jannica
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Post by jannica on Aug 30, 2014 13:52:54 GMT -8
I fixed it!! It was something so simple. A tiny part of the hot wire inside of the fixture above the bed had worn down and was exposed and touching the ground wire. No wonder it wasn't working! Now it's working, what a relief! I've decided after this that I'm still going to have an electrician come by from the rv shop just to double check my work. I don't want to burn down my camper or myself!
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shasta15
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Post by shasta15 on Aug 30, 2014 19:25:29 GMT -8
Glad to hear you figured it out - it is so rewarding, and such a relief, when you finally find the answer.
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Aug 31, 2014 5:56:39 GMT -8
Glad to hear you figured it out - it is so rewarding, and such a relief, when you finally find the answer. Thanks, I fully agree. I was so frustrated that after all of my hard work, it wasn't working properly! I still can't believe it was such a tiny problem that was causing the whole thing not to work. Just goes to show how tricky electrical work can be! I know my calling in life was not to be an electrician now. haha
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pathfinder3081
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Post by pathfinder3081 on Sept 2, 2014 4:27:53 GMT -8
Hey you, I just caught up and I must say.. good work! I looked through your box and format on the first page and it all looked fine to me. (smile)I was glad to read page two and see your discovery.
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Post by bigbill on Sept 2, 2014 5:17:33 GMT -8
If the fixture was "hot" when you touched it you had a ground fault, that is I why install ground fault interrupters in my circuits. Also if the hot wire was touching the White insulated wire which some people call the ground/Common it should have tripped a breaker, if it was touching the bare ground wire it should have fed back through the shore line instead of shocking you if the trailer is wired right. Under the right conditions you could have received a serious shock.
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Sept 2, 2014 18:47:54 GMT -8
Hey you, I just caught up and I must say.. good work! I looked through your box and format on the first page and it all looked fine to me. (smile)I was glad to read page two and see your discovery. Thanks! Yes, I was happy to find the little problem, because a little problem can easily cause a very big problem when it comes to electricity! I had the electrician come today and check everything out just to be sure. He said that I had done a good job and everything was wired correctly. The ground wire didn't have a good connection in the problem fixture, so he added a new ground just to be safe. A big thank you to you for showing me how to do it! I wouldn't have attempted this if you hadn't posted the very clear instructions!
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pathfinder3081
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Post by pathfinder3081 on Sept 3, 2014 4:39:20 GMT -8
I just visited your blog.. too cool, it had been a while since I'd visited it. I have decided to pull the trigger next year on the AC hook up, just go ahead and do it. I like your install and your camper is the BOMB! It was funny as I read through your words, because my camper is done too... Now what? (lol) :-/We have been camping yes, and we have been traveling overseas quite abit this summer, but I don't have anything to work on this winter.. I am going to park our camper in the garage and just go out and look at it? nada.. I'm keeping my eyes peeled.. I want to do a VW camper I think..an early 70 something.. Anyhow, You've done a good job Jannica!
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Sept 3, 2014 17:15:54 GMT -8
I just visited your blog.. too cool, it had been a while since I'd visited it. I have decided to pull the trigger next year on the AC hook up, just go ahead and do it. I like your install and your camper is the BOMB! It was funny as I read through your words, because my camper is done too... Now what? (lol) :-/We have been camping yes, and we have been traveling overseas quite abit this summer, but I don't have anything to work on this winter.. I am going to park our camper in the garage and just go out and look at it? nada.. I'm keeping my eyes peeled.. I want to do a VW camper I think..an early 70 something.. Anyhow, You've done a good job Jannica! Thanks! Yeah, I'm afraid I may need to start on another project soon too, but not for at least another year so we'll see. I love the old VW campers, that's a great idea! I would want one myself but I know nothing about engines so I would be afraid. I hope you get one so I can follow along on your restoration journey!
