Battery compartment????

[mainah]

https://nationalserroscotty.org/reso...lPowerPack.pdf
This should help you help you.

[TheHunter]

Well I went to unplug the camper today and the plug has melted badly enough I'll need to replace the socket head. Granted I was using a 25' heavy extension cord on top of the camper cord that's probably 20' but all I was running was a electric heater. So hopefully it was just a loose plug caused this

[Tinstaafl]

Not the ideal setup of course, but I've run a space heater with exactly the same setup for months at a time (12 gauge ext cord) with no ill effects. You're probably right, poor connection.

[TheHunter]

Originally Posted by Tinstaafl

Not the ideal setup of course, but I've run a space heater with exactly the same setup for months at a time (12 gauge ext cord) with no ill effects. You're probably right, poor connection.

That's what I'm hoping for sure. My extension cord not sure the gauge but it's heavy and has the 3 plugs on the end, but one of those sockets did sometimes not fit real good and I probably plugged into that one 😒

[mainah]

Yes generally it's a poor connection that causes burning. Long cords will lower the voltage and the lower voltage causes higher current demand but that will lead to breaker tripping. I have seen some camper cords with a #12 wire but that is still capable of 20 amps. Is the camper plug an 30 amp RV plug or some thing some one cobbled up? The # should be NEMA TT30P Honestly don't know about slide in's but I can't imagine they would do any thing different than a full size camper.

[TheHunter]

Originally Posted by mainah

Yes generally it's a poor connection that causes burning. Long cords will lower the voltage and the lower voltage causes higher current demand but that will lead to breaker tripping. I have seen some camper cords with a #12 wire but that is still capable of 20 amps. Is the camper plug an 30 amp RV plug or some thing some one cobbled up? The # should be NEMA TT30P Honestly don't know about slide in's but I can't imagine they would do any thing different than a full size camper.

Yes it was a factory plug, I didn't read it but it's larger than the 15 amp the local hardware store had, using 15amp til the 30 amp shows up.

My heater I was using is 12.5 amps so I was drawing Abit thru it on top of what I'm pretty confident was a loose plug too.

I'm considering buying a new converter after all mostly because after I buy a trickle charger and isolator I'll be halfway there in cost already of the few cheaper ones that I've seen

[mainah]

Well you said the power on the 7 pin went off with the key so that would not be an issue as far as the isolator is concerned. I bought a battery maintainer a couple of days ago for my MG it was $19. Your converter has 120 volt circuits in it that supply power to the camper outlets if you replace it they would have to be dealt with. The converter in my T1700 had all of the DC circuits in it so I had to build a DC load center for it when I replaced the converter.

[TheHunter]

Wfco 8735 was the one I was considering that will actually fit the same hole as the old one. It has places for 3 or breakers, 12 volt ready, just need to wire up mine to it and with a built in charger. I've seen them as low as $120 but I would need to buy breakers still and blade style fuses

Just a consideration, I could very easily be talked out of it LoL

[mainah]

Give you another option, plug in timer. Just cycle it a couple of times every day. They work fine but the overall issue is over charging so you can make up for bad behavior by not allowing them to run 24/7. If you decide to go with a new one the 120 volt side is wired a bit different than a normal house it is considered a "sub panel" so the white wires are insolated from the ground on a different buss.

[TheHunter]

Originally Posted by mainah

Give you another option, plug in timer. Just cycle it a couple of times every day. They work fine but the overall issue is over charging so you can make up for bad behavior by not allowing them to run 24/7. If you decide to go with a new one the 120 volt side is wired a bit different than a normal house it is considered a "sub panel" so the white wires are insolated from the ground on a different buss.

I'm going to pull mine out today and take off the covers etc and really clean it out good and try again but it's still occasionally popping the built in breaker even with nothing turned on and just plugged in. Probably just a weak breaker, don't know but other than the front cover getting warm, (I think normal) every thing else is good as in nothing getting warm, hot or melting

[TheHunter]

Any reason anyone can think of as to why a common is disconnected?


That is the power going back out to the outlets that do still work

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by TheHunter

Any reason anyone can think of as to why a common is disconnected?


That is the power going back out to the outlets that do still work

ahhhh, something is not right in that pic. It looks like there is a black or dark colored romex cable with a black, white and bare ground wire coming out of it, and the white wire is the one wire nutted? Is that right?

