1997 t-2053 wiring help

[Campndad]

Having an issue with wiring not having power for outlets in back bedroom and outside outlet. I’m guessing these outlets are all connected and I have a loose wire or something is not connected at the beginning. My question is, where does it start? Does it go from power panel to back left outlet box in bedroom, or go from power panel to under stove outlet to outside and then loops? If I can find the start I should be able to find the loose wire or break, and then reconnect or rewire. I figured I’d ask before I start going through process of elimination. Thanks again for any help.

[mainah]

Checked the GFI? I'm guessing your's has more than one. It may even have a GFI breaker. Generally wiring does not go bad unless it has been tinkered with.

[Campndad]

Checked the gfi and pulled all the fuses and I didn’t see any breaks. Breaker switches were checked as well. We have outlet power at table, bathroom, and kitchen outlet. Don’t have power at all in bedroom in both outlets, and outlet for outside plug at awning.

[Campndad]

Thinking about swapping some new fuses in in case it’s something I’m missing. Any more input is appreciated.

[JohnB]

A few things to help the cause.

On a 97 camper, there would not be "fuses" in the 120 VAC power lines. They do use the fuses on the 12 volt DC lines. Point being, changing the 12 volt DC fuses would not correct a 120 VAC outlet problem.

This info created a thought.

Originally Posted by Campndad

Checked the gfi and pulled all the fuses and I didn’t see any breaks. Breaker switches were checked as well. We have outlet power at table, bathroom, and kitchen outlet. Don’t have power at all in bedroom in both outlets, and outlet for outside plug at awning.

I looked up your floor plan (1997 T-2053) to get a feel for how the camper "might" be wired. The outside outlet by the awning is "normally" on a GFI circuit as that is a wet area. The outlet box for the GFI needs to be bigger (deeper) to hold the GFI size, and that means the outside outlet is only mounted in the wall that is not deep enough to hold the GFI itself. That means the outside outlet is on the down stream end of a GFI somewhere else in the camper. The 2 common places for a GFI are, in the galley/kitchen area and in the bathroom. Those 2 GFI are "normally" on 2 separate circuit breakers.

Sunline does jump from outlet to outlet on the same circuit. If the GFI is not sending power down stream of it, or any other outlet, then everything down stream will be dead. The older GFI's do go flaky every now and then and stop working.

I'm assuming the bedroom outlets are by the head of the bed OR at the wall mounted TV shelf? Is that right? We really do not know your exact outlet layout. The head of the bed outlet would make sense to be powered from the bathroom GFI as it is so close. The TV shelf on the awning side wall, "might" be tied to the same power as the head of the bed outlets OR be powered from the outside awning outlet. And the outside awning outlet "might" be powered off the kitchen sink area GFI as it is so close.

It does sound like you have a wire unhooked or a GFI issue. Unless a member has your exact floor plan and ideally a 1997 version, and they know all the wire runs and what outlet is on what circuit, it is hard to tell how Sunline exactly ran the wires from the breaker panel and which outlet they reached first.

If I was going to "guess", the unhooked wire might be at one of the 2 GFI's OR at the outside outlet box as first places to check. The outside outlet often uses screw terminals on the receptacles and so does many of the GFI's. On the other outlets, Sunline started used speed boxes which where the box and the outlet all one and look like this. And the speed boxes normally are not an issue.






The GFI's are in a box extender, looks like this




I'm not sure what model year Sunline switched to these speed boxes.

Hope this helps

John

[mainah]

If it is near water sink, bath, or outside it has to be on a GFI circuit. If there is no power to a GFI it will not reset. Trip the gfi and reset it if it won't rest it's either toes up or it has no power.

[Torskdoc423]

I had a similar problem with my outside outlet on the T-2570. Turned out it was an intermittent INSIDE the outlet. It WAS a speed plug and the hot worked itself loose. Put a new outdoor outlet in and wrapped the wire ends over the screws. Then I took all of the remaining outlets and did the same. NO MORE PROBLEMS.

[Campndad]

Let me snap some pics

[Campndad]

See pictures

[Campndad]

Outside outlet no go
Kitchen good
Bathroom good
2 in bedroom no go

[Torskdoc423]

Campndad; I'm betting the speed connections (push the wire in) on the outlets have lost tension, and have lost connection. Pull each wire (unplug the trailer 1st!! VERY IMPORTANT!!) one at a time, from the back of the outlet, and make a 1/2 loop in end of wire, and put it under the screw on that side (doesn't matter which one as they're connected),Tighten down, rinse & repeat for the other side. Can you open the one's that aren't working and take a couple pictures, along with one of the GFCI outlets inside.



John; my 03 T2570 has standard boxes for the regular outlets, and the "speedboxes" for GFCI. I just replaced the outlet on the outside due to the springs losing tension and making an intermittent connection. Very cheap outlet even tho it's a leviton.

[Campndad]

Outside receptacle. All wires were tight.

