Community Forums

goitalone · 09-03-2012, 08:11 PM

The breaker/power converter box completely stops buzzing and the 12v lighting goes out simultaneously in the front part of the RV. Not sure about the rear lighting since it has been awhile since I messed with it since I got so disgusted with the thing.

This problem happens out of the blue at any given time and turns back on the same way it shuts off.

The outlets and A/C both seem to work fine.

Also, I was just kept repeatedly getting shocked (not a static shock) by door every time I tried to touch it. I had no shoes on, but I have been in there before without wearing shoes and never got shocked.

The lock shocked me, and the door itself did as well.

Anyone have ideas on what might be going on?

nightriderrv · 09-03-2012, 08:31 PM

Is it a WFCO converter by chance if the 12V shuts off in the front almost bet the back is off too. Have you done any work on the unit and were using screws, plug it up and where your shoes so you are not grounded and test the plugs with a plug tester with the 3 lights on it, test where you have it pluged in at also. see what the reading is let us know

TQ60 · 09-03-2012, 10:34 PM

Unplug IT NOW!!!!!

Your safety ground is not connected, should be popping a breaker.

THIS CAN KILL YOU!!!!

get a meter and look for short circuit AFTER YOU GET THE GROUND FIXED

mgscott4 · 09-04-2012, 05:31 AM

I agree, turn it off now.

IMO every MH owner should check all of the ground and neutral wires in the main breaker panel once a year. Most MH builders use solid wire not stranded and is suseptable to loosening due to vibration. It is easy to do, with the power disconnected and inverter off, remove the front cover of the breaker panel. All of the neutrals are one bus bar and all of the ground wires are on another bus bar, usually just a flat blade screwdriver and tighten all of the set screws. You can also checked the tightness of the black wires on the bottom of each of the circuit breakers.

The transfer switch and converter should also be checked.

BCooke · 09-04-2012, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TQ60

Unplug IT NOW!!!!!

Your safety ground is not connected, should be popping a breaker.

THIS CAN KILL YOU!!!!

get a meter and look for short circuit AFTER YOU GET THE GROUND FIXED

Neutral could be the main problem as it is looking for a alternate return path, get the electrical gone over!

TQ60 · 09-04-2012, 01:57 PM

Measure things.

It could be the shock you are feeling is leakage from a switch mode supply, converter or inverter may do this.

You may NOT have a short from a live wire to the chassis, but you may have some leakage from a device to the chassis which may be normal.

The GREEN safety ground connects the chassis to earth ground so any such leakage is shorted to ground so you do not get the shock.

Here are a list of tests, if one fails, fix before going to the next one.

1. OHM out the connections from the shore line, the safety ground should be connected to the chassis, so it should read very low.

2. Turn off all of the breakers on the AC panel and check from the white and black wires to the chassis, there should be no connection, should read very high ohms if any.

If the white reads low then open the panel and check to see if the white and green are connected, they should NOT be.

3. Connect the ohm meter between the green (safety ground) and black (hot) wires on the shore line. (if 50 amp do each HOT one at a time).

Have a helper watch the meter, or check it as you turn on each breaker one at a time, if there is a short the breaker will control it, IE it will read low when breaker turned on.

4. connect shore line and measure voltage from chassis to ground, should be zero.

This is enough for now...got to go.

goitalone · 09-14-2012, 11:16 AM

Had a friend who is a residential electrician come over and read your replies and to see if he might have any ideas, but he didn't have his tester with him, so after he left I decided to...

...pull the panel off of the converter/battery charger/breaker box. I looked inside of the bottom part under the breakers and saw a black fan that wasn't running and I noticed that it was pretty darn hot in there especially around the loud buzzing transformer looking thing.

Could it be that the fan not running is causing too much heat to build up around the transformer thing and shutting down to to overheating and then somehow killing power to the breaker?

Because I found that when I turn off the blue 15 amp breaker on the
green 30 amp/blue 15 amp main breaker combo, that it is that breaker that cuts the lights and also the fairly loud buzzing noise stops as well.

wa8yxm · 09-14-2012, 06:14 PM

On the door of the power panel, more than likely, is a label that gives a make and model?

For some of the questions knowing the make and model would help us.

For the shocking part of the post: I will echo the "Get it fixed now" folks . That is a dangerous condition, This is one where I will recommend you get professional help unless you are comfortable working on electrical circuits,

Mikeeg · 09-25-2012, 07:55 AM

Shut it down and check your EXT. cord ground as that is your only means of grounding that coach. I had the shock problem a few yrs. ago , everytime I touched the door lock or handle and touched the rail of coach steel Coachport I got shocked BAD EXT. CORD GROUND or BAD GFI if your plug into one. Check and fix right away as could be very dangerous

.

Tony Lee · 09-25-2012, 08:08 AM

Seems a bit dangerous trying to coach a complete novice in fault-finding a potentially lethal situation.

And that is about as mildly as I can express it.

Mikeeg · 09-25-2012, 08:50 AM

No coaching just informing him to get it straightened out ASAP!!! thats all.

Bigd9 · 09-25-2012, 11:11 AM

We were all novices at one point in our lives. I wonder how many of us would fess up to having at least one screwdriver with electrical burn marks on it?

Just call me "Old Sparky"

terry735001 · 09-25-2012, 02:10 PM

ok ok soler inverter is my thing its your Neutral to ground you installed or work on the 110 some where that has the neutral to hot back words or your auto transfer is not working right any more you well have a fire if not fix try to unplug any thing new like a tv or any thing like that and see if it still shocks you a lot of ppl dont know when you are running your inverter and not on shor cord your have to have neutral to grond or you well have a fire all so when your gen is running any one else having the shocking when touching the rv from out side should look up neutral to ground

Getintuit · 11-15-2012, 06:09 PM

hi
i am an electrician ma lisence
i am also a newbie (REAL NEW). i just got a 92 pinnacle in oct this year yeah real new newbie LOL. anyway i also9 got a shock from the door more of a tingle
after exploring i found the converter grounds yes 2 of them are totally coroded and. loose. this could also be your problem where as you said the covewrter was shuting down intermitanly . follow the grounds fromthe conveter to the grounding point ,probably the frame near by and see. in my case the shock was a 12 volt dc shock feels much differant than a line voltage shock . to me anyway . i have had quite a few over the years good luck
ps. the worse shock i ever got in my life was from a car battery as a kid
disconconect all live circuits while working on them!!!!!!!
have fun & good luck
Gary