If so, somebody mixed up something if the AC outlets are working.

You may have to pull out all the receptacles on that circuit and see what they have hooked up to what screw on the receptacle. Heck, they may have the ground on the common terminal. OR another issue with the fridge. See below.

Do you have one of these type testers? Plug it into all the outlets on each circuit and it can tell a lot of what is going on. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Receptac...-029/206303234

Can be most any brand.

In your camper, the white AC neutral and DC common (negative) are "not" to ever be mixed together. If they are, it will trip every GFIC you ever plug into. AC neutral and DC common can both have white wires, but are to be isolated and separate.

Sunline originally/normally used "solid" romex wire on 120 VAC wiring and stranded flexible wires on the 12 DC wiring regardless of color.

I cannot tell from that one pic, if the unattached white wire with the black wire nut was originally part of the grouped bundle of 3 white wires next to it. Cannot see what the 3 white wires go to.

I "suspect" a prior owner had issues tripping a GFIC outlet in his house or campground when he plugged into shore power. Also suspect, somewhere the AC neutral wire that is wire nutted separate, may be touching a ground wire somewhere in the camper. And the prior owner never trouble shot it far enough to find it. So they unhooked it. That does not solve the issue, and can lead to a shock hazard if something ever goes wrong.

Question, does the fridge in your camper have a 120 VAC electric element? If so, it is a classic issue that over time, the element corrodes/shorts the AC common to case ground in the element. It will not trip the circuit breaker, but it will trip a GFIC. If you back into an issue, just unplug the fridge 120 VAC element cord and see if the grounding/neutral issue goes away. If so, you need a new element in the fridge.

Hope this helps and let us know what you find.

John

[mainah]

OK it will work because of the ground wire. Now that can cause some issues. A camper panel is considered a sub panel and the ground and the neutral are not connected together unlike a house panel where they all use the same buss the white wire buss is not connected to the ground it is insulated from the ground in the box. There shouldn't be any thing in the converter that supplies power to anything AC it just gets power from the load center. So next question is the load center (120 volts) in the converter? Breakers etc?

[TheHunter]

Here's a better pic
Shore power in and going to the coils(name?) in center then out of there to the romax and out to the outlets. 12 volt on right side.

I checked that white wire that's capped off and it also has 110 volts.. suspicious? So then questioning why the outlets work I went to the first outlet inline and checked power and it had power on both sides!?!? So then I went to the second outlet in line and it had like 8 volts on both sides??? Then I went back to the first outlet which is the junction for the second outlet and disconnected the second outlet and rechecked power at the first and got 110 on one side and nothing on the other leg. My thought is there is a short between number 1 and number 2 outlet and someone capped off the white because if it's hooked up it's a dead short.

Hope you guys was able to follow that LoL

[mainah]

Step away from the wiring! OK you probably are using a DVM it can give you phantom voltages because it does not load a circuit. So does this thing have a breaker panel? If not it totally relies on what ever the slide in cable is attached to. There are two SJ cords do you know where they go one is with out a ground (green or coper) that I can see the other has a ground. The white wires from the cord with a ground has no cap just the inner connection part needs a real wire nut. The cable with the dangling white wire is most likely a replacement cable from the way it is mounted, the crimped connection is probable factory looks to have been cut and wire nutted to the incoming cable. The white wire needs to be connected to the rest of them but I would not do that until you can show me a green wire on the incoming cable. Because you have all kinds of basically floating stuff is most likely why you are getting crazy voltages. I'm pretty convinced the cable with the dangling white wire is a replacement if it has no ground wire it flat has to be replaced.

[JohnB]

To help the cause, see these pics of yours blown up and what I think is how this is wired. Please confirm. Click pics to expand

A blow up of your pic



A screen paste of the manual Mainah posted which may be the front of your power converter. Please confirm your front looks like this.


Your wiring with wire numbers and what I "think" is hooked to what... Please confirm.


This setup uses 1 circuit breaker for everything. It seems to be a push pull breaker in the front of the power converter. It has wire L1-1 black and wire # 4 yellow coming out of it.

