1st problem and it had to be Electrical - No shore power - HELP!

[RealOkie]

Brand new 2014 Road Warrior 305. Here's what is happening. 2 weeks ago, while setting up in a park, using generator power, the power kept "flashing", after a few minutes, 5-10 mins, it stopped, worked fine for 1.5 days. I don't know if that problem is related to.... when we come home, plug unit into shore power, 30 amp shore power, when our unit is 50 amp, it would not come on. We know 30 amp is not enough, but using only 1 air conditioner, all appliances are on gas, minimal electrical usage while on 30 amp, but still doesn't come on. We start generator, runs great for a while, then with generator running, all electric quits, stop and start generator, runs fine. Then, this weekend, after coming home to a "electrical problem free" weekend, again plug it into our 30 amp shore service, no electric...... have no electric with shore service at all.

Have we messed up something by using 30 amp, again with minimal electric usage, but then again, our unit is 50 amp??

Are the problems related, generator electric just quit, while still running, and no shore power?

No shore electric.... what should we check first?

Thanks in advance for any help.
RealOkie
Alissa (posting) - Tim (very mechanically inclined) but at trailer, looking in the basement scratching his head... (not good) lol!

 

[wdk450]

Alissia:
First of all, if your trailer is brand new you have warranty coverage rolled into your purchase price. Heartland lets YOU choose who to do your warranty repairs with telephone contact to Heartland Service BEFORE the repairs are started. IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE SELLING DEALER. The Hearland service phone number is posted at the top left of the Portal page. You need to have your trailer VIN number ready to identify your trailer for Heartland Service. BTW, Heartland will NOT pay the travel charges for on site mobile RV repairers. RVServiceReviews.com is a good source of local RV servicer ratings.

Second of all, the common element to both generator and shore power feeds is the automatic transfer switch, and its associated wiring. Of course anything downstream of the transfer switch (wiring, circuit breaker panel) are also common to both feeds. I do not know where the transfer switch is located in your Road Warrior. Hopefully a Road Warrior owner wile chime in with that information for you, or the Heartland Service advisor might have this information.

Good luck, and hope you get this fixed soon!

 

[danemayer]

Hi RealOkie,

If power inside the coach goes out but the generator continues to run, and a similar problem happens on shore power, I agree with Bill that it's probably the Automatic Transfer Switch failing. Unless you're very comfortable working with high current electrical devices, this is best left to an RV Tech.

Using an adapter to step your 50 amp cord down to a 30 amp pedestal shouldn't cause any problems. But sometimes electricians unfamiliar with RVs wire up 30 amp receptacles incorrectly. If they mistakenly wire the RV receptacle like it's a 30 amp dryer receptacle, you can fry stuff in the RV by inadvertently supplying 220V instead of 110V. You should check your home receptacle with a volt meter to ensure it's supplying 110V. If unsure how to check it, you can find more info here. Click on the 30amp button at the top left.

 

[Silverado23]

Have you tested your shore powerline on a source other than home? This could help isolate the issue between the transfer switch and external power line on the RV side and ensure that it is the home power outlet that is the problem.

The circuit breaker for the Home power outlet is turned on and not off or tripped?

 

[RealOkie]

Thank you Mr. Knight, Thank you Mr. Mayer & Silverado23!!! I appreciate your input and help!

Update - after running the genny all night, again because shore power wouldn't work, tried this morning, again for the 5th-6th time since last evening, to plug in to our 30 amp service, and WooHoo..... it decided to work, as of this moment, we have shore power electric. However, new issue, we hear a low tone "humming" coming from the area of the breaker box inside the trailer. I am concerned, but should I run out an unplug it this instance concerned?

And, we traded a small, 30 amp travel trailer, that we had for 3 years, for the BBQ House (aka Road Warrior) and had it plugged in to this outlet the entire time, so I don't believe this is an outlet issue, and Tim said he did check it with volt meter, looks good. And last week when I did trip the breaker by running the central vac and AC at the same time, breaker has been 1st thing we check now.

Please....continue with suggestions!!
And Thank You!
Alissa

 

[danemayer]

I would unplug the trailer and stop using the generator as well. Transfer Switch failures are easy to replace if you catch them early. But running one that's in partial failure mode can result in additional problems leading to a more difficult repair. Also, certain types of failures can lead to damaging the appliances in the RV. Those types of failures are rare, but why risk it?

 

[Silverado23]

One more thought, Does the adapter your using to go from 30 AMP Shore power to 50 amp RV provide provide power to both legs(it should) on the 50 amp side? I seem to recall having some issue with passing power through a transfer switch if one leg does not have power. This was on a Cyclone last fall that we were testing with a generator through shore power.

 

[scottyb]

Typically, a 30A/50A adapter has L1 and L2 both connected to the single hot wire on the 30A side. I use 30A a lot on my rig and the transfer switch doesn't have any issues. I did lose two transfer switches while still under warranty, but unrelated. After I installed the 3rd transfer switch and was getting intermittent readings across it, I traced back to the j-box outside the generator. I found loose wire nuts (just a few strands making contact) and charred wiring inside the j-box, which was probably the problem all along. There have been a couple others since that have found the same problem, and that could cause your random problem.

 

[wdk450]

The humming noise is probably the power converter/charger charging the battery. If you have an AC breaker for the power converter, you could shut this off momentarily and see if the humming stops.
I would be looking for poor electrical contacts with stuff that doesn't work sometimes and then "fixes" itself. This includes the contacts on/in your shore outlets, plugs and adapters. Look for heat discolored wires and connector blades. The transfer switch is an intelligent, large current relay, with large current contacts that can be flaky. There are manuals on most everything in your trailer (including the transfer switch) on this website: go to the top of any forum page, click on "Tools", then "Manuals" and follow the submenus to the manual you need.

 

[RealOkie]

DONE! I agree, I'm not risking my fancy BBQ House! lol

 

[RealOkie]

Thanks to everyone. Think we are shutting it down, calling the warranty department and getting it fixed. Now I just hope it doesn't take long to get it done, we are getting ready to go to Lynchburg, TN at the end of October to the "Super Bowl" of BBQ contests.... The Jack Daniel's BBQ Invitational Contest!

Thanks again to all!!
RealOkie
Alissa
Muskogee, OK

 

[RealOkie]

Thank you Scottyb!! Will get that checked out too!

Alissa