of the fridge and make sure there is power as Catblaster suggested. If the fridge is going straight to LP mode then it is not detecting the 120V from the plug. As mentioned previously, you should be able to check using a voltmeter at the glass fuse on the circuit board.
 
An easy check for the furnace might be the thermostat. As Stu says nothing will work without a 12v signal from the stat. Remove the plastic cover from the stat and you will probably find a 12v fuse on the panel there.
Also, don't look - use a voltmeter! Walmart has a yellow one in the auto section for about $15, I suggest you get one. Hope this helps.
 
I had a similar problem, but not because the cord was run over but the symptoms were very close.  Turned out it was the GFCI in the bathroom was tripped.  Just happened to notice it while I was standing in there one afternoon.  "Hmm that's funny, the red button shouldn't be sticking out of there like that?"  Pushed it back in and the fridge kicked off Propane.  I had already checked all the breakers and fuses, I was ready to take it in to be reaired when we got back home.

Jeff
 
Night Nurse said:
UPDATE

I did find more fuses in the back panel of the fridge. all good.  all outlets work both GFI and non-GFI. I reset all of them as well BUT they don't seen to trip like house ones. I pluged in the fridge to 110 via extention cord to the house and disconected power to the TT and Nothing.  The fridg will still work on Gas and Nothing from the Furnace.

Family in the driveway looking at me,

TED
Click to expand...

Trailer GFCI should work exactly like your house.  If you can't push the black button and then reset with the red button then you are probably not getting power to the GFCI or it is bad.  Did you plug something into the GFCI to make sure it worked?
 
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