Shore power issue!

[jkretzer]

We live in a 2003 Keystone Hornet. We've been connected to shore power (30amp) for a couple weeks with no issues at all. Last night, we were only pulling a space heater and fridge when our power tripped. I thought it was a simple breaker but it appears not to be. I verified all of the internal breakers underneath the fridge were good and even reset them all. I double checked the outside breaker that feeds our shore power and it is good as well. I took a volt meter and confirmed that our power source is good. The camper's 12 volt system appears to be working fine but we none of my receptacles, fridge or air work. Oddly enough, it appears the hot water heater does work as it lights up red when I flip the electrical switch to it. Are there any more hidden breakers I am missing or do you think my main power converter has failed? Any and all help is appreciated!

[sourdough]

Have you checked your ground fault breaker(s)?

[mfifield01]

Check to see if a GFI got tripped. It would be on an outlet in either bathroom or kitchen (near water).

Items not on the GFI circuit would still work.

[jkretzer]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Have you checked your ground fault breaker(s)?

Where can I find this at? I’ve checked everything in the breaker panel under the fridge

[jkretzer]

I checked the ones and even reset them. All I could find was one in bathroom and one in kitchen.

[FlyingAroundRV]

I'll relate what happened to me. It may not apply, but for the sake of completeness ...
On our rig, the powerpoint that supplies the fridge is the first one in a line of (I don't know how many) other plugs. That line of plugs is sourced from a wire that is connected to the wire that feeds the converter, from the converter breaker. On my panel, this breaker is labeled "fridge/conv". The wires are joined with a wire nut and this is not a very secure connection. This connection went flaky and caused my fridge to continuously cycle on and off electric/gas. It ended up blowing the fridge heater element.
To see this connection, I had to pull the fascia panel off the distribution box. If you do this, make sure you disconnect from shore power before you remove the panel as there are lots of exposed AC connections in there.

[bobbecky]

Originally Posted by jkretzer

We live in a 2003 Keystone Hornet. We've been connected to shore power (30amp) for a couple weeks with no issues at all. Last night, we were only pulling a space heater and fridge when our power tripped. I thought it was a simple breaker but it appears not to be. I verified all of the internal breakers underneath the fridge were good and even reset them all. I double checked the outside breaker that feeds our shore power and it is good as well. I took a volt meter and confirmed that our power source is good. The camper's 12 volt system appears to be working fine but we none of my receptacles, fridge or air work. Oddly enough, it appears the hot water heater does work as it lights up red when I flip the electrical switch to it. Are there any more hidden breakers I am missing or do you think my main power converter has failed? Any and all help is appreciated!

Just because the red diode lights come on in the water heater switch does not mean your 120 volt power is going to the water heater. The red light is powered by 12 volts DC and is only an indicator that the switch is turned on. You need to make sure your shore power cord is good, as that may have been the cause of the power outage to your rig. You may have also had a failure where the cord plugs into the rig if it is one that disconnects from a socket.

[sourdough]

This is what I'm getting so far; you've checked all the breakers at the power center and they are on/good. You've found 2 gfci outlets and they are both good/not tripped (you reset them). You said shore power is good.

Is your incoming line breaker (30/50A) on in addition to all the smaller breakers? If shore power is good, where did you measure it? At the receptacle where you plug in the trailer? You said that breaker is on as well.

Although it sounds like you tripped something with the heater, the indicators don't seem to reflect that. For me, it would be time for the VOM and go to the distribution panel to see what you have - that would be after I double checked my power cord and all the connections to make sure something didn't go wrong there (we had a member who experienced a similar problem and his adapter had fried as I recall). At that point you may find something like Scott found.

[jkretzer]

Correct. Main 30amp service is showing roughly 120volts. InteriorGFCI outlets have been reset. Touching my contactless power meter against all wires leading into the internal breakers shows no power. Touching it against my shore power line that enters the camper shows power. Where does it go between there? I have a 30amp breaker in the internal panel labeled main so I’m assuming that’s my only main breaker.

[sourdough]

I would think your main power line would from the back of the power plug to the termination for the main breaker in your distribution panel.

From what I'm gathering you determined that you have power at the end of your power cable. Is that power making it through the plug connection? I suspect your contactless meter is only telling you there is power in the cable. Have you pulled the power cable off and inspected the conductors? Any loose or broken prongs? Burned areas? Are all the receptacle holes clear and not burned or rusted/corroded? What does the power say at the main 30A breaker at the distribution panel? If all the legs coming from the individual breakers are dead then the power has to be lost from the back plug to the 30A breaker. For that kind of work I've never used a "contactless" meter. I like to know what is or isn't working and exactly where. Check the incoming side of the 30A breaker. If it's dead and it's good leaving the power input, then it's in the cable. It's a 2003 model. Have there been any modifications somewhere along the line? Can you see the power cable? Could rodents have eaten it? Just some thoughts.

[SummitPond]

I didn't realize a GCFI would reset without being powered. My S&B units won't reset if there's no juice to them. Is the one used in the RV different?

[sourdough]

They will not reset to my knowledge without power. In this case, I don't know what's where but it sounds like we found the outlets?

[Theoldroaddog]

Have you checked the transfer switch? The shore power side may have a fault.

[hankaye]

jkretzer, Howdy;

So far it appears that all or the majority of your efforts are inside. Quick
question, do you have an exterior outlet set? Usually near the Door. On
mine it is a GFCI. Have you checked it as well? My Fridge and HW heater
are fairly close so perhaps the wiring is common to all?

hank

[rfinglet]

Originally Posted by jkretzer

We live in a 2003 Keystone Hornet. We've been connected to shore power (30amp) for a couple weeks with no issues at all. Last night, we were only pulling a space heater and fridge when our power tripped. I thought it was a simple breaker but it appears not to be. I verified all of the internal breakers underneath the fridge were good and even reset them all. I double checked the outside breaker that feeds our shore power and it is good as well. I took a volt meter and confirmed that our power source is good. The camper's 12 volt system appears to be working fine but we none of my receptacles, fridge or air work. Oddly enough, it appears the hot water heater does work as it lights up red when I flip the electrical switch to it. Are there any more hidden breakers I am missing or do you think my main power converter has failed? Any and all help is appreciated!

We had a similar electrical issues this past summer. Long story short the main wires coming into the circuit breaker box somehow became loose and were not getting a good connection. Once I tighten the 4 wires down my electrical issues were resolved. Hope this helps.

[GrumpyG]

Is there an EMS anywhere in your
system?

[WJQ]

I recently had an electrical problem in my home where for no apparent reason, this outside circuit worked one minute and a short time later failed. Traced it to a failed GFCI receptacle. Had power into the GFCI and none out. Simple fix but I had not expected it as it only had about 5 years on it. Replaced it and all has been well for several months.

Note, receptacle had no apparent damage, was not subjected to any large loads, just went south!

[Nitehawk]

Like all circuit breakers you should turn them off then back in the make sure they are actually reset. In my outback I had to a push the test buttons then the reset to make sure that they were actually tripped and then reset. One on them was actually defective and had to be swapped out.

[jimborokz]

It is not uncommon for GFCI receptacles to fail especially in RV's. I would use the non contact voltage tester to check for power coming into recepticles that have no apperent power.

[DAMILLER_SR]

I had a similar problem. The fix was to replace my automatic resetting circut breaker that was located on the frame just behind my battery box.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOOKOTO-12-24V-Automatic-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B07FK7JY3G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1549947787&sr=8-3&keywords=automatic+reset+circuit+breaker
HTH