Lightning Strike, what now?

[Pianotuna]

Check the reverse polarity fuse on the converter. If blown replace fuses. If not blown, check for voltage to the converter, then check voltage coming from converter.


Check the fridge by plugging it in directly to shore power. Make sure the batteries are charged (use the charger as you have). If it runs, great. If not check the circuit board and sniff to see if the magic blue smoke has been let out.


Check the water heater, furnace and all other appliances.


Best of luck with this problem.

[Grapehound]

The odd thing about lightning strikes is that they can strike a number of nearby objects at once. The power surge does not have to travel up your power cable. The lightning which destroyed the nearby power pole might have also struck your roof antenna or run through the ground and jumped up to your trailer hitch and grounding system. You just don't know what was affected until you check everything to see what still works.

Please check your circuit breakers and fuses for each appliance in case some things don't work merely because the power surge tripped the breakers. You don't need to replace a whole appliance merely becasue the ciurcuit breaker for that appliance is flipped and you forgot to check it.

Check any GFI circuits (110 must be plugged in to check) in case they are tripped. Use a simple 110 v. power sensor to check each 110v. outlet.

The guys on the forum give good advice to help you. Just work on one item at a time and at least determine what's not working and then eliminate the simplest and most obvious possibilties like tripped cuircuit breakers before you start replacing whole systems.

Larry

[Larrikin]

A surge protector cannot protect against a lightning strike.

You have a claim against your comprehensive coverage on your RV insurance policy so you need to go on record with them immediately. They will begin the adjustment process with you and you will need detailed records of the damage that you can identify at this point. And remember, the adjuster works for the insurer, so you may want to get and pay for a second opinion on all your costs from the best repair shop you can find.

[cavie]

Take this one step at a time. Troubleshooting 101. Start at the circuit breaker box with a voltmeter. Look for a breaker labeled "Converter". See it has 120 volts output. If not turn the breaker hard off then hard on. Recheck voltage. Check for 120 volts on the main 30 amp breaker. I am assuming 30 amp service here. If voltage, go see if you have 120 volts to the input of the converter. If yes, check the output voltage of the converter. It should be 12 volts DC. If not check the "Reverse Polarity fuses". Also, find the master inline resettable fuse that should be within 6' of the battery. As stated above 12 volts DC is the control voltage for most of your appliances whether they be gas or electric. Microwave is about the only thing that is total 120 volt electric. Let us know what you find. Anyone with a voltmeter and a little electric knowledge can do these things. Even a lowly electrician.

[RonA]

But my motorhome was totaled.

[LifeSalt]

A typical lightning flash is about 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps. In comparison, household current is 120 Volts and 15 Amps.

That's a tad more than what I would call a power surge. No surge protector is going to prevent against a lightening strike. Don't waste time calling the manufacturer about a warranty.

I would bring it in to save alot of stress. You may have electrical gremlins everywhere including fried boards. If not, you may come in at under $3500, and I would count my blessings.

Around here, lightening struck a satellite dish, followed the cable to a cabin, blowing out dirt along the way, and burned the cabin down.

Good luck.....

[DHE]

Sorry for this incident for sure for you. Like death, lightening is not a respecter of anything or anyone. Hope things work out well for you. Rev. Dr. Derald H. Edwards.

[Pault01]

The refrigerator, furnace, and ac all have 12 volt control circuit cards. Open the outside refrigerator vent to find yours. Very sensitive. Can’t tell you how to test it. They are available at Amazon.

[simplecamper]

Originally Posted by salbers12

With any electrical trauma like yours, the only safe solution is to hire a CERTIFIED electrician to assess all the damage because many latent problems can exist even though some equipment works. He will write up a report which you can use for claims purposes and may be hired to put the electrical system right. Additionally, each appliance needs to be inspected by a CERTIFIED technician to assess and repair the damage that is beyond general electrical knowledge. There is a good possibility that your isolator was defective or not hooked up properly. Your electrician will verify that your replacement isolator works properly. RV boneyards claim thousands of cadavers caused by defective electrics.

Absolutely. This is a very dangerous situation I would not connect anything electrical at all. I worked in HVAC and electrical residential and commercial so I do have knowledge and experience.


Also first thing is to contact your insurance company they will tell you how to handle everything and who they want you to contact for repairs. You start anything on your own and they can deny your claim.

Good luck. It is best for and RV to disconnected from power during lightening storms.

