Fabulous Thanksgiving camping at Rainbow Springs State Park, FL BUT.....

[Hogladyrider]

We were fortunate enought to reserve a site at Rainbow Springs State Park, Dunnellon, FL for the Thanksgiving holiday.

We can't say enough about this state park....pet friendly, good hiking, the springs are absolutely gorgeous.

We had a wonderful weekend, chilly, 30 degrees most mornings when we got up but the days warmed up.

BUT.....Saturday evening we were sitting watching a DVD movie and the power shut down. We checked all the breakers, fuses, outside connection, nothing. Unplugged from pedastal and plugged back in, power was restored......for about 15 minutes then went out again. We could not find anything wrong, so we unplugged the TV, microwave, fireplace etc and went to bed.

Sunday morning at daylight now the batteries were down and still now power, we were like a Chinese firedrill packing up to pull the slides in and head home before we could not pull the slides in.

Now to find the problem, we got home, plugged in at home and NOTHING, no power...our FIRST "situation" with our Big Horn and we have reservations for camping over CHristmas as well.

I still would not trade it for anything, we love our rig!
Susan

 

[danemayer]

Hi Susan,

First thing to check might be the power cord and receptacle for bent/loose/broken parts. Also, if your rig has Generator Prep, there's a transfer switch (usually located behind the basement wall) that switches power between shore and generator. It's a possible point where you could lose 110V power.

You might want to stop by Home Depot or Lowes or Tractor Supply Store and get a non-contact voltage tester. It's an easy and safe way to test for a live 110V circuit. Skip the $7 one and spend $15-20 to get one that works a little better.

 

[Hogladyrider]

Thanks Dan........you hit the nail on the head. Gary has been on the Forum searching and on the web as well....he believes the transfer switch is the problem, he is planning on by-passing it since we do not have a generator.

He has the entire basement empty and pulled apart with access to the switches, he found the "middle" yellow connection was loose and had burned. With it being dark now before 5 pm that means this rewiring will have to be a weekend project. Is this a common "issue" with these switches?

What I personally find odd is we have had our Big Horn for 3 years now, though we are weekend campers, this is the first bit of problems we have incurred and it seems like it is definitely a BIG problem to be solved.

We do feel blessed that since we live in Central Florida we do not have to winterize our rig.

Thanks again, it was still a FABULOUS weekend.
Susan

 

[danemayer]

If Gary is changing the wiring, I'd suggest double and triple checking the finished work with everything unplugged and breakers off. A mistake could be both dangerous and/or expensive.


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[kb0zke]

If Gary is changing the wiring, I'd suggest double and triple checking the finished work with everything unplugged and breakers off. A mistake could be both dangerous and/or expensive.


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Absolutely, and this isn't meant as any sort of "dig" at Gary or anyone else. Always have someone look over any wiring before connecting the power. Even if the person doing the checking doesn't know anything about wiring, and you have to explain it to them, just going through it and saying out loud what's happening can catch a mistake. MUCH better to catch the error before the sparks start flying than afterward. Maybe not as entertaining, but certainly less stressful.

 

[Hogladyrider]

Thanks everyone for your valuabel input. We are back in business and have power! Of course we lost our bedroom TV and our Apollo micro/convection in the power failure, oh and our Eureka yellow jacket vacuum. IT could have been a lot worse.

I have searched on the appliance forum section for info on replacing our Apollo with a regular microwave and can find nothing.

The TV will be relatively easy to replace and the prices have dropped substantially since we purchased the original 22" TV, the vacuum is something I won't be without since we travel with pets.

We are looking forward to our next weekend camping adventure over Christmas back to Rainbow Springs!
Susan

 

[GOTTOYS]

If the battery on your trailer goes dead you can still plug into your truck and the circuit your truck has to charge your batteries will power up anything that is 12 volt so you won't be stranded. I would start the truck and let it run while doing this..Don

 

[Hogladyrider]

Thanks Don.

We are fortunate enough to park are RV in our backyard and we keep it plugged in to charge the batteries. The RV had been sitting idle with NO electric all week and after Gary finished today the batteries were down to half but after being plugged in for a very brief time they came right back up.

I am re-thinking replacing the Appollo half time oven in the cabinet above the stove with a plain Jane small countertop microwave and a toaster oven - we would use these two much more than the 1/2 time oven and they would be more accessible as well, I needed a step stool to access the Appollo it was mounted so high.

It looks like the Eureka vacuum is reasonably priced to replace it every place on line is right around $149.

I will continue to look around on other RV web sites to see if I can find others who have replaced a microwave and what they have done. Right now since we are still weekend campers I really am not excited about investing $1k into another 1/2 time oven, but we will see how it all plays out.
Susan

 

[Hogladyrider]

Happy to report that all of Gary's hard work paid on big time. We had a fabulous camping weekend over Christmas back at Rainbow Springs with NO electrical issues.

The new TV worked better than the original. The new microwave was fabulous as well. No issues at all. We feel very blessed we were able to make all the repairs ourelves.

Our new Shark vacuum actually works better than the central vac that came with our 5th wheel.

We consider ourselves blessed, electrical issues are not fun.
Susan

 

[yepuhuh]

Sorry to hear about your problem. And you really need to stop telling everyone about rainbow springs state park. We need to keep that a secret for us florida natives!

Did you take any pictures of what Gary did? We have a big horn and want to make sure we don't run into a problem like this in the future as well.

Also we have an rv lot in Dillard Georgia that is available to rent if you are interested. It has a lot of amenities and a central reservation number.

 

[Hogladyrider]

Would love to hear where your travels take you! We also enjoy getting out on our Wing on the weekends to check out other Florida places to visit with our BH!

Sorry to hear about your problem. And you really need to stop telling everyone about rainbow springs state park. We need to keep that a secret for us florida natives!
It is so darn difficult to get reservations at this place! We lucked out for Thanksgiving, reserving the last open RV spot, and Christmas was pretty full as well........forget about holiday long weekends. It is only a leisurely 90 minute ride for us.


Thanks..........we sure wish we could be on the road more than just weekends for now. BUT we are glad that we are getting these hiccups out of the way!

If you are familar with Rainbow Springs.......you will get a chuckle out of this. This morning I was outside with our Deisel, 120 lb boxer/mastiff, and he decided he was going to bolt on me and I had to chase him thru the woods, in my slippers no less, he thought it was a game, luckily Gary found him running down the main road,...UGH what a way to start off Christmas morning!

Did you take any pictures of what Gary did? We have a big horn and want to make sure we don't run into a problem like this in the future as well. No we did not take any pictures, darn it, and I always have a camera in my hand. The by-pass transfer switch had a loose wiring connection from the factory. We do not have a generator so Gary removed the by-pass switch since it burned up. Our BH came pre-wired for a generator but we are not at that point and we do not have a generator.

Also we have an rv lot in Dillard Georgia that is available to rent if you are interested. It has a lot of amenities and a central reservation number. Can you send me the info or web site susanand@gmail.com