Granny needing some advice

[grannytosix]

Hi, Well this grandma has finally gotten her trailer (sunline solaris t2670) on it's site and have spent a weekend there with one grandson and my youngest two sons. Had a great time thanks to all the information sent to me by very helpful people on this site.
I do have a problem with a leak under the bathroom sink. I was told it was the t connection that was cracked so I figured out how to take it off. Now I am hoping that a trailer store will have a replacement. I was wondering if it was leaking because maybe the water pressure is too great. I have a 100ft hose, heavy duty type connected to the trailer. Maybe I should have used something thinner???
I also have a question about the electricity- not all the plugs seem to have strong power. The electric can opener won't work, my cell phone didn't recharge etc. Is there a limit to what you can use....I have 30 amp. The tv, toaster and clock all work well. Also is the heater run by propane or is it electric also. Is there some way to check this out?
I am looking forward to next weekend camping again but it sure would be nice to have running water.
Sharon

[DF5.4]

For the water I use a pressure regulator between the faucet and the hose. All a thinner hose is going to do is limit how much water gets to the camper not how much static pressure there is.

[Steve Collins]

Regarding the power, it is unlikely that you would get low voltage to just one or two outlets. It is a simple 110 vac system not unlike the electric in your home so the 110vac is either there or not. Unless there is a short somewhere in the system or defective appliance plugged in, this should generally be the case.

If you have a couple of outlets that do work, and a couple that don't, the first thing to check is the circuit breakers. Open the cover on the convertor, and you should find some circuit breakers. They are identical to the ones at home. (My 200 amp panel at home uses the exact same brand of breakers as in the Sunline.) Check them to make sure that they are all on and not tripped or off.

An easy way to check each outlet is to take a small lamp (nightlights work great) or am/fm radio and make sure it is on, and then go to each outlet, plug the appliance in and see if it comes on.

If you find one or more outlet(s) are dead, plug an AM/FM radio into them and make sure it is on and tuned to a station. When you flip the proper breaker on (or reset it if tripped), the radio comes on. (Old electrician's trick; eliminates the need for a second person or long walks between the panel and outlet to see if the outlet is now working.)

If any of the outlets are GFCI's (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor), there is a little push button on them. Make sure that button is in. If it is out, the GFCI has been tripped or tested and the individual outlet is off.

I am not aware that Sunline built any units with wall switches controlling the 110vac outlets. But it is possible that a previous owner may have installed one or more or it was a custom install by Sunline at the buyer's request. If that is the case, it is likely that they used switches identical to the regular wall switches in your home, and not 12vdc style switches that control the overhead lights in your Sunline. You might want to look around and make sure you know what every switch in the trailer does.

Some of us have the little testers that will tell you if an outlet is properly wired. They plug into regular wall outlets and will tell you right away if there is a problem in the wiring of that outlet. There are different versions for regular and GFCI outlets. I have both, and test the power in the site hookup before I plug the trailer in.

I also have a cheap multimeter ($14 at any hardware or home improvement store), and I use it to test the voltage before I plug in the trailer. There are also system monitors available that can be installed in your trailer to constantly monitor the power but I think it is important to check this before hooking up.

It is also remotely possible that your 110vac trailer is some how connected to a 220vac power source. Someone who is familiar with the difference should look at your hookup.

Seasonal campgrounds (in my experience) have a wide variety of quality in their electric systems so it is possible that you are not getting good power to the trailer. It is worth the time and effort to verify this.

It has been my experience that the 110vac systems in Sunlines are very robust unless they have been modified after leaving the factory. There is an outside possibility that there is a broken wire affecting one or more outlets. If none of the above suggestions solves the problem then you might want to have someone who is comfortable repairing 110vac take a look at it.

[grannytosix]

Good morning,
Thanks for the great information. I will check the breakers first but where do I find the electrical panel??? If the breakers are all on then I will go buy a tester to test each outlet.

Do you know if the furnace is run by the propane or is it electric? Last weekend it was just above freezing and we needed it. Even for this part of Canada it was really cold for this time of year.

Sharon

[DF5.4]

The furnace is propane heat with an electric blower.

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by grannytosix

Good morning,
Thanks for the great information. I will check the breakers first but where do I find the electrical panel??? If the breakers are all on then I will go buy a tester to test each outlet.

What year is your trailer? That may help describing the panel that you are looking for that contains the breakers.

