Electrical help needed! Lost 50 amp shore power. Is it the power cord?

[bertschb]

Is the power grid the issue, being strained to the max thus affecting not only your RV park and thus your 310 but negatively impacting electrical in many many areas of the west?

Hi Dan. That's possible. It was in the low 90's when the voltage dropped out so not too hot where we were staying (relatively speaking) but I'm not sure how our area was tied to other parts of the grid like OR and WA where they had all time record heat.

We just arrived at a park in Salt Lake City where L1 is 107v and L2 is 110v. My EMS will shut power off at 104v so I'm right on the edge. But as I mentioned in my previous post, low voltage is a known issue at this park. It's 1:30 PM here at 88F degrees and heating up. I wonder how long we'll have power today?????

[Canyonlight]

Brian bertschb - you and much of the west are experiencing record heat and energy demands. Is the power grid the issue, being strained to the max thus affecting not only your RV park and thus your 310 but negatively impacting electrical in many many areas of the west ? In other words, your 310 and RV electrical system is fine but your being impacted by grid electrical issues/brownouts/power system "rationing."

Dan

[TedS]

The 240V park power is not divided into the two 120V legs until it gets to the circuit breakers in the post. It is possible that a breaker is faulty and one side is dropping out. When one leg drops out, check across the two side terminals (carefully!) of the post outlet for 240V (or something close). If there is correct voltage here, the problem is likely the cord. If there is no voltage here, the problem is likely the post breaker. You can further check the post outlet for 120V between each side terminal and the lower center terminal. The slot which is the neutral, not the U which is the ground. If you are not comfortable checking this kind of voltage, perhaps the park electrician can test at the post (without touching the breaker) when you see one leg dropped on your EMS.

Rob

Rob, the 240v is split at the transformer, not at the post breakers. The two 120v lines are then fed to the park distribution panel(s). From there to the site posts. The transformer needs to do the splitting, not the breakers.

Yes, replacing a site post circuit breaker could fix the problem. Happened to me at a campground. One leg of the circuit breaker failed

[Jims94vmx]

Swap the breaker. We had a situation at the park I am workamping. He also was not getting power to both lines. When testing the breaker it showed 120 on both.....swapped out breaker and all was good.
Easy thing for park to do.

[bertschb]

We're leaving this park in a couple hours so I won't be able to test the post. Unfortunately, our next stop is a park that may have low voltage issues. My wife learned this while reading reviews yesterday. That won't help my troubleshooting. But, we will be at Zion National Park on Wednesday and staying for a week. It will be hot so that should be a good test of the power cord - especially if the afternoon sun hits the street side of the RV.

The good news is I can use my 30 amp cord if the 50 amp cord fails again and with the Power Assist feature on my inverter, I can run both air conditioners no problem so it's really not a big deal. Sourcing a SmartPlug kit while on the road has been a challenge. I may make some phone calls this afternoon when we arrive at our next destination (Salt Lake City) to see if anybody has it in stock.

[Cate&Rob]

The 240V park power is not divided into the two 120V legs until it gets to the circuit breakers in the post. It is possible that a breaker is faulty and one side is dropping out. When one leg drops out, check across the two side terminals (carefully!) of the post outlet for 240V (or something close). If there is correct voltage here, the problem is likely the cord. If there is no voltage here, the problem is likely the post breaker. You can further check the post outlet for 120V between each side terminal and the lower center terminal. The slot which is the neutral, not the U which is the ground. If you are not comfortable checking this kind of voltage, perhaps the park electrician can test at the post (without touching the breaker) when you see one leg dropped on your EMS.

Rob

[TedS]

I think the park needs to investigate from distribution panel to post. The system does not seem to be able to support increasing load as the day goes on.

[bertschb]

I still think that the RV end of your 50A cord is the problem. As the cord warms up, it deforms until one line connection is lost. At least . . . that would be my theory .

Here's one more piece of information that may be relevant.

The sun hits the power cord where it connects to the RV early afternoon. Maybe 2:00PM? I actually taped a white piece of cardboard to the side of the RV at noon to block the sun from hitting the cord/inlet directly. It didn't work of course but it was worth a shot.

[Cate&Rob]

Completely dropping one leg is not a usual park supply problem. The electricity arrives as (theoretically) 240V and is split in half to two 120V feeds. Not really possible for a supply "brown out" to drop one side to 3V and leave the other at 113V. A supply problem would typically drop both legs about the same amount. I still think that the RV end of your 50A cord is the problem. As the cord warms up, it deforms until one line connection is lost. At least . . . that would be my theory .

Rob

[J & J Bumblebee]

I'd say the park has a problem.

Yep, I think you're right.

[TedS]

I'd say the park has a problem.

[bertschb]

UPDATE #2

My EMS just shut the 50 amp power down again with error code #6. The remote display showed L1 at 113v. L2 was 3v.

I've been monitoring voltage throughout the day. It started this morning at 121/123 and slowly dropped to 110/113 just before we left to get dinner. When we returned, the EMS had shut down shore power and the inverter took over. I swapped the 50 amp cord for the 30 amp cord and all is well again.

I had a feeling we lost power again as we were driving back into the RV park and noticed the electrician at a neighbor's lot working on their pedestal.

[J & J Bumblebee]

Looks interesting. It's nice to have options.

[Yoda]

Good morning Rob

I looked at the Smart Plug yesterday. IIRC, the kit was around $200 for the plug end (not the whole cord) and inlet. Spendy indeed! If I can find one along our route, I'll pick it up and retrofit my cord/inlet. Right now I wish Progressive Dynamics had a Bluetooth version of their EMS so I could monitor voltage remotely. It will be interesting to see if it drops as it heats up today. It's supposed to be near 100.

-Brian

I was looking at the smart plug too yesterday, only 30A Found a good price here. I know nothing about theses folks. https://parts.unitedrv.com/products/...ack-b30assy-pb Its the 30 amp version but they carry the 50 0ne too.

https://parts.unitedrv.com/products/...ite-b50assy-pb

They have them in 3 colors too Black, White and Stainless Steel.

As my replacement Furrion one is delayed I may pull the plug on one - no pun intended.

Keith

[Cate&Rob]

bertschb
Hi Brian,

If you should encounter any marine supply places in your travels, these Smart Plug conversions are very popular with boats . . . just make sure that you get the 50A version and not the 30A one.

Rob