Seeking Assistance with Wilderness Electrical Issue

[Persistent]

If you took the outlet out and you did not put the same one back in, you should use a GFI for the replacement. Arc fault capability can reduce possibility of fire when loose wires happen. People who have them are often annoyed when they interrupt their power. People who don't have them complain about the recovery time when their power is not interrupted soon enough.

Wheel spoke wiring is a valid wiring method. Electricians usually try to reduce the amount of copper cable and avoid the need for large junction boxes. Daisy chaining often satisfies those needs.

High current devices are usually wired directly to the service entrance. So water heater, microwave, A/C, and electric heaters are usually wired one per breaker.

[Persistent]

This add popped up on iRV2 a moment ago:

CLT600: Advanced Cable Locator and Tracer Kit | Extech Instruments

[rgvtexan]

Harbor freight has a wire tracer for <$25

"A new shore power pole was just installed so I have no reason to suspect the power source as the problem"

If new power was recently installed I would start there, it is easy to get it reversed wired.

When you check the outlets, if it is in the middle of the romex, they are daisy chained.
If the wire ends at the outlet, it is either the last one in the chain, or they are home run (spoke) wired.

[FE1995]

Originally Posted by twinboat

You will read 120 volts between hot and ground. They are connected at the main power source, in your house.

That's what I should be reading. However I am reading that between neutral and ground which indicates the neutral wire is somehow getting power. This would be explained by something being reverse wired as the hot is now attached directly to the neutral side. Or it could be that there is an open on the neutral and, without current flowing, would read 120 volts if there is something plugged in and powered on (thus creating a connection between the hot and neutral side but, without a closed circuit, no current flowing).

[FE1995]

Originally Posted by Persistent

If you took the outlet out and you did not put the same one back in, you should use a GFI for the replacement. Arc fault capability can reduce possibility of fire when loose wires happen. People who have them are often annoyed when they interrupt their power. People who don't have them complain about the recovery time when their power is not interrupted soon enough.

With one exception I didn't disconnect any of the outlets. The one I did "disconnect" I did so because I damaged it while learning how to open it. That said I may replace them with GFI outlets. Do they offer them in the Quick Box model? While I am not a big fan of the Quick Box outlets they do have a convenient way to mount them to the trailer wall.

Originally Posted by Persistent

Wheel spoke wiring is a valid wiring method. Electricians usually try to reduce the amount of copper cable and avoid the need for large junction boxes. Daisy chaining often satisfies those needs.

High current devices are usually wired directly to the service entrance. So water heater, microwave, A/C, and electric heaters are usually wired one per breaker.

The microwave is wired on the problematic circuit (it and the outlet it plugs into has been ruled out not to be the problem). The heater is propane and thus only needs the 12 volt system for operation. A/C sounds like it's on its own circuit.

One thing I find interesting is this one breaker supports the following:

• One socket on the left hand side.
• Two lamps on the left side
• One socket which supplies power to the 120 volt to 12 volt converter
• Three outlets on the right hand side (including the microwave)
• One outside outlet on the right hand side

Left / right side are wrt facing the front (hitch) of the fifth wheel from inside. As far as I can tell the "D" breaker appears to support only a couple of outlets (though I did not look for more as this circuit appears to be operating correctly). It just seems odd the "C" breaker supports, relatively speaking, more "devices" than the "D" breaker.

[FE1995]

Originally Posted by rgvtexan

Harbor freight has a wire tracer for <$25

"A new shore power pole was just installed so I have no reason to suspect the power source as the problem"

If new power was recently installed I would start there, it is easy to get it reversed wired.

When you check the outlets, if it is in the middle of the romex, they are daisy chained.
If the wire ends at the outlet, it is either the last one in the chain, or they are home run (spoke) wired.

At this point I have no reason to suspect an issue with the shore power wiring but it's worth checking out.

I believe if it was inadvertently reversed things should still function. Correctly "polarity" for an AC circuit is more a safety concern than an operational one. I would also think it would affect all the breakers and not a single one.

[Tajfish]

Where is the breaker panel located, is there a cabinet or storage behind it? Look for a fake wall panel behind there. I have owned several different types of rv’s and this is a common practice. Good luck