The yellow # 4, feeds 3, black wires under one crimped wire nut. The 3 black wires are:

#1 is a romex wire feed to camper outlets

# 2 feeds the "convenience" outlet on the front of the power converter

# 3 feeds the transformer for the power converter.

Black #L1 is the shore line cord. Does your shore line cord only have a 15 amp normal looking plug?

As to your wire testing, something in the wiring is messed up on that black Romex cable. Rodents chewed through crossing ground to AC Neutral, it is wired wrong, or the fridge electric element is shorted ground to AC neutral.

Please confirm if you have a 120 VAC element in the fridge?

OK you tell us if any of this is right?

Hope this helps

John

[TheHunter]

Originally Posted by JohnB

To help the cause, see these pics of yours blown up and what I think is how this is wired. Please confirm. Click pics to expand

A blow up of your pic



A screen paste of the manual Mainah posted which may be the front of your power converter. Please confirm your front looks like this.


Your wiring with wire numbers and what I "think" is hooked to what... Please confirm.


This setup uses 1 circuit breaker for everything. It seems to be a push pull breaker in the front of the power converter. It has wire L1-1 black and wire # 4 yellow coming out of it.

The yellow # 4, feeds 3, black wires under one crimped wire nut. The 3 black wires are:

#1 is a romex wire feed to camper outlets

# 2 feeds the "convenience" outlet on the front of the power converter

# 3 feeds the transformer for the power converter.

Black #L1 is the shore line cord. Does your shore line cord only have a 15 amp normal looking plug?

As to your wire testing, something in the wiring is messed up on that black Romex cable. Rodents chewed through crossing ground to AC Neutral, it is wired wrong, or the fridge electric element is shorted ground to AC neutral.

Please confirm if you have a 120 VAC element in the fridge?

OK you tell us if any of this is right?

Hope this helps

John

Yep spot on

There is a copper ground going to romex

I now have a standard 30amp RV plug on and using a adapter to plug into house power

The fridge during all tests was unplugged so that's void

Back to my word jumble again now that new info is out LoL

I had 110 on both legs at fridge outlet but once I disconnected the wires going to the second outlet in living area the power on the neutral dropped off at fridge and my single white in converter is no longer hot. My assumption is that between fridge and living area something is crossed.

Let me know if I'm on the right path.

Here's a picture of the fridge outlet. The romex from converter is still wired to the outlet and the second outlet disconnected.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by TheHunter

The fridge during all tests was unplugged so that's void


I had 110 on both legs at fridge outlet but once I disconnected the wires going to the second outlet in living area the power on the neutral dropped off at fridge and my single white in converter is no longer hot. My assumption is that between fridge and living area something is crossed.

Let me know if I'm on the right path.

Good, you eliminated the fridge 120 vac element, at least for now.

You are on the right track, something messed up for sure. It is going to be a process of elimination.

By chance does the wiring over to the living area go across the ceiling? Most likely I'm assuming by the 2nd outlet wire heading up at the fridge.
Critters may have played a roll in chewing insulation on the wires in the attic. The hope is, something is goofed in the 2nd outlet box. It's easier to correct, maybe.

Good luck!

John

[TheHunter]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Good, you eliminated the fridge 120 vac element, at least for now.

You are on the right track, something messed up for sure. It is going to be a process of elimination.

By chance does the wiring over to the living area go across the ceiling? Most likely I'm assuming by the 2nd outlet wire heading up at the fridge.
Critters may have played a roll in chewing insulation on the wires in the attic. The hope is, something is goofed in the 2nd outlet box. It's easier to correct, maybe.

Good luck!

John

Thankfully nothing in ceiling. It's quite simple actually, the wire from fridge outlet goes thru the wall and under a false floor in the cabinets and the outlet is under the wall cabinet. From converter to last outlet is only about 12' of wire so I'll just replace it all and be done with it.

Not a good pic but here's a picture of the cabinet. The red line represents the wire from fridge to last outlet

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by TheHunter

Thankfully nothing in ceiling. It's quite simple actually, the wire from fridge outlet goes thru the wall and under a false floor in the cabinets and the outlet is under the wall cabinet. From converter to last outlet is only about 12' of wire so I'll just replace it all and be done with it.

Now your talking, good. Something is messed up in the wiring for sure. Glad it is that simple. Let us know when it you get done. Learn something new all the time here on Sunline owners club!