All Plugs in Living room not working

[busted2341]

Well we are full timing now and 6 months in we are sittin in 35 degree weather watching TV when all of a sudden power to TV, Sat, and a space heater goes out. No breaker tripped inside or out. Not sure what caused it but now none of the plugs work in the living area. I reset every breaker inside an out. Power is uninterrupted throughout the coach except living area, where I cannot restore power. Any ideas?

 

[fredwrichardson]

Well we are full timing now and 6 months in we are sittin in 35 degree weather watching TV when all of a sudden power to TV, Sat, and a space heater goes out. No breaker tripped inside or out. Not sure what caused it but now none of the plugs work in the living area. I reset every breaker inside an out. Power is uninterrupted throughout the coach except living area, where I cannot restore power. Any ideas?

Are the outlets near your kitchen also off? There is one plug (and only one plug) that is a GFCI plug. Ours is actually in our bathroom but it supplies power to our kitchen too. They look different in that they have two button in the middle. One is to test the circuit and the other is to reset the circuit. The red one is for testing and the brown or black one is for resetting. The GFCI outlet is always near water so it will be near a sink in almost all cases. I have also seen them in basements depending on the trailer.

 

[busted2341]

Thanx for the reply....Love the new Landmark your in! We are planning on a new Landmark in November of this year..Anyway, Yes I even reset the GFI in the bathroom, which is the only one I find. I have reset every electrical breaker and still nothing. I am completely perplexed on this one......

 

[rxbristol]

Most replies I've seen for your type of electrical problem tell people to check the junction boxes (usually under the slide-outs) for loose connections at the wire nuts and make sure you did not lose a leg (at the power pole) for one of the 120 volts. My money is on the power pole.

 

[busted2341]

Thanx......Heading to the office for a pole check...lol.....I am hoping you are correct and it is at the pole and not my expense! I just miss TV!

 

[mslater]

turn off power and remove the receipts from the wall that are affected and any others close by... check connections and look for burnt wires….thinking using that space heater might have arced in a loose connection and caused an open circuit without tripping breakers

 

[danemayer]

If the pedestal is ok, definitely check the junction boxes under the slides. Power off either at the pedestal or at your main breakers before opening the boxes. Check for loose connections.

 

[sgtbigb]

I had the same problem my last trip out. I reset all the AC breakers and found that there was one that was tripped, but you could tell it was tripped by looking at it.

 

[jimtoo]

Do you have the generator prep on the unit? If you do check transfer switch connections and not sure,, but may have breaker on each leg.

 

[busted2341]

Well sorry took so long to advise the outcome. I had an RV repair guy come out. Discovered every J box under the slides had the wrong size wire nuts. Looks like Heartland builders decided to just put anything to hold the wire for now. Every wire nut was to big, wrong size. The no power problem? The j box wire under the DS slide finally melted into a big glob....Never blow a breaker. When We checked every panel and j box we found more. The panel in the kitchen with all the switches had three of them burned at the slide on connecter, which also where to big. Arching everywhere. Worth the $250.00 charge.....Yes I advised Heartland........Nothing!

Thanx for all the responses. Our future LandMark purchase will be an inspection of all connections!!!!!

 

[Jim.Allison]

When working on my rig, I keep a roll of black tape with me just to tape up wire nuts. I cannot believe that a builder would build something as good a Heartland, that is designed to travel down the road and not tape the wire nuts, all it takes is a wrap and a 1/2 and that nut will not vibrate off, right size or wrong size they need to be taped. So far I have done everyone that i can see, I guess I have to start pulling J-box covers to inspect now.

 

[wdk450]

You know, if you want to have an indication of how well your electrical system is doing, do what the Cardiologists do to test your heart - do a stress test. But instead of using a treadmill (which might work great as a big electrical load, but most of the commercial ones are 220 volts), use an electrical heater that draws near your 15 amp circuit limit, and that has a pilot light. Then, one by one plug this heater/load tester into your circuits for 15 minutes or more. Observe the pilot light - if you see it flickering at all (or you smell smoke, or the circuit cuts out) you have an electrical circuit problem probably caused by poor wiring connections.

This is how I accidentally found poor wiring in an insulation displacement connector AC outlet in my Bighorn. The heater SEEMED to work normally, except for the flickering pilot light when plugged into the defective outlet. The heater pilot light did not flicker when the heater was plugged into another outlet (on the same circuit, I might add). This caused me to replace ALL of the AC outlets (except the GFI, which wasn't IDC) with regular household screw terminal outlets.

This test is not infallible (like the cardiac stress test isn't infallible), but CAN be a good indicator of possible future electrical problems.

BTW, I also had a wirenut/wiring problem, but with the water heater. On my unit, the water heater supply hot and neutral were stripped and crammed close together at the wire nuts, and intermittently shorted, tripping the water heater circuit breaker.