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alank · 10-20-2022, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdibbxsh

All 4 wires *black, red, white and green) arrive in one 1" conduit.

Thank you

I'm sorry to disagree, but the picture is good enough to say that the 4 wires you mention above do not all arrive in the same 1" conduit in the center bottom of the box. Sme of the information you are giving doesn't match the picture you provided.

I'm not familiar with this box, just going by the picture and it appears that one 120V leg should be connected to the heavy lug top left, and by the visible metal plate, provides power to breaker slots 1, 3, & 5.
The other 120V leg should be connected to the heavy leg on the right and supplies power from the back side to breaker slots 2, 4, & 6.

The 2 pole breaker is back feeding the remaining 4 breaker slots and is being used as a cut off switch for the panel. That 2 pole breaker is also being fed from wires coming in from 2 different locations in the box as has been mentioned by others.

There is a white wire (normally considered a neutral) connected to the right heavy 120V lug and this wire goes down to a red wire nut, that doesn't appear to have any other wire coming out. I suspect if the wire nut is removed, you'll find 120V.

My guess would be that this box was originally used as a 120V box with one leg coming in and connected to both heavy lug screws so they could have six breakers for circuits. Then at some later point it was jockeyed around to its current configuration (possibly many configurations) with a second leg being added to get more power into the box.

My bottom line is to get the box cleaned up and wired properly. You're just going to continue dealing with trouble the way it is.

bigb56 · 10-20-2022, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alank

I'm not familiar with this box, just going by the picture and it appears that one 120V leg should be connected to the heavy lug top left, and by the visible metal plate, provides power to breaker slots 1, 3, & 5.
The other 120V leg should be connected to the heavy leg on the right and supplies power from the back side to breaker slots 2, 4, & 6.

.

NO! Please read my post #26 where I explain this is a common mistake with this panel due to it's design! The main lugs are top left and bottom right (you can't see the bottom right lug in the OP's pic but look at the example I posted in #26). The top right lug is the neutral lug, look close and you will see it is connected to the neutral bar running across the top.

Here's another pic of the identical panel, due to the angle you can only see the very edge of the lower right main lug (between the red arrows) and you can plainly see the top right lug is connected to the neutral bar. Also note the bracket above the left two stabs intended to be used with a retention device on a backfed main.

alank · 10-20-2022, 08:12 PM

Good picture and clears some things up. Thanks

alank · 10-20-2022, 10:03 PM

bigb56, you said there is two black wires, a white and ground coming in from the left side. Do you think those are the power wires from the house? I think that might not be the case.

The OP responded to one of my posts that the black, red, white and green came in together and you can clearly see the red, white and green, black is questionable in this picture, coming in on the bottom left. The red is feeding the buss bar through circuit breaker #4, not the main breaker. The black is questionable, but could be the wire connected to the RV breaker #3 and feeding the other buss bar. This means the main switch isn’t functioning as a main switch at all.
Waiting for a better picture, may help sort things out.

bigb56 · 10-21-2022, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alank

bigb56, you said there is two black wires, a white and ground coming in from the left side. Do you think those are the power wires from the house? I think that might not be the case.

The OP responded to one of my posts that the black, red, white and green came in together and you can clearly see the red, white and green, black is questionable in this picture, coming in on the bottom left. The red is feeding the buss bar through circuit breaker #4, not the main breaker. The black is questionable, but could be the wire connected to the RV breaker #3 and feeding the other buss bar. This means the main switch isn’t functioning as a main switch at all.
Waiting for a better picture, may help sort things out.

I gave up because it's too confusing, often it's hard to follow wires in a panel in person let alone a picture and that panel is a tangled mess. At the very least it needs to be shut down and straightened up.

jorygun · 10-23-2022, 05:33 PM

Well that was an fun way to spend an afternoon - trying to follow wires in a photo!
Anyway, I finally see it. With the panel oriented correctly the incoming feed is in the center bottom and the two outlets are left and right bottom and the RV plug is left side. Part of the confusion is OP says there the "black, red, white, and green" come in one conduit, but earlier he said they are all black and marked with tape. So that's the center. Looks like it's a bit messy (and wires too small?) but it seems to be wired correctly. The two 20A plugs are on one leg and the 30A on the other other.

I think 30A to 50A you just tie both 50A hots to the 30A and limit your draw to 30A.
I'm guessing he overloaded a breaker and when it popped a surge fried the refer board.

Brave Salmon · 10-23-2022, 09:25 PM

Those wires are not correct for 30amps, 120 or 240vac. They look like 14ga but could be 12ga. You need at least 10 gauge for 30 amps.
If those b,w, bare, wires from lower left come from sub panel, they need to be replaced. Simple advice from a RV Technician is to get a "qualified electrician" and leave the shade tree work for less deadly efforts before someone gets hurt.

gwb2020 · 10-24-2022, 04:37 PM

Already many of the responses have covered the issue.
When running on 30 amps 120v with a 50 amp 240v capacity RV, you must monitor the load very carefully. Usually, 1 A/C unit, the refrigerator and the inverter to keep the batteries charged is all that 30 amps 120v can handle. You need to keep the inverter on to charge the house batteries when you run the A/C, because the A/C unit draws some 12v along with the 120v.
You must set the incoming power to 30 amps and set the load center output to 30 amps.
To run anything else that draws a lot of power, you must turn off the A/C. For instance, you can switch between front or rear A/C, microwave oven, 120v water heater, toaster, hot water maker for coffee/tea. For a short time you can turn off the inverter in order run the toaster or hot water maker for coffee/tea. Be careful, watch your load meter on the power center, learn what each appliance draws and then act accordingly. Remember, the inverter can draw very low amps or high amps so don't max out the 30 amp total or you will have problems.

alank · 10-24-2022, 07:29 PM

I'm a real glutton for punishment when something is this challenging. I went back and re-read the posts and with some very carefull looking and imagination, I might be able to agree that the double 30A switch is wired with the two legs of 120V (black wires with color bands) and the other two black wires with color bands go to the correct places, even though you can't actually trace the neutral and ground wires visually all the way. Some of the color bands are very hard to pick out. When taking a picture like this, you need to get the focus correct and turn on the flash to illuminate the darker areas.

In one of my first posts, I mentioned that you can't run that many items on 30A plus it appears the wiring is too lite which will also affect the end voltage.

The last nail in the coffin is that every one, including me, was assuming you were turning on one roof top A/C. Somewhere someone mentioned basement A/C, as in Winnebago, then later someone said the coach was a Winnebago. Winnebago basement A/C's from those years are a large single whole coach A/C system and I would expect that A/C system to take the whole 30A plus some to operate, especially to start, leaving nothing for anything else. The owner of the coach should have known this and never tried to turn it on when plugged into a 30A service.

That's all I got.

Imlost2 · 10-25-2022, 01:21 PM

Can you take a picture from a little farther out. You can't see placement of TT30 outlet. Also with the TT30 outlet cover off showing wire connections. Looks like from your pictures you have 2 120v hots going to the TT30 outlet. Hard for everyone to get a clear picture of the situation without a clear picture

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rdibbxsh · 11-05-2022, 08:36 AM

No, not Romex. Just 4 single wires, all black, but color coded with tape on each end.

I cannot dig up the finished basement concrete floor and the foundation walls either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpine36

Yep. Looks like the whole shebang is fed with 12/2 or possibly #10 romex on a 60' run from the main panel.
I've dug up several 12/2 "direct bury" romex 12/2 services in our neighborhood. Start over if your looking for more than 15a of service from that questionable setup. I'm not a certified electrician, but I do have a NEC handbook. Try as I might, I'm not seeing this setup anywhere in there.