No shore power, yes gen power, transfer switch questions

[Clhuggins]

2000 Fleetwood Bounder 39Z diesel. 30amp rv, using Surgeguard protection.

Short recent history, my wife and I tour in our RV. 2 nights ago, we were plugged into 15amp service at a church (we often only have 15amp or 20amp avilibility), as usual, no issues. Last night, we boondocked at a Cracker Barrel, running the generator all night and most of the day today. Pulled into a full hookups campground around 3pm today, turned off major AC draws, turned off generator, plugged into 30amp service, waited for Surgeguard to finish 130sec analyzing, turned in A/C units and began “camping”.

About 2 hours into “camping”, we lost power. Never had 30amp breakers trip before.

I walked out to the pedestal, noticed that it was odd that these breakers didn’t appear tripped. I turned the 30amp off, then back on. After the 130sec Surgeguard analysis, still no power.

We’ve had our freedom 458 inverter throw fault codes in the past that basically required me disconnecting the lead from the battery, and then reconnecting in order to reset. Did that thinking it would fix it... It didn’t.

No shore power at this point.

Tried switching to the 50amp breaker instead, no go.

With multimeter, confirmed power output of my Surgeguard, confirmed power at output of my shore cable, all good.

Tried the generator, full power!

Again, generator provides full power to all circuits!

A plethora of trial and error attempts ensue, still stuck, with all my research pointing to bad transfer switch.

Sorry for the long story, but my main questions revolve around testing the transfer switches:
- I have two switches/relays that I can see, both actuate with generator power, multimeter shows voltage on both sides of both switches. is this correct?
- neither actuates with shore power, and neither side of either switch has power. Am I correct in assuming that there should at least be power on one side of one of the switches?
- does shore power come to transfer switch before inverter?
- some people say that the switch gets stuck/fused in one position, but my two move freely and don’t appear burned.

Any ideas?

[mar000]

Do you have a photo of the insides of the transfer switch?

[Clhuggins]

Sorry, no, I just closed everything up. It’s buried behind my 120v breakers and 12v fuse panels. It took me a while to take it all apart and put it back together. I started to take a pic, but it’s such a jumbled mess in there, hardly anything would be discernible.

I did check all connections and they were tightens good. No evidence of burning or melted connections on the switches.

[mar000]

Is there a brand and model number that you can see.

[Clhuggins]

I can’t read what’s written on the switches. The labels are buried in wires.

The panel box says powertech.

[Toribk]

Do you have a 30 amp resettable breaker on the inverter?

[Clhuggins]

There’s a 25 amp pushbutton breaker on the inverter, but when I push it nothing happens.

[Clhuggins]

Sorry, there are two breakers on the inverter for the two circuits feeding the house power. Those have been reset. However, again, full power is provided while generator is running.

[Toribk]

Does both pedestal power and generator power run through your transfer switch?

[n5979u]

On my 2001 39z I have a 30 amp button in my wet bag that I can reset. (PUSH BUTTON) Might check.

[Toribk]

Clhuggins,

I re-read your post and you said you have power on both the generator leads AND the shorepower leads on the AC outputs with just the generator running?

The transfer switch (contactors) should only contract (close) on one or the other.

[Clhuggins]

That’s what I was wondering. The left one was 120v, and the right one was 109v.

New progression, after putting everything back together, I have limited power from my generator. I’m starting to disassemble it again now.

It’s odd cause I’ve got some power, microwave, over head fluorescent, galley outlets. But, none of the stuff going to my breakers are working. Ac units, bathroom outlets, etc.

[Toribk]

If you have the plug-in Surgeguard, remove it from the equation and plug directly to the pedestal.....if you haven't tried that yet.

[n5979u]

Originally Posted by n5979u

On my 2001 39z I have a 30 amp button in my wet bag that I can reset. (PUSH BUTTON) Might check.

Wet bay