This past weekend, while we were tailgating at a college football game and dry camping with a generator, I had my 2013 Big Country 3510RL plugged into my 6500 watt Briggs generator using a split-y cheater plug from my 50 amp service RV plug split to the generators three pronged 120 plug and the 4 prong 120/240 plug so I could run everything. I was running both ACs for a few minutes and then I plugged some outdoor strip lights in and then lost power to all of the outdoor plugs, kitchen plugs, the bathroom plug, and the 120 water heater. Also, my Air Conditioners will no longer work. I checked the GFCI in the bathroom as well as the CBs on the electrical panel. Nothing was tripped and I reset them all in any case. However, the TV still works along with most of the other internal internal plugs. I am perplexed. Is there a breaker box or reset switch somewhere I can't find. This is my first RV and have no idea what went wrong. Also, the three pronged plug on my generator no longer puts out any voltage. I'm affraid I've damaged both my generator and RV. Please help.
ATF: Big Country - 110 v electrical problem
- Thread starter Cheese
- Start date
boatto5er
Founding VA Chap Ldr (Ret)
A 6500watt generator should provide enough power for 2 AC's. They are 15,000BTU,not 15,000watts.
branson4020
Icantre Member
You're kludgy connection to the generator may have done damage. You should only be using the 4-wire 240V outlet on the generator with an appropriate adapter to your 50A rv cord.
Each AC only pulls approx 2000 watts. They are 15,000 & 12,500 btus respectively. I don't think my problem was pulling too many watts or amps. I'm pretty good about monitoring the load I'm imposing on the gen.
SeattleLion
Well-known member
Generator outlets, unlike campground pedestals, do not provide additional power by using more outlets. The 240V outlet probably is 30 Amps which is the capacity of your generator. Even if there is extra capacity, I have never heard of combining a 240V feed (two hot legs) with a 120V feed. At a campground if you can use a pigtail (30 amp / 20 amp), both feeds are 120V and the cable just sends the 30amp power to one side of the 50Amp plug and the 20 amps to the other. By the way, this rarely works but shouldn't damage anything.
The moral of this story is to get a power management device (we have Progressive) which will protect your trailer regardless of what you do at the supply end.
The moral of this story is to get a power management device (we have Progressive) which will protect your trailer regardless of what you do at the supply end.
The splitter (kludgy) connection is a 50 amp female plug split to two 30 amp plugs. This is normal for being able to pwr both poles using seperate plugs on a generator. My original question was posed to elicit inputs on solutions from those who have a more indepth knowledge of the Big Country electrical system so that I might trouble shoot.
branson4020
Icantre Member
You may be on the right track Dan. Of course, combining phases on the same wire yields 0V since they are 180 degrees out of phase. But he could have somehow energized the neutral - and that COULD give him a very ugly 240V. Its exactly what happens when a 30A 120V RV outlet gets miswired as a 240V outlet.
danemayer
Well-known member
Think of it like a water line where you double the water pressure from 60 to 120 psi, but the fixtures are designed to handle a force of 60 psi. Another way to think of it is like a voltage spike that fries a component on the input side of the device.
I don't know what actually happened, but if you applied 240V to some of your appliances, you'll probably have some damaged devices.
I spoke with an electrical engineer last night and he said he didn't think there was any way for me to introduce an out of phase voltage spike since the chord I was using went from a three prong (30 amp) male RV plug to the four prong locking adapter for the 120/240 hole. He didn't think it was possible to energize the neutral. In any case I will have to wait and hook up my shore pwr line to an campground 50 amp pedestal plug to test it. I haven't been able to find an electrical layout on this website of the AC system in the Big Country 3510 RL. Does anyone know who to email on this site to try to get that information?
danemayer
Well-known member
I don't think there are electrical wiring diagrams available. If you have generator prep, the incoming power line goes to one input on the automatic transfer switch. The output of the transfer switch goes to the circuit breaker panel. If no generator prep, the shore power line goes straight to the circuit breaker panel.
The 50 amp panel has 2 50-amp main breakers. L1 from shore power feeds one breaker and L2 feeds the other. There are 2 busses inside the circuit breaker panel. Each of the 50 amp main breakers supplies 50 amps 110V to one of the busses. The rest of the circuit breakers alternate between busses. So half of your circuit breakers are powered by L1 and half by L2.
If some devices work and others don't, one possible cause is loss of one of the busses, or power to it.
The 50 amp panel has 2 50-amp main breakers. L1 from shore power feeds one breaker and L2 feeds the other. There are 2 busses inside the circuit breaker panel. Each of the 50 amp main breakers supplies 50 amps 110V to one of the busses. The rest of the circuit breakers alternate between busses. So half of your circuit breakers are powered by L1 and half by L2.
If some devices work and others don't, one possible cause is loss of one of the busses, or power to it.