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Sept 6, 2014 13:34:37 GMT -8
Well I plugged my camper in again yesterday for the first time since the electrician was here and it doesn't work!! It's sending power to all of the receptacles but it's not sending the enough voltage so nothing works. I think it might be a grounding issue, but I just redid my ground wire and made sure there was no paint or anything on the frame or the bolt where it's connected and it's still not sending enough power. I don't get it! This electrical system is starting to become the bane of my existence. does anyone have advice on getting the proper ground on your trailer? I'm using 8 gauge wire and it's attached securely to the metal frame. I can't imagine what the problem could be...
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pirateslife
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Post by pirateslife on Sept 6, 2014 15:33:30 GMT -8
Sounds like its time to break out the multi meter. starting with the main line coming in, check the voltage on both sides where you have the wire "jumped". Check it with the hot on the lugs for and the ground on the neutral and the ground bars. You should have approximately 120 volts all ways. Then the same process from the breaker hot terminal to the neutral and the ground bars. same here @120 volts. Then same process at the outlets. Red test lead in the left side of the outlet (with the ground terminal down) Check the ground in both neutral and ground slots with the black lead. Did you "backwire", plug the wires into the outlets or wrap them on the terminal screws (recommended). Your trailer ground is basically a secondary, you should have a sufficient ground coming in from the shore power. also be sure to check the voltage coming in through the shore power cord is 120 also. while it can seem overwhelming, this is a simple system and very easy to diagnose with simple testing
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Sept 6, 2014 15:52:21 GMT -8
Sounds like its time to break out the multi meter. starting with the main line coming in, check the voltage on both sides where you have the wire "jumped". Check it with the hot on the lugs for and the ground on the neutral and the ground bars. You should have approximately 120 volts all ways. Then the same process from the breaker hot terminal to the neutral and the ground bars. same here @120 volts. Then same process at the outlets. Red test lead in the left side of the outlet (with the ground terminal down) Check the ground in both neutral and ground slots with the black lead. Did you "backwire", plug the wires into the outlets or wrap them on the terminal screws (recommended). Your trailer ground is basically a secondary, you should have a sufficient ground coming in from the shore power. also be sure to check the voltage coming in through the shore power cord is 120 also. while it can seem overwhelming, this is a simple system and very easy to diagnose with simple testing Thanks for the advice! I don't actually have a multi meter but I was already planning to buy one after all this mess. I had just been using my basic voltage meter, but it doesn't tell me how many volts are running through each receptacle so it's not that helpful. I will go buy one tomorrow and start trying to find the cause of this problem. I agree, this is a simple system so I should be able to get it to work...eventually. Question, what did you mean "hot on the lugs"? Was that a typo or does that mean something? I didn't know what you meant by lugs. I used the terminal screws as recommended. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow when I use the multi meter.
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pirateslife
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Post by pirateslife on Sept 6, 2014 16:02:06 GMT -8
put the red test lead to each of the "lugs" screws where your black wire comes in to the circuit panel
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Post by vikx on Sept 6, 2014 22:16:59 GMT -8
OK, start at the beginning: 1. Test the outlet that you will use for the trailer.This will give you practice with the meter and show you how the reading looks. (assuming the outlet is good) Should be in the 118 to 122 range with the meter set to AC/200. 2. Plug the trailer in. Remove the cover from the breaker box and turn the breakers off. Put the black test probe on the white/common/neutral bar. Touch the main lug (where the black wire comes in from the inlet or cord) with the red probe. Reading should be the same as above. Test the other (jumped) lug. IF YOU DON'T GET THE PROPER READINGS, it means that the problem is at or before the breaker box, not beyond. 3. Remove the black incoming wire from the lug and test as above. (black to common bar, Red to black wire) If there is no reading, the problem is the cord or inlet connection. 4. If the reading is correct, we proceed. Note: In a travel trailer the Common bar and Grounds should ALWAYS be isolated. That means white wires and copper wires are in separate bars and the white bar is insulated from the box ground. (usually mounted in plastic) Grounding the common bar causes trouble in a trailer... 5. Inspect the wiring in the box. Remember, grounds and commons have separate bars, black to the lugs, usually jumped: Ground bar on the left, Common on the Right. Corrections may be necessary here. 6. If all readings are good to this point, turn on one breaker and test the outlets. If your readings are incorrect, it means more sleuthing. If good, turn off breaker #1 and test #2. At this point, if you still don't have 120, it's time to call your electrician. Something is mis-wired. You could check every receptacle for proper polarity: white on the common side, black on the hot side, fixtures as well, but it's a bit more difficult from here on out. Hope this helps.
