Lost Power to all 110v outlets On Kitchen Slideout

Power to the 110v outlets on the kitchen slide went out and then came back on. Over the course of the night, they failed again and have not come back on. Flipped all breakers on the unit and checked all GFI outlets and did a reset on those as well. Far from an electrician here, any insight or advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Kyle and Michaela
 

danemayer

Well-known member
There are a couple of possibilities. First, if it's ONLY power to the slide that's interrupted, take a look under slides on both sides for a junction box. You might have loose wires. It's a good idea to cut off power at the pedestal before touching/opening these boxes, in case they're electrified.

If some other outlets or appliances are also not working, you may have lost one leg of your 50 amp power service. This could occur anywhere between the pedestal and the circuit breaker panel. If you have generator prep, there's a transfer switch and one contact could be bad. It's also possible you could have a failure at the powered cord reel.

Our owner-written Electrical User Guide has explanations, drawings, and photos that may help you run this down.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Dan has you on the right track on this. Let me add further insight.

First, in kitchen slide, there are a number of AC circuits (regular outlets, some GFCI protected outlets, fireplace outlet, microwave outlet and refrigerator outlet). I'll assume that what's not working for you are the regular outlets (entertainment center and possible an outlet under the upper cabinet by the stove).

It is my understanding, that generally, the wire path for the regular outlets in the Landmark are as follows:

Branch circuit breaker > junction box on door-side frame below door-side slide
From junction box > back into frame and back to rear wall outlets
From last rear wall outlet > back into frame
From frame > junction box on off-door-side frame
From junction box > up into off-door-side slide

So that is your probably wire path. Like Dan, I'm guessing, based on your observation, that you have an electrical discontinuity in the junction box under the kitchen slide on the frame.

That said, be aware that there are many junction boxes there. One for possibly each of the different circuits mentioned above.

Once, I lost power to all of my regular outlets in both the downstairs slide and the back wall. After speaking to the plant on the wire path, I knew to check the junction box under my door-side slide as that's the first connection point after the branch circuit breaker. Since you don't mention loss of power to regular outlets in the door-side slide - this is why we're encouraging you to start on the off-door side slide.

Hope this wasn't too much info. Just trying to paint a picture for you :)

And of course, if electrical is not your thing, stay safe and leave it to a pro.
 

Flick

Well-known member
Power to the 110v outlets on the kitchen slide went out and then came back on. Over the course of the night, they failed again and have not come back on. Flipped all breakers on the unit and checked all GFI outlets and did a reset on those as well. Far from an electrician here, any insight or advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Kyle and Michaela

Man, you’ve gotten some real time technical info from a couple guys that know their stuff.
Short story of what happened to me on my last trip. A tire blew on my Cyclone under the off door slide (I now have a new set of Sailun S637’s). It took all the wires and made it look like someone had poured a bowl of spaghetti on the ground. All the 12v wires, 110v wires and speaker wires to that slide were ripped out but no structural damage. Also tied in under that side was the 12v circuit board to the refrigerator and the led light on the slide on the other side.
Good luck in finding your loose connection. Sounds like something pretty simple because according to your description of the problem, it may be making contact on and off from something as minor as temperature changes. Check for a broken or loose wire in the plugs.
 

RickL

Well-known member
Just to add to what’s been stated, I helped out a friend in Yuma this past winter as he lost power in what happens to be the same side. While his was a DRV, the wiring is very much the same in that the wires from the slide joined in a electrical box under the slide. What we found would scare the crap out of anyone. You could see the effects of electrical arcing and burnt wiring insulation. As we checked the wire nuts many of the connections had used the wrong size wire nuts, allowing a loose connection, which the created the heat. We cleaned or stripped back where we could and redid every box on that side. He didn’t have an issue after the repairs.

However, he is going to take the covers off once we arrives in Montana to double check all is well. Good luck in searching out your issue.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Kyle (and Rick) - one thing I meant to mention but forgot, was that the wire in the frame/underbelly is solid conductor Romex. The wiring coming out of the junction box and up into the slides is stranded. Stranded is by design as this wire flexes in the flex guard as the slide travels in and out.

What has happened to me (and others) before is that using a wire nut to splice stranded to solid wires is a bit craft-sensitive. Soldering inside a j-box is no picnic either. I'd prefer to see a HD crimp cap or similar used but this may not meet RVIA code and I've never seen it done on AC power.

So - what I've seen happen a few times is the stranded gets wrapped around the solid, then the wire nut is placed over that and twisted on tight. My theory is that in the process of pushing the wire nut on, the stranded "can" slide down the solid. My theory continues that over time, road vibrations etc., the stranded becomes less bonded to the solid and under load, the connection gets hot. When that happens, a few strands can burn up, leaving fewer strands to carry the load. So - this could be the issue or perhaps not. For those who've found melted wire nuts in their RV - my guess is that most often, it's stranded wire being bonded to solid wire by means of a wire nut.


In some cases, the connection gets hot enough to melt the wire nut. In fewer cases yet, the wire nut melts to the point that the solid conductor can poke through the wire nut and touch the inside of the metal electrical box. I've had this happen to my water heater. There's a metal electrical box on the side of the water heater and here again, there's a stranded to solid conductor bond using a wire nut inside the box.

Can stranded and solid conductors be safely bonded with a wire nut? Most likely as there are way more good bonds out there than the failed ones we read about. One way I read about was to strip the stranded longer than the solid so you have more conductor to wrap with. I like taking the stranded over the top of the solid as well.

Some like to use various other bonding methods. Wago and Ideal make push-in connectors. These seem to work well if the stranded wire is stiff enough to break the spring tension in these connectors or if the stranded wire has been solder tinned.

Sorry to get off on a tangent here and in no way to I want do get anyone alarmed or insinuate many may have a wire splice issue in their RV that is not exhibiting any AC outlet issues like the OP has. Only trying to be helpful to the OP in tracking their issue down and to speak to an issue RickL had.
 

donr827

Well-known member
I always wrap my wire nut connections with electrical tape. This can help the wire nut from failing
 
Re: Lost Power to all 110v outlets On Kitchen Slideout.....UPDATE.....!

Lots of great insight on these electrical systems. We greatly appreciate the feedback and we are a little more knowledgeable too! So after reading your all's advice, we checked the wires and plugged and unplugged the outlets. The issue was found in the electrical outlet by the TV that has the two (2) USB outlets. Plugging into those caused a short to the whole slide. Power to the unit was shutdown and the outlet pulled out and the screws tightened on the inside to the individual wires. There was one screw that was loose and after putting all things back, we have not had an issue since.

Thank you all again for the help!

Kyle and Michaela
 

CDN

B and B

wdk450

Well-known member
Wago wire connectors are an alternative to wire nuts for both solid and stranded wiring:
wago 2.jpg
 
Top