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Old 06-20-2014, 09:10 PM   #1
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Got to camp ground and have no power

Went to the campground tonight for the first time since completing the bus conversion. Plugged in camper and no power...ugh
Bus has 30 amp RV cord. 100 amp service box in camper. No converter or inverter. When plugged in at home everything works but nothing at camp ground.
Camp ground had 30 amp service. Keeps blowing breaker at camp service site and that is with breakers turned off inside camper.
Can someone please help......what is wrong....what do we have set up wrong....

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Old 06-22-2014, 06:05 PM   #2
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Re: Got to camp ground and have no power

Your electrical must match the RV park electrical. Most RV places have a 30 amp 120 vac connecter. Your choices are to either make an electrical adapter from 120vac uground to the rv 120vac at 30 amp. Or ya can change the plug on your rv to a rv type plug. Usually someone at the rv place will give ya some advice and help.

Making an adapter usually works the best as your rv can be connected at home and the rv parks. Most rv places do not have a house plugin. Do not use poor quality electrical parts. When plugg into any power source, fell the connections for any temp rise that will tell of a poor connection. Frank
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Old 06-22-2014, 09:23 PM   #3
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Re: Got to camp ground and have no power

It could be the campground. We, personally, have had electrical problems at two campgrounds. One at Chester Frost in Hixson/Chattanooga, TN where a camper "fixed" the power at their campsite so they could have electric (and shut down half of Dallas Island) that is also the same place where the folks across from us in a site would get a tingle from their camper when it rained (I reported to park rangers and they got the park's electrican out there to fix it). Years later in Georgia Veterans SP in Cordele, GA one of the sites we pulled into would not run the Class C. We changed sites and reported to the park rangers that we had moved and why. Electrican told us someone had rewired the power pole.From what the rangers and electricans have told me, idiots rewiring the power poles is a very common thing in public campgrounds. Not so much in private ones, although both our current park here in Roswell (no adapters allowed) and Socorro have both had electricans fixing the power poles several times per year while we have stayed there. The Socorro park had one RVer blow the whole system. He was pissed. Seems it was the park's fault as his coach worked just fine at his house.

I used to have the little yellow plug in tester on an adapter (see 30 amp plug tester) but lost the thing (I think I left it in the Class C with Das Mel who needs one anyway, or it's just gone). I need to get another one. I keep forgetting to pick one up from work. David says that once we get our homebase he will switch our panel box over to 50 amp.

http://www.myrv.us/electric/index.htm
On the lefthand side of the page, read "30 amp Service", "Outlet Testing" and "Campground Service". Please do not rewire the park's power pole. You would be amazed how often that happens, especially in public campgrounds.

Build yourself one of these after you fix your electric.30 amp tester or 50 amp tester You plug this into the campground power supply.

Anyone who is plugging in an RV plug at home should be plugging into an RV receptacle. You can easily buy them at Home Depot or Lowes. If you are running an RV-30 amp plug then you need to be plugging into an RV-30 or TT-30 (same thing) recepticle that is wire properly.


If you are running a 50 amp bus, then you need to be plugged into a 14-50R receptacle that is wired correctly. Here is how you wire it correctly (warning! direct link to a PDF download). Do not trust your electrican to do it properly, print out and hand it to him, then make sure he does it as shown on the paper before you plug your bus into it. Mobile/RV 50 amp is a different animal than residential 50 amp. We have had to print this page off when we were food vending at events for electricans as few were familar with mobile 50 amp.
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Old 08-10-2014, 08:57 PM   #4
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Re: Got to camp ground and have no power

Wow, I had no idea that this problem existed, lol, thank goodness I read this before wiring mine. Thanks again Lorna, always so much useful info in one of your posts ;?D
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Old 08-13-2014, 09:17 AM   #5
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Re: Got to camp ground and have no power

I always check the CG with a multimeter before plugging in, then follow up with a tester and test for a hot skin, then I turn on my breakers and check polarity with the 3 light plug in thing, then I step out not touching bus and recheck bus skin

these tests have saved us from a couple campgrounds
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Old 08-13-2014, 08:24 PM   #6
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Re: Got to camp ground and have no power

Quote:
Originally Posted by thebus2014
Camp ground had 30 amp service. Keeps blowing breaker at camp service site and that is with breakers turned off inside camper.
Can someone please help......what is wrong....what do we have set up wrong....
If you tied your neutral and ground together, and the campground has GFCI breakers, this will trip them right now. Neutral should only be bonded to ground at the main utility disconnect by the campground's meter. If you are used to wiring a house with only one load center, you will also likely ground the neutral buss without even thinking. (The neutral could be bonded when on genset, but the bond must be broken when on shoreline. Some RV generator transfer relays have an extra contact to make/break the bond when switching to and from genset.)

All utility sub-fed panels, such as those on your bus, should have all the neutral wires isolated and insulated from ground. If you did not wire your bus with the neutrals isolated and insulated from ground, it is not to code, and will never work when attempting to provide power through ground-fault protectors.
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