On my '99, the panel is a Magnatek 6300 and is located just below the refrigerator close to the floor. It looks like this:


There is a little plastic slot at the top center of the upper panel of the unit. Use a coin or screwdriver to rotate that slot 90 degrees. That will unlatch the cover and it swings down to open it up.

With the unit open, there are circuit breakers on one side, and standard automotive style fuses on the other. The breakers control any 110vac appliances and outlets in the trailer. The fuses control various 12vdc appliances, and should be labelled. The unit looks like this when opened:


The Magnatek 6300's were used for a number of years in Sunlines, so if your unit is more than a couple of years old, it probably has one, too. If your unit is newer, it may have a different brand or model of panel, but they are all fairly similar in size (about 12"x12" give or take a few inches) and appearance. The method of opening the panel may be a knob instead of the little slot, and the door may open to the left or right instead of swinging down.

To the best of my knowledge, the convertor panels are almost always located:
1. Down low near the floor.
2. On the same side of the trailer as the electric cord hatch (driver's side).
3. Directly adjacent to the electric cord hatch.
In other words, where ever the main electric cord enters the trailer via a little plastic door, inside at about the same location you should find the panel down low near the floor.

BTW, the furnace is 12vdc for the blower and control circuitry. That means the convertor has to be working properly, and on most trailers there has to be a 12vdc battery for the 12vdc appliances to properly work. Some of the newer trailers have better convertors and may not need the battery for this, but it is greatly preferred.

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by grannytosix

Good morning,
Thanks for the great information. I will check the breakers first but where do I find the electrical panel??? If the breakers are all on then I will go buy a tester to test each outlet.

Sharon, one more thing before you go buy any testers....

The breakers, when tripped, will move just a little bit off of the "on" position. When checking a breaker, flip it all the way off and then back on. Make sure the handle is all the way in the on position. Some breakers will stop at the tripped position if you don't press them all the way to the on position.

When the breakers are properly turned on, double check the GCFI outlets to make sure they are not tripped. There are two buttons on a GFCI outlet, "test" and "reset". Press the test button, and the GFCI should shut off and the reset button will pop up about an 1/8" to 3/16". Press the reset button back in to reset it. Then plug an appliance or lamp into the outlet and see if it works.

[Steve Collins]

As long as we are talking about 110vac problems in our Sunlines, here are the three basic testers that I have in my kit:


The red one is for testing GFCI outlets, and has a test button for that in addition to the indicator lights. The yellow one is for standard outlets. They both can tell:

* Open Ground
* Open Neutral
* Open Hot
* Hot/Ground Reversed
* Hot/Neutral Reversed
* Correct

This is shown by lighting up one or more of three little lights on the end of the tester. The legend for this is on both sides of the testers so that it can be read regardless of orientation of the outlet in question.

Even if I can not repair it myself, I at least know not to use an outlet if there is a problem. Very handy for checking campground power before hooking up the trailer. If the campground only has the 30 amp RV conncectors, I also carry the adaptor for that.

The multimeter comes with an instruction manual and cost me about $14. It can test for voltage in any range from 1vdc to 220vac so it is useful in home, trailer, and automotive applications. It can also test resistance which is especially helpful if you are trying to find a short or open in a circuit. It will also test low current amperage, but that's not much use in our trailers or cars.

[henryj]

I'm a bit late on this thread, but we've been camping for the last 3 days.

Sharon, this may be the answer to at least part of your problems... or be completely off base. I'm not at all familiar with older Sunlines, but I know that, starting somewhere before 05, Sunlines exported to Canada were wired differently (CSA standards) than the US ones.

Steve guessed right, our 05 has a toggle switch above the kitchen counter that prevents us from using the microwave and electric hot water heater at the same time. If your trailer also has this switch and no one explained how to use it, it can be confusing. Basically the switch turns off the microwave outlet or overrides the control panel HWH switch with no indication of what it's done other than its position. You simply have to remember to flip it up for microwave and down for HWH. At least its positions are logical. But... there's a third position--in the middle--that turns both microwave and HWH off, again, with no indication of what it's done. We habitually leave our switch in the HWH position because if the microwave doesn't come on it's pretty obvious the switch needs to go up. If you turn on the HWH at the control panel and don't get hot water, that can be annoying. If you don't have a 3 position toggle switch, this has nothing to do with your problem and you can ignore everything I just said. Sorry.