In the future should things appear to not be working just unplug and leave RV unpowered until inserted by licensed electrician or what ever the insurance company tells you.

BTW damage from lightening can result in great harm if power is applied, not something to fool around with.

[Nowabeachbum]

I owned a house that was hit twice by “near hit” lightening strikes and the things and how they were damaged borders on the bizarre. After the first hit, I had a whole house surge system installed. And let me say at no point did insurance from the “whole home” system pay anything. Lightening can jump anything, go through anything, grounds, cable, rebar in concrete, so you are on your own. You may or may not use up the $3500. but insurance is the only relief. Sorry, I feel your pain. I ended up installing lightening rods in the house, so depending on your location and the frequency of lightening strikes, you might want to consider it for the new house.

[motojavaphil]

If you have an inverter check it to see if there are any circuit breakers on it. Could be they were tripped. Also look at Youtube, RV Refrigerators not working, to show where to place a magnet on the refrigerator. That access should be from the outside. Good luck.

[SSG Scott]

Your refrigerator in your camper/Rv uses 12 volts to run the logic board that controls it. If your 12 volt battery is run down or dead and the 120v to 12 volt power converter is not producing power to run everything then things like your lights, water pump, refrigerator, furnace fan blower, electronic cable TV switcher, carbon monoxide/propane detector also quit working.

Get your batteries tested to see if they are good. Find out if your 120v to 12 volt power converter is getting power and is still functioning (possibly not). This will make most all of those problems disappear.

-Scott

Originally Posted by thecityman

So, last week a huge bolt of lighting hit a utility pole about 100 feet from my camper. It completely destroyed the pole (literally cut it in half). Well, apparently it followed the electric or cable wire into my camper. And yes, I had one of those surge protectors plugged into my electric source at the plug, and my camper was plugged into it. Apparently it didn't help.

Please understand that I'm a white collar guy who is absolutely ashamed at how little knowledge I have about the mechanical things on my camper- none at all really and I'm sorry for that.

Here is what I know. After the lightening strike,several things don't work. My cable tv distribution went out. The cable running to my camper is still good, and so are my components (tv, modem, etc). I can stick the cable wire through the window and hook my tv to it and it works. But if I hook the cable up on the side of the camper where you are supposed to, the cable outlets in the camper don't work. This is so strange to me. I assummed the cable connections inside my camper were just direct wires and a splitter. Is there an electrical component involved in the cable tv outlets in my camper?

#2) My refrigerator stopped working. Obviously this is the most important problem. What really kills me about this is that my fridge is suppossed to work on electric OR on Gas. Niether one will work now.

The lights in my camper work but the batter no longer charges. Let me explain.....I leave my camper plugged in all the time. However, the overhead lights are all 12 volts. So when things worked properly, I supposse there is some kind of battery charger that used the 110 electric to charge the battery and then my lights ran off the battery. So my lights worked several days after the lightening strike but then slowly went dead. I hooked a 12 volt battery charger up overnight and my lights work again, but of course will go dead again now.

I did have one fuse in my 12 volt fuse box that blew, but I replaced it and it didn't fix any of the above problems. I've checked all fuses.
None of my 5 110 circuit breakers triped. I have flipped them off and back on just to be sure.

I don't know if my fridge worked off my battery the way my lights do. But if so, I don't understand why it won't work when I recharge the battery using my battery charger.

My 110 volt plugs work. Everything else seems to work.

My big deal is my fridge, then the fact that my battery won't stay charged to run my overhead lights, then there is my cable outlets.

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on? I seriously doubt I can fix it, but perhaps there is a fuse I don't know about or a reset or something????

I have a 23 foot Highland Ridge trailer. It is a 2019 model.

Any help or insight would be appreciated Sooooo much! Thank-you fellow camper owners!

[That Judy]

Unfortunately Old Biscuit is out of commission for a while with surgery. Good luck!

[RandyKoth]

I'm sorry about your experience. The surge may not have come entirely thru the surge protector. And it may have worked as expected. Regardless you have to do one of two things to continue being protected. Send it back to the factory for inspection or replace it outright.

Second, you say that the cable connection at the trailer and the splitter doesn't' work is likely that the lightning came in through it as well. So don't be surprised that things that are working now quit working days or weeks later (modem, TV etc.).

The fridge has electronics in it that operate it. They are dead. Water heater does too.

This is something that you can't resolve on your own. You will have to seek out a repair facility. But keep on top of them and don't let them put your job on the back burner once the work gets started.

Good luck!