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Old 10-22-2016, 09:55 AM   #1
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Partial power failure. Any suggestions?

We have a 3 month old 21 with factory installed inverter, surge suppressor, and all plug inverter transfer switch.

On our last trip 2 weeks ago, we lost 110VAC power at a campground. Refrig and air conditioning kept working. 12VDC was fine. Reace said the inverter is wired to exclude the air cond and refrig and suggested resetting the two inverter breakers under the dinette seat. Presto! AC power came back. (Neither of those two inverter breakers had tripped by the way).

Welllll, we're at the Lake Casitas Rally and the problem repeated itself but resetting the inverter breakers isn't doing the trick anymore. Again, neither tripped. Refrig and air conditioning are working (yeay, it's 98 degrees outside!). 12VDC is fine. A couple of the great minds took a look and determined the inverter workers fine.

Any ideas?
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Old 10-22-2016, 09:59 AM   #2
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Greg, I've lost power just as you describe. Did you reset the gray breaker box? It's under one of the dinette seats (driver side on mine) where power comes into the trailer. Here's a thread: http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f9/gfci-7713.html
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Old 10-22-2016, 10:06 AM   #3
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Greg, I've lost power just as you describe. Did you reset the gray breaker box? It's under one of the dinette seats (driver side on mine) where power comes into the trailer. Here's a thread: http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f9/gfci-7713.html
I did, it worked the first time but isn't solving the problem any more. Neither were tripped at when I reset them.

Now power comes on for just a split second and goes off again. We noticed that durind the day, the power came and went without us touching the breakers

Greg
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Old 10-22-2016, 10:08 AM   #4
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I ended up needing to replace one of those breakers. Lowes had what I needed for <$10. Thanks to Dave (Dave&Kathie) and his multi-meter, the solution was found. And no, the bad breaker didn't show it was tripped either. I hope your problem is just as easy to fix!
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Old 10-22-2016, 10:12 AM   #5
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I ended up needing to replace one of those breakers. Lowes had what I needed for <$10. Thanks to Dave (Dave&Kathie) and his multi-meter, the solution was found. And no, the bad breaker didn't show it was tripped either. I hope your problem is just as easy to fix!
Cool, that's an easy fix, worth trying. I've never had any mechanical problems worthy of an RV repair shop. I was just thinking, heck we don't even have one within 75 miles of home! Hope that does it.

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Old 10-22-2016, 10:31 AM   #6
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My guess would be an electrical connection that's a little loose. A volt meter used to trace exactly where the power vanishes would be a help.
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Old 10-22-2016, 11:31 AM   #7
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My guess would be an electrical connection that's a little loose. A volt meter used to trace exactly where the power vanishes would be a help.
I'll second that. Had an issue similar at home. It was a slightly loose connection in the breaker box. Didn't have to replace anything.
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Old 10-22-2016, 02:46 PM   #8
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Thanks alll, I jiggled the wires at the secondary breaker panel and it caused the microwave to flicker. Looks indeed like a loose connection. Whew!

Happy trails!

Greg
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Old 10-22-2016, 03:05 PM   #9
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Thanks alll, I jiggled the wires at the secondary breaker panel and it caused the microwave to flicker. Looks indeed like a loose connection. Whew!

Happy trails!

Greg
Hi: Greggo... I hate it when my connections get loose!!! Alf
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Old 10-22-2016, 05:53 PM   #10
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Yep, sometimes playing with it a little does the trick...
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Old 10-23-2016, 05:29 PM   #11
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... Reace said the inverter is wired to exclude the air cond and refrig and suggested resetting the two inverter breakers under the dinette seat. Presto! AC power came back. (Neither of those two inverter breakers had tripped by the way).
The actual problem has been found, and it does make sense that snapping the breakers off and on would jostle the connections in that sub-panel (or secondary breaker box).

For future reference, many people don't realize that the handle of a breaker which has tripped is only moved partway to the "off" position - it can be easy to miss that the breaker has tripped if you can't see the breakers clearly, so I feel along the handles, which makes the tripped one stand out. If a breaker trips without moving the handle at all, that's definitely defective... and would be surprising.
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Old 10-23-2016, 07:00 PM   #12
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Yes, it is always good to turn the breaker off and then back on when checking, regardless of how it looks
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Old 10-23-2016, 07:24 PM   #13
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They also wiggle a bit when they've been tripped. When the breaker is on or off there's no wiggle.
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Old 10-23-2016, 08:51 PM   #14
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Tripped breakers

Always looking for the positive, even when I've done something stupid. When I was 18 I worked in a grey iron foundry grinding slag off of Link Belt Speeder crane counterweight castings. Too much tom catting and too little sleep resulted in grinding the end off of my right ring finger. It healed in time but remains sensitive to this day. Whenever I check
breakers in a panel, especially in the dark I wiggle the flipper with that ring finger as I go down the row of breakers, I'm about 90% accurate finding the tripped breaker on the first check. Saves turning them all off and then back on. Ruined my piano playing career though.
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Old 10-23-2016, 09:05 PM   #15
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And your hand modeling career was ruined too Dave! [emoji23]
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Old 10-26-2016, 05:48 PM   #16
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Here's the culprit

Kinda scary, the culprit was a hot lead never tightened at the secondary (as in inverter) breaker box. Thanks to Bill McKeag for figuring this out and repairing it.
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Old 10-27-2016, 12:05 AM   #17
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Kinda scary, the culprit was a hot lead never tightened at the secondary (as in inverter) breaker box.
A "hot" lead, with white wire to a bus bar? That's presumably the neutral wire, not the line (or "hot") wire, which should have black insulation... maybe just a terminology glitch. Of course it doesn't change the severity of the issue, as the same current goes though either connection.
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