2016 DS 4369 Stumped by Electrical Problem :-(

[flyingcash]

Originally Posted by TandW

Not the first punch-down outlet that has been wired in such fashion. How is polarity handled/assured on the RV factory floor? How is this superior to a wire looped around a screw and torqued down?

I also agree how this type of outlet could be better than an outlet that has screws where you loop the wire around....way more contact between the wire and outlet.

Cheers,

Curt

[wheelsturnin]

I'm not an electrician but I have done wiring. Panels and houses. It sounds as though all your receptacles are on the same run. I would contact Newmar and have them email your wiring schematic for your coach, their customer service has always helped me with any problem or question I've had with my coach. You should have a breaker in the houise panel assigned to the run. Is it a GFI. Then work your way down the run checking each GFI and connections. One bad connection can ruin your whole day.



Best of luck. I usually find I already discovered the problem I just didn't recognize what I was seeing. Experience is everything.

[GregSib]

Do you have a pure sine wave inverter?

[nehog]

Do confirm your inverter system is working OK. All our GFCI outlets inside are connected to the inverter fed circuits.

[flyingcash]

Originally Posted by wheelsturnin

I'm not an electrician but I have done wiring. Panels and houses. It sounds as though all your receptacles are on the same run. I would contact Newmar and have them email your wiring schematic for your coach, their customer service has always helped me with any problem or question I've had with my coach. You should have a breaker in the houise panel assigned to the run. Is it a GFI. Then work your way down the run checking each GFI and connections. One bad connection can ruin your whole day.



Best of luck. I usually find I already discovered the problem I just didn't recognize what I was seeing. Experience is everything.

Take a look at post #23 and it will explain what I found

[MAXFLIDW]

Originally Posted by flyingcash

I am pretty good about trouble shooting things, but, this one has me stumped on our 2016 DS 4369 on a FL chassis.

Please read my post completely so I can zero in on something that I do not know or have not checked :-)

We have lost the 120V power on several GFI protected outlets- half bath next to the toilet, the outlets around our bed and the outlets in the full bath...all of these are connected to a GFI somewhere but I can't find where that would be.

I have checked and reset all the GFI's that I can find and they all have the green LED showing they are ok.

The GFI's that I know of are above the kitchen sink, in the 1/2 bath medicine cabinet and outside in the basement tool bay. I have also checked and reset all the 120 V circuit breakers in the circuit breaker panel in the 1/2 bath.

Any ideas would be very appreciated !!! Happy Holidays !!!

Cheers,

Curt

I have a 2016 Dutch Star myself. Check the medicine cabinet in the half bath. I had the same issue and the GFI is on the inside left near the bottom of the cabinet.

Good luck,
Don

[flyingcash]

Originally Posted by nehog

Do confirm your inverter system is working OK. All our GFCI outlets inside are connected to the inverter fed circuits.

Take a look at post #23 and it will explain what I found

[djh77]

Safest solution for useless punch down receptacles is replacing with shallow metal boxes. I have discovered melted plastic boxes in various TT's and RV's. No wonder RV's burn.

[lijbs]

Someone nailed this in an earlier response stating these RV's are our homes or homes away from homes......No local electrical codes would approve of these type of devices so why are they accepted by RVIA?

Since they are the ones certifying most of our units I would like them to weigh in on this.

[Steve 716]

I owned a Bounder with wiring below the lift up bed. Power was intermittent on the driver side. It turned out that every time I extended or retracted the bed slide it was scraping against two power wires and causing intermittent contact. It took a week to trace my problems to these wires. Being intermittent didn’t help. Each power wire ran to a waterproof coupler screwed onto the side wall of my bed frame with the other side running through the coupler to my outlets. One coupler interior showed signs of burning. I replaced these with a smaller and stronger version and cut back and reinstalled the wires after rerouting them. It fixed the problem. If you haven’t taken a look under your bed grab a flashlight and an AC meter and take a look.

[Wagtail]

It's interesting to hear about so many GFI's in your coaches. You only need one for each individual power run. If you have more than one on an individual power run, your manufacturer was wrong to do so. Multiple GFI's can interfere with each other. You might want to get the schematics and verify that each GFI on your coach is really needed. Also, GFI's are notorious for looking good but not working. The light on the GFI doesn't always tell you that it is working correctly (not tripped). Cheers.

[flyingcash]

Originally Posted by Wagtail

It's interesting to hear about so many GFI's in your coaches. You only need one for each individual power run. If you have more than one on an individual power run, your manufacturer was wrong to do so. Multiple GFI's can interfere with each other. You might want to get the schematics and verify that each GFI on your coach is really needed. Also, GFI's are notorious for looking good but not working. The light on the GFI doesn't always tell you that it is working correctly (not tripped). Cheers.

Yes, it is terrible how they have wired these coaches....we live in them !!! and the wiring should be as solid and safe as in a house...not so in the real world and it is really sad :-(

[Vickie 4369]

Originally Posted by flyingcash

Ok, found the problem !!! I decided to look at the first bad non-GFI outlet in the 1/2 bath.

I pulled it out of the wall and found that the wires in the outlet had popped out of their connection clips...what a cheap way do do this !!!

This would never pass code in a house and to bad this type of outlet is being used in our RV's. Looks like the outlet got hot at somepoint and the insulation started to melt and the wires popped out. I just did a temp fix until I find a better replacement outlet.

Thanks for all your input and help !!! Hopefully, finding what caused this will help someone else trouble shoot a problem they might have.

Merry Christmas everyone...this is such a great group, people helping people :-) Cheers, Curt

Scary stuff, but there is suppose to be a back cover on that receptacle that locks those wires in place.

[RTARDIS]

In my 2017 DS 4369, there is a GFI in the 1/2 bath cabinet above the sink that controls the basement, bedroom and bath receptacles. The receptacle in the half bath next to the flush control went bad. When I replaced that one receptacle all the others following on the daisy chain worked.