Electrical sockets

[Laurence Mitchell]

Good afternoon from Sunny Tucson Arizona. I was working on projects in our 2000 Beaver Marquis and had the generator running and the AC was keeping everything nice and cool. Went to use the electrical socket and no power! I checked the back closet and all switches were good. Looked under the bay door where the transfer switch is at and it was good! Lights were working as well throughout the unit . Suggestions on what I missed???
Thanks!  Mitch

[Guy Pryor]

GFI ,s

[Keith Cooper]

outlets are ganged to an associated GFCI circuit. In the case of our 2000 PT one of the master outlets is in the cargo bay near the water pump and the others are inside the coach. You may need to do a little more to identify exactly which outlets have no power.

[Laurence Mitchell]

I will check all outlets in the AM and get back with you all.  ~Thanks~

[Bill Sprague]

Resetting GFCIs is a common hobby in motorhomes that is usually practiced in the rain and during darkness.  A related hobby is replacing GFCIs in the pursuit of happiness.

One theory is that GFCIs are made for stick houses with steady power supplies.  Motorhomes switch from shore to generator to inverter and the GFCIs get confused and want pay back for the trouble you cause them.   To help the GFCIs get even, Beaver liked to put one deep inside a cargo bay that feeds inside household circuits.   It's where you might be kneeling in a puddle when you have to reset it to get the toaster to work.

[Laurence Mitchell]

I checked generator and its not tripped. Reset all circut breakers in closet and in basement which I believe is transfer switch. I have electrical in one socket in bedroom and one in base ment storage only which I was able to turn off and on via closet circut breaker box. I found only one socket that is  in basement that is Gfci and it has no power.. push rest button and still nothing and bottons seem frozen.  Found another socket Cfci and it has power and reset button worked.

[David T. Richelderfer]

Our coach has at least five 120 volt circuits with multiple receptacles in the coach interior and basement.  Each circuit has its one GFI receptacle.

We have
1) a curb-side circuit starting at the dashboard and going through the living room to the kitchen with one GFI receptacle in a kitchen cupboard,
2) a curb-side circuit for the microwave with a GFI receptacle specifically placed for the microwave,
3) a street-side circuit starting at the dash and going through the living room, dining area and into the loo with a GFI receptacle in the loo,
4) a circuit in the bedroom with a GFI receptacle in the bedroom, and
5) a circuit in the basement with a GFI receptacle.

There may be more.  I'm finding stuff all the time which I didn't know about.  lol

[Laurence Mitchell]

I have only found 3 and the rest are normal.

[Bill Sprague]

On our '04 Monterey the generator mounted circuit breaker was actually two and were "ganged" together.  So, if one "tripped" it still looked OK.  Did you try turning the breaker set full off and then full on again?. 

[Keith Cooper]

I think you will find that the outlets you think are normal are actually subtending to the GFCI outlets. meaning that the subtending outlets wont have power  if the associated GFCI outlet fails.

[Gerald Farris]

Mitch,
It sounds like you are loosing all of the circuits that are inverter feed (inverter pass through circuits), and if so you have a faulty pass through relay in your inverter. To determine this, unplug from shore power, turn off the generator, and turn on the inverter. If the dead circuits now have power with the inverter working but no power on shore power and then you have checked the 30 amp inverter feed circuit to determine that there is 120 volt power to the inverter when on shore power, your pass through relay is bad. Another check is to check the 120 volt circuit at the inverter. if there is 120 volts at the shore power input on the inverter but no power at the inverter output when on shore power, your pass through relay is bad.

If you determine that you have a bad pass throigh relay, the correction will depend on what inverter you have.

Gerald

[Laurence Mitchell]

Gerald,

I will check this out this evening after work.  I will be hunting for that one GFCI that may have tripped but is hidden.
Fingers crossed I can find it this evening.

Thanks!
Mitch

[Laurence Mitchell]

All sockets are now working!  Read the manual for the inverter and found out it was off.   
Shop had forgotten to turn it back on after some work we had done.