Electricity Jolt

[dadtoandrew]

Long story short, trailer is now reduced to ashes as a result of what I believe was a power surge while plugged into shore power at my house. Yes of course less than 1 week before leaving for camping! l lost many items in the house that were plugged into my wall plugs also.

I thought that the main breaker in the trailer would have tripped before causing any more damage to the electronics in the trailer.

Should a breaker in the trailer not have tripped and not ended up with the trailer on fire?

Next trailer will have an aftermarket protector installed at all times...live and learn.

Thanks!

 

[Invizatu]

Gotta get an EMS!
Sorry for the loss, at least nobody was hurt.
Now the fun of shopping for your next unit!

 

[cookie]

Wow, sorry to hear that.
Since there is no way to accurately tell where the fire started, you can only guess at this point.
It may have started where your shore cord attaches to the trailer or at the breaker panel itself.
If that was the case no breaker will protect from a surge.
And yes, always use an EMS.

Peace
Dave

 

[wdk450]

There is a new, advanced, form of circuit breakers that detect arcing and abnormal circuit operation besides overcurrent conditions and shut off the power when these conditions are sensed. It is called an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter and is required by the 2015 National Electrical Code for new construction bedroom power and lighting circuits. In the future the requirement may spread to the rest of the house, as GFCI protected areas spread out over the years. See: http://www.afcisafety.org/qa.html

Did you have any high current loads like the water heater, or an electric space heater operating when the fire happened? What kind of shore power feed did you have - 15 amp, 30 amp or 2 phase 50 amp - when the fire happened?

The TV news here in the Sacramento area reported a Class A RV behind someone's house in the area burning up from an electrical fire several days ago. Besides the possibility of the electrical heater catching something flammable near it, the old question of the "U.L. approved" insulation displacement connector AC outlets used in RV's came to my mind. I replaced every outlet in my Bighorn when I discovered the IDC outlets were installed at the factory. Here is a link to my previous thread on the IDC outlets:
https://heartlandowners.org/showthr...placement-Connector-(IDC)-Electrical-Outlets?

 

[danemayer]

Has there been any determination of where the fire started?

 

[dadtoandrew]

When the fire people were done, they said that the fire started in the trailer where the fuses are located. They determined this by the amount of damage that was in that area.

All that was running was the fridge/freezer in the main coach, and the smaller fridge in the outside kitchen. Both had been running for 2+ days as I loaded them up.

It was definitely a surge as many appliances and electronics were fried in the house also.

 

[danemayer]

If it started at the circuit breaker panel/fuse box, my guess is that the surge smoked the main incoming wires where attached to the circuit breaker panel causing them to overheat. If that's what happened, the overheating would have been in front of the trailer circuit breakers and would have depended on your house circuit breaker to shut down the circuit if it was drawing too much current.

But since you weren't running too much, it could have smoldered for a while without drawing too much current.

As others have said, a good Electrical Management Sytem (EMS), which includes surge protection, is an important accessory. The two main providers are Progressive and TRC. Progressive's comes with a lifetime warranty.

 

[wdk450]

When the fire people were done, they said that the fire started in the trailer where the fuses are located. They determined this by the amount of damage that was in that area.

All that was running was the fridge/freezer in the main coach, and the smaller fridge in the outside kitchen. Both had been running for 2+ days as I loaded them up.

It was definitely a surge as many appliances and electronics were fried in the house also.

If the cause of the damage was DEFINITELY a surge, you should be entitled to compensation from the electric utility. I would contact the utility, your insurers, and maybe think about seeking legal advice.

 

[pegmikef]

When the fire people were done, they said that the fire started in the trailer where the fuses are located. They determined this by the amount of damage that was in that area.

All that was running was the fridge/freezer in the main coach, and the smaller fridge in the outside kitchen. Both had been running for 2+ days as I loaded them up.

It was definitely a surge as many appliances and electronics were fried in the house also.

That is interesting, because that is where I found my loose/burned 110 neutral line and it looked llike the damage had happened over a period of time. I was lucky that there was no fire and it finally was causing symptoms (110 lamp dimming, TV losing its picture, stuff going off for a few seconds and back). Of course we started with the pedestal, eliminated that, check cable, and finally was getting ready to change out the fifty amp breaker and took the face plate off and immediately saw the damage. It is fortunate that we were there when it happened. BTW, I have the progressive EMS so I am pretty sure it wasn't a surge. We weren't using any high amperage stuff at the time.

 

[Diamondjim]

Ouch dadtoandrew, fires are NEVER a fun thing to have happen. My rig is plugged in and A/C running, but it's in our gated community storage lot. (not beside the house)

We lost a Shasta 24' trailer to a lightning strike on a storage shed at the back corner of the TT. Shed was only 6x12, but did we lose stuff. We were winterized in NY, late Sept. and it blew out the windows and filled the TT with smoke etc, melted the fender trim, about $7K in '95 dollars.
Kept finding things that we forgot we had in that shed, until we needed them.

Good luck with the replacement search and insurance settlement.
Glad no one was hurt, you can replace "things"!

 

[TravelTiger]

We had (we believe) our power cord connection fail and cause a surge in the trailer, luckily most important electrics in the rig were plugged into surge protectors, so we lost the protectors. We lost a TV that was only plugged in a low quality strip. Since the surge happened after the EMS, the only good thing I think it did was kill power as the plug to the EMS melted.

Sorry for your loss, hope you find out an exact cause and report back.

Hopefully you can find a unit to enjoy to replace your lost one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mslater]

the first thing i did after installing my surge protector was to take off the panel covers and check to see that all the wires were stripped properly and all connections were torqued down to stop any arcing ...i did find 5-6 wires that weren't tight....back in the 80s they came out with wire connectors fashioned after these receipts (v" connectors ) they were quickly outlawed in are area ....there is no way they are good for even medium loads or vibration... should be banned

 

[murry135]

My first guess here is a loose neutral and that is further supported by the FD saying it started at the electrical panel within camper. Seen numerous fried panels due to this issue. Advise and a reminder to yearly open your panel and transfer switches and torque and clean all high voltage terminals.

 

[jmgratz]

I love this forum. Even though I knew about checking for loose connections I get reminded periodically by the forum. Great advise that I need to do in the next few days. BTW we have already been through 3 transfer switches due to electrical failures and 2 Progressive EMS boxes in our RVing lifetime. My best advise is do not skimp on your surge protections. Inexpensive ones are just that ... CHEAP. The Progressive 50 (or 30) EMS is the best IMHO with a lifetime warranty. It is that same old story pay me now or pay me (bigtime) later.

 

[bdb2047]

Just A caution. It is possible to over tighten connections to breakers and buss bars, especially smaller solid wires. I have seen wires break at connection due to set screw cutting wire probably installed with an electric driver. I have had several that I have not been able to get loose with hand tools had to use impact driver. Also the be sure to disconnect and isolate from any power source before work.