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Sept 7, 2014 6:35:43 GMT -8
Thanks guys! I am about to go to the store to buy a multi meter so I can get started diagnosing the problem. Here's a picture of my breaker box so you can see how I set it up. I followed the instructions in pathfinder's post, so I'm pretty sure it's all set up correctly. The only thing not installed yet in the picture below is the main ground wire. I added that after I took this picture and I don't have another close up with it installed. If it were there, you would see it coming in the same opening as the 10 gauge wire (seen on the right) which is the wire leading to the power inlet. It is connected to the ground bar on the bottom of the photo (left side of the breaker box). I used 8 gauge wire for the ground and drilled a hole through the floor and attached it securely to a bolt going through the frame. I thought maybe it was the ground wire yesterday, so I removed it and scraped all the paint off the frame, just to be sure it was fully touching metal and then reconnected it. It didn't make any difference. The top of the photo is where you'll see my neutral bar. The main power is connected to the 20 amp breaker seen on the bottom (or left side of breaker box). The strangest part about this is that I had everything working last weekend! The only problem then was that one of the light fixtures wasn't grounded properly, and it was causing the whole fixture to be "hot". The lights were working at that time and getting full power. Then, an electrician came by on Tuesday and messed with the two light fixtures and added a better ground to the one that had the issue and everything was working. I moved the trailer when he was here because we were testing the tail lights. Then this weekend, it's suddenly not getting enough power. It sounds like a ground issue to me, but after redoing the ground and it not being better, I can't figure it out. The only other problem I can think of is that maybe something came loose inside the main power inlet when I moved the trailer. I wouldn't think it would be that easy for it to come loose since the trailer will be moving around a lot, but maybe I didn't secure it well enough or something. I will find out soon when I test the wires if that's the problem.
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jannica
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Post by jannica on Sept 7, 2014 10:49:40 GMT -8
Update: I went to the store and bought a multi meter. I didn't want a super expensive one since this may be the only time I'm really going to use it. I got one from Home Depot, www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Electrical-Analog-Multimeter-Test-Kit-69149/204367271. I came home and started testing everything, starting with the outlet in the garage that I will be plugging into. It works fine, showed 120v. Then I plugged in the camper and turned off both breakers to test the power coming in. Tested perfectly, showed 120v. The I tested each of the breakers separately inside the box and both are getting the full 120v from the power source. Then I tested the easier circuit to test because it only has one outlet on it, the one on the exterior of the camper. It tested perfectly, that outlet is getting 120v. Then I turned off that breaker and started testing everything on the circuit powering the interior lights and outlets. I tested the first outlet as well as the wires leading to the fixture box over the bed, both worked great. Then I connected those back together and tested the next outlet in the closet. I thought I had found the problem because the wires going to the outlet worked great, but when I connected them back to the outlet, it didn't read any voltage. I checked with a different tool, the outlet testing tool (to show it it's wired correctly) and it showed it was wired correctly! So then I thought maybe my multi meter wasn't picking it up right for some reason, so I went back in the house to try it out on an outlet inside and nothing. So apparently the multi meter broke on me or shorted out...already!! Have any of you had this kind of trouble? I think electrical wiring and me just don't go together.
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