[Campndad]

Outlet at kitchen only one wire coming in and it works fine.

[Campndad]

At tv in bedroom. No power, messed with wires to make sure it had good contact, still nothing.

[Campndad]

Beside bed, wires is just split for a through wire. Messed with it to make sure it had good contact. Still nothing.

[Campndad]

Bathroom has 2 wires running in, does not work when appliance galley breaker on, but works when general purpose converter is on.

[Torskdoc423]

UNPLUG THE SHORE LINE, and stow the cable and plug in it's compt.



Open your Power Panel and with a flat head screwdriver handy, check attachment of the wiring to the circuit breakers, make sure all wiring is inserted fully, and tightened down. There may be a circuit that has a stub wire off it, and 2-3 others tie into it. Make sure all wires are fully inserted and the Wirenut is TIGHT!!!! Wrap with Electrical tape and place it where it won't move or get pinched.


Gawd I hate those 3M type push thru electrical connectors on the outlets.



If you aren't comfortable probing with a meter on energized circuits, don't. If it were mine, I'd back track the wiring with the meter to the circuit breaker, find the fault, the replace EVERY Speed type outlet in the unit (along with new boxes). If you should go that route wrap the wires around the side screws.


Cycle the GFCI outlet, and see if you get continuity from the BLACK line Screw to the BLACK LOAD Screw. Check the neutral side also. If not then the GFCI is most likely bad. Replace it.

[Campndad]

Tightened connections on the wires hit the reset a few times and voila. I now have power in the bedroom and outside outlet.
So this is what I’m taking from this bathroom feeds bedroom outlets and goes to outside outlet as well. If anyone has anything to add, please let me know.
I did have one question, why does the general purpose inverter breaker switch run bathroom, bedroom, and outside outlet? Just curious, I’m new to campers.

[Campndad]

Just wanted to say thanks again to you all for the ideas and help. Kind of learning as I go with this thing.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Campndad

Tightened connections on the wires hit the reset a few times and voila. I now have power in the bedroom and outside outlet.
So this is what I’m taking from this bathroom feeds bedroom outlets and goes to outside outlet as well. If anyone has anything to add, please let me know.
I did have one question, why does the general purpose inverter breaker switch run bathroom, bedroom, and outside outlet? Just curious, I’m new to campers.

Great! Seems like you got it. Goof for you! And you learned some more on your camper.

To your question on the "general purpose" circuit. From what I have found out on how Sunline wired the campers, something to realize these campers are not built/wired like a house that has lots of AC power available.

Remember, there is only a 30 amp 120V incoming power line. Yet the camper allows you to have outlets in many places for convenience and not to be running extension cords all over.

They had to split the 30 amp supply into branch circuits the best way they "thought" customers would use their campers.

The GFI in the galley is most likely on its own 15 amp circuit breaker allowing the customer to plug in a toaster, coffee pot or other heat producing appliances for cooking.

They also have a dedicated 15 amp circuit for the microwave. And a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the roof AC unit. And if your camper has the option, a separate 15 amp breaker for the electric element on the water heater. Now comes all the other general purpose outlets in the camper that seem to be on the same separate 15 amp circuit including the fridge heating element. As you can see, you already way over the 30 amp supply to power the entire camper if everything is powered fully at the same time.

Splitting up the general purpose breaker does not really benefit from splitting up the rooms and the other items on it any further. There is not enough power coming to the camper to make it practical.

Now, you are starting to realize while you are thinking about it, I cannot power up everything in the camper on AC power and not trip the main 30 amp breaker? That's right, you can't. Not to mention plugging anything extra into a outlet anywhere in the camper.

Camper folks need to understand that you really only want one large power drawing device on at a time as there are small AC loads already needing to be on. I have boiled it down to explain to my wife, only 1 heat producing device at a time can you turn on. If you run the microwave, then no roof AC unit on at the same time. If you want to plug the curling iron or hair dryer in the bathroom, only 1 at a time and nothing else large power running. No roof AC unit and the water heater on electric at the same time. Run the water heater on gas when using the AC unit. And so on. It is all manageable once you realize, the camper is not powered up like a house, even though we have almost everything in a camper like a house including the kitchen sink!

Another thing to remember, when you start getting real close to a full 30 amp draw on the shore line cord, tarnish on the plug blades and the campground outlet at the power post will create a good amount of heat at a full 30 amps. It ends up melting you shore line plug. It is good to lightly sand the plug blades every so often to make them shinny and get good, tight contact can can pass the full 30 amps. You can't do much about the camp power post. If the plug is real loose in the outlet, tell the camp office. They get calls a lot on power posts.

Here is the one and only Sunline newer camper wiring diagram we have from a 2004 T2499. While each floor plan has some differences, the way the AC power is split up is very close. See here for a link to it in our files section. Down load a copy and see how close yours comes to it. Then mark it up for your camper for future reference. https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/d...do=file&id=357

Hope this helps

John