gary350
Full Member
We should have gone camping today it is going to snow 6" tonight.
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1964 FAN
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Post by gary350 on Dec 10, 2015 10:42:06 GMT -8
The lights in the camper started flickering, dim, bright, dim, bright, dim, bright, over and over. Flickering stopped and lights worked fine for several seconds then the flickering started again. Flickering started and stopped several times. This flickering continued for more than a minute then it got worse. Lights were going almost out then come on again but not coming on very bright this different type flickering lasted about 1 minutes then the lights went off and stayed off. The problem obviously is not the circuit breakers but I checked them both anyway. The 120 volt 15 amp breaker in the camper trailer was good. The 120 volt 20 amp breaker at the camp site was good. Electricity is working at the camp site electrical box but no electricity coming out of the 15 amp extension cord. I have learned there is a problem with the cord good thing I bought a new spare cord 4 weeks ago. I replaced the cord and the camper trailer has electricity again. Next is inspected the 15 amp extension cord and found a burned 6" long place on 1 side of the orange color cord. One whole side of the cord was black and burned out like a hollow egg shell. Copper wires were burned completely off with a 2" gap between the wires. The orange color outside cord covering is the only thing connected the 2 sections of the cord together. Something started the wires arcing and it got worse until if finally burned the copper wire out and one side off the cord. Wow this is interesting I have seen cords get hot and go up in smoke and short out and go off like fireworks but have not seen this before. This was a new 25 foot long 15 amp 120 volt cord. The camper trailer has all new #14 Romex copper wire with ground.
Be sure you have a spare electrical cord with you when you go camping. Be sure you have a volt meter too. Be sure you have circuit breakers and make sure they work. Be sure your wire is sized correctly to handle the full amp load. |
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Post by danrhodes on Dec 10, 2015 13:19:51 GMT -8
Sounds a bit like your camper is pulling more power than you think it is. Do you have a current clamp for your DMM? Always a chance you just got a shoddy extension cord with wires too small for 15A, but you should be able to open it up and read the wire gauge on the jacket (or use your wire strippers to determine the gauge), then Google the current carrying capacity of that gauge.
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Post by vikx on Dec 10, 2015 21:43:29 GMT -8
I recommend a 12ga cord no more than 25 feet with an all electric camper. The inlet should be beefed up as well, but if you only use one appliance at a time, it will work. In other words, cooktop but no electric heater or coffee pot at the same time.
Years ago, I ended up with a mess with my Holiday Rambler. It was a 30 amp trailer, but I overloaded the circuit and almost burned a building down...
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Offspringin
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1976 Apache Ramada
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Post by Offspringin on Feb 12, 2016 23:03:30 GMT -8
I recommend a 12ga cord no more than 25 feet with an all electric camper. The inlet should be beefed up as well, but if you only use one appliance at a time, it will work. In other words, cooktop but no electric heater or coffee pot at the same time. Years ago, I ended up with a mess with my Holiday Rambler. It was a 30 amp trailer, but I overloaded the circuit and almost burned a building down... Yup. We have found that to work for us in the Shasta. We redid the electrical and rewired the whole thing based on what's plugged in where. The out the runs the AC is on the same circuit as the outlet for the space heater with the understanding we would never be running both. I believe our 30amp RV cord is 10ga. Generally are not operating multiple high amp items at once but if we did I could see it possibly overloading the site circuit. |
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