Community Forums

Lkraus3 · 02-23-2011, 02:24 PM

Hello vintage RV'ers.

I am dry camping in the hospital parking lot again this week!! Yesterday afternoon I turned on the generator so I would have power to my outlets and charge my batteries. The generator fired up just fine, however there is no electricity to the outlets or microwave. There is no outlet that needs to be plugged in from the coach, that I can find. I checked all of the breakers. I looked on the generator and I can't find any kind of switch.

Any ideas?? We have an 83 pace arrow. I have battery left, but I am so frustrated because I can't figure out why the generator isn't powering the coach!!
Of note, Jim did turn on the generator friday night and used the microwave. It worked fine. On Sat we went to an RV park and plugged into power. Now it isn't working.

Any ideas/help is appreciated, I have 5 more nights here and I would like to have generator power in the mornings!!

Lori

ksg5000 · 02-23-2011, 02:54 PM

Generator might have fuse/breaker thrown - probably located on the generator. Also - your may have a stuck automatic transfer switch (switch which selects either shore power or generator power and prevents both from being on at the same time).

I am unfamiliar with your rig - posting the brand and model number of your generator may help someone give specific advice as to where the fuse/breaker for that generator might be located.

Rigs that don't use automatic transfer switches sometimes require you to plug in your shore power cable into a receptacle often located in the compartment where the cable is stored in order to utilize the generator power - not sure whether that applies to your rig or not.

meteor · 02-23-2011, 02:55 PM

my 1991 mallard has a breaker right on the gen set, maybe it is tripped

pkmesser · 02-23-2011, 03:02 PM

Lori;
We had an 83 Pace Arrow, several rigs back, and it DID have a cable switch over. So if your husband switched it to shore power before, and he's gone now, you probably need to check on that. It was a plugin for a 30 amp connector in the cable compartment. The shore power cable plugged into that outlet.

As further explanation, the shore power cable is plugged into shore power when you have it available, but when you don't, you coil up the cable, and leave enough slack to plug into that generator outlet in the same compartment. When we were traveling, as part of the getting ready to travel, that cable had to be moved, and vice versa when stopped at a campground with power. Actually not a big thing.
When we got the next rig, it had auto switchover, and for a long time, I always wondered, did it make a complete switchover?

JimElliott · 02-23-2011, 04:13 PM

On my 83 Itasca I have 2 breakers on the genny which popped, Simply reset them and all is well.

Jim

pkmesser · 02-23-2011, 05:16 PM

Lori, I had posted about connecting the power the power cable to the outlet on the inside, but happened to think, if you are by yourself, and new to the rig, you might not know where it is.

On the 83 we had, a 31 ft. rig, at the back on the driver's side down low, there was a small compartment door, it is about 8"-10" square with a keyed latch. At the bottom of that door, is a an opening with a plug for the door to be closed but the plug removed to allow the cable to come through when connected to shore power. If it is locked, it should be the same key as all of the other outside compartments, If you have the original keys, it would be a smaller key with a round head. Open it up, and you should find the shore cable. As I remember, on the left hand side of that compartment, on the wall there will be a silver electrical box with a plugin that is the same as a normal outlet at a campground. Your cable should plug into that, and if it is not plugged in, do so, and then you should be ok. If it is already plugged in, follow the other advice for re-setting the breakers. but I believe you will find you are not plugged in. If you and husband are new to the rig, it is something easy to forget to do when moving. Friends with a 34 ft 85 model had the same arrangement, so I think all of them in that general time frame were simular.

Lkraus3 · 02-23-2011, 08:56 PM

I am at work right now, but will look tomorrow and post the kind of generator that it is. I will try to take a photo and see if I can get it up too.
Thanks

Lkraus3 · 02-23-2011, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksg5000

Generator might have fuse/breaker thrown - probably located on the generator. Also - your may have a stuck automatic transfer switch (switch which selects either shore power or generator power and prevents both from being on at the same time).

I am unfamiliar with your rig - posting the brand and model number of your generator may help someone give specific advice as to where the fuse/breaker for that generator might be located.

Rigs that don't use automatic transfer switches sometimes require you to plug in your shore power cable into a receptacle often located in the compartment where the cable is stored in order to utilize the generator power - not sure whether that applies to your rig or not.

I looked last night when this happened and I didn't see any kind of rectacle in the cable compartment.

Will look tomorrow and post type of generator.

Lkraus3 · 02-23-2011, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meteor

my 1991 mallard has a breaker right on the gen set, maybe it is tripped

I looked on the generator and didn't see any kind of switch or breaker.

