No ac power from pole

dennis46c · 05-31-2011, 05:06 PM

On the third day of camping in a 40ft HR Endeavor, we lost power. It began as if the cut-off switch went bad (it happened before and we replaced). I took a cable and bypassed the solenoid as recommended in these forums in the past. We got some power back including 1 A/C but nothing to microwave, tv, etc. The monitor on the panel indicated we were drawing only 30 amp. After checking breakers and other things, we lost that power. We discovered the 50amp circuit on the park's power pole had trip. We shut everthing down inside but the circuit continued to trip. We unplugged and the breaker didn't trip,I plugged in and it immediately tripped the circuit with some sparking. Two of the pins on the plug shows damage from arcing. We decided to stay the night and when a park overhead light came on that wasn't working before, we tried to plug in again and this time we couldn't trip the circuit but no power so it appears something on the coach side is dead. We tried to run the generator but it would only run around 20 to 30 second before shutting off. We did try a different power pole in the park with the same results. Any ideas on where to begin looking?

wa8yxm · 05-31-2011, 05:48 PM

Though shorts in power cords are RARE.. I recall helping a camper a few weeks ago with a brand new first time out trailer.

He plugged in.. NO power

When we disconnected the Marnieco twist lock "outlet" from the "Inlet" on his trailer.

The outlet came off in our hands.. They had not tightened the screws.

I'd start looking for loose crews.. That is the first suspect (make sure you have power at BOTH ENDS of the cord) then move in from there.

ga traveler · 05-31-2011, 05:52 PM

Our dealership always started at the power plug and worked back to MH. Are you using any kind of adapter. these can be problematic. Is the plug burned? if plug is ok, next go to power cord reel. If you don't have a reel, go the changeover box. If changeover is ok, take cover off circuit breaker box. check all connections. Of course make sure you have the power off when inspecting all 120volt systems.

dennis46c · 05-31-2011, 06:31 PM

Thanks guys! II'm beginning to think we had problems in the transfer switch that was causing a short back to the pole. I found another post where the screw had loosened up causing overheating and eventually a short. Our MH uses the ITS-50R and we don't use adaptors. We aren't the best at making sure everthing is turned off before we plug in, such as the fridge and according to the new motorhome magazine, this can cause pitting and eventual failure. We'll see tomorrow we I can get back to storage to check.

moisheh · 05-31-2011, 07:30 PM

You do not need to turn anything off when you first plug in. However one should always make sure the power pole breakers are turned off before plugging in.

dennis46c · 06-01-2011, 08:22 PM

Thanks everyone for your input. It turns out we had the black wire out of the transfer switch melt into the neutral causing the short. We had the IOTA it-50r so we are replacing with a ESCO ATS.