no power

Ok Ladies and Gents, I am new to 50A service but not new to rv'ing. We bought a new bighorn and when we took possession we brought it home and plugged into 30A with a Y adapter. two days later wife goes out to put stuff in fridge and it is beeping. flashing NO AC. ok so i go through the process of testing everything in the coach and my house power. somethings work in the coach and some don't. well then i check batteries and they are completely dead. I check the inverter and no output. WHY????? so then i figure out that the 30A is 120V and the 50A is 220V and only one phase of the breaker panel was hot......so i thought if i move the inverter breaker to the A leg it should charge right? worked for a lil while then no charge. batteries are to dead to charge with converter. they need to be charged professionally with 25A charger or higher. ok charge the batts and everything works good plugged into 50A after moving breaker back to original spot. crazy!! definitely frustrating. looking at making a cheater box so we can have 30A on both legs for the winter and then not really sure what to do in the summer when i need 50A to run dual AC's if there is not 50A in the rv park. Any suggestions?

thank you for all advice in advance

OK...there are a lot of issues that could be the problem.

Do you have a residential refrigerator (AC only) or 2 way (AC and Propane)?

Let's start with you 50amp (female) to 30amp (male) plug. This plug should provide power to both L1 and L2 on your distribution panel. If you are really only getting power to one leg, then you're plug is bad.

You need to look for one like this

Link to Amazon




Are you familiar with testing the converters output? It should be supplying 13.4v to the batteries. once you have a converter plug that works properly, you can test this on the busbar.

I also think you might have a breaker fuse popped. Look at the image below (lower/right) to see the busbar where the the breaker is located...the reset button is VERY small and will need to be pushed in to reset it.

50 amp service is not 220 volts. It is 120 volts on each leg. If you are seeing 220 volts you have lost the neutral leg. Sounds like first thing you need to do is find the manual reset breaker as previously mentioned.

jmyers1970 said:

we brought it home and plugged into 30A with a Y adapter.......... looking at making a cheater box so we can have 30A on both legs for the winter and then not really sure what to do in the summer when i need 50A to run dual AC's if there is not 50A in the rv park.

Click to expand...

As already said, your "Y adapter" appears to be powering only one leg inside the coach. So half the breakers have power and half do not.

You've already discovered that the Power Converter (120V AC --> 12V DC) was on the dead leg. So moving the breakers around should have been a workaround until you could correct the problem with your Y adapter.

But, it sounds like maybe you have something miswired in your Y adapter, and as suggested, might have put 240V into your coach instead of 120V. So it's possible you've damaged the Power Converter. Or if you're lucky, you've just tripped the manual reset 12V DC mini-circuit breaker near the battery. There's a row of little breakers covered by red rubber boots. One of them has a teeny tiny reset button on the end.

If you take a voltage reading at the battery, when plugged into shore power, you should read 13.2-13.6V DC. After pressing the reset button, that's what you should be reading. If not, you'll have to take a look at the Power Converter.

Btw, when camping somewhere with 30 amp service, you'll find it difficult to run 2 air conditioners without tripping the pedestal breaker. Keep in mind that even if not using any other 120V AC appliance, the Power Converter is a "hidden" load that draws 2 - 10 amps depending on what it's doing. And it can have a peak draw that goes higher than 15 amps. A 30 amp receptacle provides 3,600 watts of power, whereas a 50 amp receptacle provides 12,000 watts.

One thing not mentioned is that there are a couple of 30 amp fuses on the converter.
If someone installed the battery backward at some point in time, that will immediately blow those fuses, so check them.
Also, do not rely on a visual of your breakers, turn them off then on.
Worth noting is that years ago I had a 30 amp adapter that provided power to only one side of my 50 amp service. If yours is doing that, re-wire it or toss it.

Peace
Dave

OMGosh....the Y adapter is only supplying power to one leg. if you plug the other side of the Y into 15A you get the other leg. I need to get rid of the adapter and buy another that doesn't Y

If you have not installed a PI 50 surge protector, that should be very high on your list of things to do. As noted above, the loss of neutral takes out most of your AC items when 220V is applied to them. Because to the power reel I install a hardwired one in the jungle ahead to the circuit breaker panel, with the remote display inside the trailer in the switch cabinet. The PI remote will allow you to see voltage and amps on both legs.

https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-...4704153&sr=1-2&keywords=50amp+surge+protector

Chris

It has not been said yet, so I'll ask. You are not plugging into a 30amp plug designed for your dryer or a welder or that sort of thing, are you? Those are not the correct wiring for an RV and will send 220v through your rig and cause lots of damage!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

the problem is that my Y adapter is molded together with 50A on one side and 30A 15A on the other......it is molded all together in the middle and does not allow you to plug it into both the 30 and 15A at the same time because it trips the GFI.....Ill get another and see if that works.

thank you all for the input. some great thoughts out there.

James

I see the problem now. You have a Y that has a 30A and a 15A input side and the output is a 50A plug. Those will work if there isn't a GFCI on the pedestal. If there is then it will throw the GFCI. You don't need the Y. You need a straight 30A to 50A adapter (Wally World) It will provide power to both sides of the 50A plug. Realize though you are limited to 30A total. Here's one at HD that will work http://www.homedepot.com/p/ParkPower...FVN7YgodbMsMLQ

The Y you have is supposed to provide 30A to one side of the 50A and the 15A plug supplies 15A to the other side of the 50A plug. In theory 45A.

jmyers1970 said:

the problem is that my Y adapter is molded together with 50A on one side and 30A 15A on the other......it is molded all together in the middle and does not allow you to plug it into both the 30 and 15A at the same time because it trips the GFI.....Ill get another and see if that works.

thank you all for the input. some great thoughts out there.

James

Click to expand...

James...where are you in Oregon? If close to Beaverton, I could let you borrow mine to test it out? Did you buy from Curtis? They should have (big "should have") known better.....

is this the adaptor you have?