Lkraus3 · 02-23-2011, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkmesser

Lori, I had posted about connecting the power the power cable to the outlet on the inside, but happened to think, if you are by yourself, and new to the rig, you might not know where it is.

On the 83 we had, a 31 ft. rig, at the back on the driver's side down low, there was a small compartment door, it is about 8"-10" square with a keyed latch. At the bottom of that door, is a an opening with a plug for the door to be closed but the plug removed to allow the cable to come through when connected to shore power. If it is locked, it should be the same key as all of the other outside compartments, If you have the original keys, it would be a smaller key with a round head. Open it up, and you should find the shore cable. As I remember, on the left hand side of that compartment, on the wall there will be a silver electrical box with a plugin that is the same as a normal outlet at a campground. Your cable should plug into that, and if it is not plugged in, do so, and then you should be ok. If it is already plugged in, follow the other advice for re-setting the breakers. but I believe you will find you are not plugged in. If you and husband are new to the rig, it is something easy to forget to do when moving. Friends with a 34 ft 85 model had the same arrangement, so I think all of them in that general time frame were simular.

I actually looked in that door yesterday to see if there was some sort of box to plug into. I took the entire cord out and looked and didn't see anything in there that I could plug into. I am also the one that removed the cord when we plugged in at the campground on Sat afternoon. I didn't unplug it from any outlet box. I am going to look again tomorrow. I also re set all of the breakers in the coach, just in case any of the had popped. The only thing I didn't do was reset the GFI in the bathroom. I am not sure if that would turn off power to the entire coach without popping a main breaker. I am going to reset that tomorrow and try to power up again. I can't do it at night because I don't get off of work till late and I don't want to bother any of the neighbors.

This is so frustrating for me, I can think the problem through but I am not sure where to look to find/fix the problems!!

Thanks!!

Midniteoyl · 02-23-2011, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkmesser

Lori, I had posted about connecting the power the power cable to the outlet on the inside, but happened to think, if you are by yourself, and new to the rig, you might not know where it is.

On the 83 we had, a 31 ft. rig, at the back on the driver's side down low, there was a small compartment door, it is about 8"-10" square with a keyed latch. At the bottom of that door, is a an opening with a plug for the door to be closed but the plug removed to allow the cable to come through when connected to shore power. If it is locked, it should be the same key as all of the other outside compartments, If you have the original keys, it would be a smaller key with a round head. Open it up, and you should find the shore cable. As I remember, on the left hand side of that compartment, on the wall there will be a silver electrical box with a plugin that is the same as a normal outlet at a campground. Your cable should plug into that, and if it is not plugged in, do so, and then you should be ok. If it is already plugged in, follow the other advice for re-setting the breakers. but I believe you will find you are not plugged in. If you and husband are new to the rig, it is something easy to forget to do when moving. Friends with a 34 ft 85 model had the same arrangement, so I think all of them in that general time frame were simular.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkmesser

Lori;
We had an 83 Pace Arrow, several rigs back, and it DID have a cable switch over. So if your husband switched it to shore power before, and he's gone now, you probably need to check on that. It was a plugin for a 30 amp connector in the cable compartment. The shore power cable plugged into that outlet.

As further explanation, the shore power cable is plugged into shore power when you have it available, but when you don't, you coil up the cable, and leave enough slack to plug into that generator outlet in the same compartment. When we were traveling, as part of the getting ready to travel, that cable had to be moved, and vice versa when stopped at a campground with power. Actually not a big thing.
When we got the next rig, it had auto switchover, and for a long time, I always wondered, did it make a complete switchover?

Agreed... same exact setup on my '89 SunVista

pkmesser · 02-23-2011, 11:01 PM

If you are not finding a plugin and you say you did not unplug the cable when you were at the campground, then in all likihood, the coach has had an autotransfer switch installed, and the generator cable would have been ran to that, rather than an outlet. I am pretty certain that the coach did not come with one originally, because I knew of several Pace Arrows from that time frame that had the plugin approach. I don't even think the autotransfer switchs were available.

If it has the autotransfer switch now, it has probably failed. However, it probably uses 12 volt power to drive the switch. Look for any failed 12 volt fuses that are unmarked, or alternately marked for something resembling an autotransfer switch.

This is probably as much help as I can give you, but for others on the forum trying to assist, my Pace Arrow had a 4KW Onan, don't remember the model number though.

One thing you might try, if you are close enough to a building, run an extension cord to 110 and see what happens. (don't try running a microwave, etc, just enough to see if you have power that way, and maybe charge your batteries some). If you have an auto transfer, and it's gotten confused, this might help there also. Also, there may be a normal 110 outlet on the generator panel that you could plug into. Some gensets have them.