Electrical issues?

[Thomas James]

Hey guys. OK, I have yet Another issue that has reared it's lil head. OK now, I haven't had power to my A/C outlets on the left side of my coach....mainly just the ones under the upper cabinets, and one in the bathroom, for awhile now. But now I have no power to either TV. Or the outlet on the vanity in the bedroom. The ice maker is off as well. The Refrigerator and the Microwave along with one overhead outlet on the right side are pretty much the only ones that work. Now, on the diagram it shows some kind of A/C connector in-line on 3 to 4 places in the coach. And it gives a location. Like behind a panel in the bathroom vanity or something like that. I haven't investigated that far yet. Not even sure what I'm looking for. Are these some kind of fusible links or something?? All breakers are on. Nothing appears to be tripped. Any help would again be Greatly appreciated. Thanks,

[Joel Ashley]

Tripped breakers aren't always obvious, so reset the likely culprits regardless. 

Then check that there isn't a GFCI on the bathroom outlet or a bay outlet, or elsewhere in the circuits involved, that's tripped.  Usually a Ground Fault Circuit Interupter is on the first outlet in a circuit.  And not all GFCIs are created equal - some are too sensitive, but can be replaced these days by high quality ones available at home centers (search the Forum here for prior threads that discuss the issue).  Coaches from the era of ours (~2006) and beyond have breakers with built-in quality GFCI's, I'd think a handy upgrade to wet locations circuits of any rig's breaker bank.

Joel

[Gerald Farris]

Thomas,
If you are powering the A/C circuits from your inverter, it is normal to have one side of the coach dead because only about half of your A/C outlets are wired through the inverter. The circuits to the TV and ice maker that you lost are wired through the inverter and that sounds like a tripped GFI.

Gerald

[Thomas James]

Thanks Gerald. I'm running off shore power now. I've wired in a 50amp circuit, so it stays plugged in all the time. The ones over the sink area have not been working for awhile. I've just been lazy about checking them. But now it's worse. I'm still wondering what these AC connectors are that the diagram shows. I'll figure it out....eventually. Lol

[Thomas James]

OK guys...I think I got it narrowed down. I turned off my 50amp main, and it started inverting. And boom! I had 120v to all....well almost to all of my outlets. TV's worked, ice maker came on, bathroom GFCI's worked....all but the refrigerator, which I now know is not on the inverted circuit(I have a plan for that). Now I also did NOT have power to one outlet overhead on the right side of my coach, just in front of the frig. Also, there was no power to the one GFCI in my basement next to my inverter. But, when I turned my Main back on everything that was on went off. But my Frig started working as did that one overhead outlet and the basement GFCI. But, I'm now out of time. Have to be continued tomorrow. So, am I down to checking incoming power and maybe my 50amp coach main??

[Thomas James]

OK, update. I DO have 240v(120 both legs)coming in from my 50amp main that I installed. And the surge protector lights say everything is wired OK. Now, it acts the same way when I start the Generator....Everything goes out except that one little circuit from the basement up to and including the frig. All other outlets are dead. The rooftop AC's work good tho...Lol It's gotta be in my main AC panel, right?

[Jerry Emert]

OK, update. I DO have 240v(120 both legs)coming in from my 50amp main that I installed. And the surge protector lights say everything is wired OK. Now, it acts the same way when I start the Generator....Everything goes out except that one little circuit from the basement up to and including the frig. All other outlets are dead. The rooftop AC's work good tho...Lol It's gotta be in my main AC panel, right?

Or possibly missing one leg in the transfer switch.  Just spit balling here!  Do either your AC units work when on shore power?  Does anything change on generator power?  A few thoughts.  Good luck.

[Joel Ashley]

Most of the outlets controlled through the inverter (including an in-fridge icemaker but not the fridge itself) are passed through to the Main for power when it's on.  I'm not familiar with your coach, but on ours there's a 30 amp breaker at the far right in the 50amp Main box, and one at the head of the inverter box, that's for the inverter and those inverter-controlled circuits.  If one of those breakers was not engaged or faulty, I might expect symptoms like your seeing.  The circuits theoretically would work from inverted battery power, but not from park power.  That one basement circuit for some reason is apparently not in the inverter's circuits, but off the Main.

As you've discovered, the fridge is on its own non-inverted 110v circuit/outlet due to its "24/7" power demand, unlike say a TV's or 110v light's intermittent use.  It's either park power or gas to save batteries.  You mention a diagram, but perhaps what you need is a full 110v system one?  That should reveal the two main alternating circuit boxes, what each controls, and how they're connected.

Joel

[Thomas James]

OK...I may have missed something. Check this out. Looking at the Magnum diagram...(BTW, I have one AC input and two AC outputs), if I have only one input and two outputs, I am supposed to piggy back off of one of the inputs over to the other input. Then just wire my two outputs accordingly.?? Basically a jumper between both inputs. Well, I didn't do that. I just wired in my one input, then my two outputs. So maybe I just need a jumper between the two inputs for both the outputs to work?? I have no idea. But that's what it looks like to me just from looking at the diagram. Help!!!!

[Joel Ashley]

You've found the wiring diagrams for '94-95 Patriots in the club's Coach Assist section?

[Thomas James]

Got it fixed! Yay me! Yep, i had to add a jumper wire between input 1 and 2. I called Magnum just to make sure I was reading it right...I was. Took about 3 minutes to make a little 2" jumper wire and install it. Now everything works. Yay. Now on to my air leak....Somewhere.

[Thomas James]

And thanks again to everyone for all the help. It really IS appreciated! later,

[Joel Ashley]

So the issue was entirely with the inverter setup?  It wasn't installed correctly, or someone had worked on it recently or before you got the coach?  Or had you installed it and just missed the jumper wire instruction?  Happens to all of us I reckon, even when we think we are being perfectly careful.

Joel