Rookie mistake (never just a good friend)

[SPUTTER]

Well I believe I have learned a big lesson and not to trust a good friend whom informs me he knows electrical. SITUATION: Setting up a box at my residence to plug in TT, informed buddy that I needed 110-30 amp service out to trailer, and showed him the writing by the plug that says it all in black and white. Dug the trench for 100 feet and layed out the wire in conduit, all he had to do was hook up the box by the TT and inside the main breaker box. I had to go on travel upon my return he called and said everything is good to go, just plug in and you should be set. Without checking I plugged in the TT, opened the camper to see what worked. Microwave was not on, no power, TV would not turn on, turned air on ran for a few seconds then tripped breaker, what in the world, so I turned on the fire place and sparks and popping noise, turned off went outside unplugged went into main breaker and oh my goodness, (few other choice words), YES he had 240 hooked up. I changed to a regular 30 amp single pole, pluged up the TT and started to see what was wrong, microwave no power, TV no power, fire place no power, hooked to a 110 extention cord no power, believe they are gone unless someone knows something else. Ac and furnce work all electrical outlets work, second TV works.

Question: I am not a electrician, but what else should I check, exspecially in the fusebox? How about the converter? It seems like the battery is running everything when I plug the TT in, slides wants to run on the battery etc. All outlets run when plugged in and off when unplugged.

I know I made a huge mistake, but be easy, first time camper, and now will be asking lots of questions I pray that I did not blow everthing up; will take all comments because this should not had happened -

I bought a 2012-JayFlight 33RLTS from a guy whom purchased in April

[Terry]

Oh hate to hear that! It is not that uncommon though.....a lot of folks, even electricians, dont understand how to wire the RV outlet correctly.

More than likely you are going to need a new converter and some appliances. If your AC works, count yourself lucky! Have you checked all the breakers?

My suggestions is to have a certified RV mechanic take a look at it after such a major event. You dont want to have something unsafe lurking for you in the future.

[SPUTTER]

Yes, that is what has me confused, all breakers are good, fuses are good, all outlets work except the fireplace, battery fuse is good when I check the converter leads they come up good unless I am doing it incorrectly.

[BlueHaul]

I agree that after an overload it's probably best to have a certified RV tech go through the whole electrical system. So sorry to hear about this and I hope you're back up and running again soon!

[Seann45]

Don't be too surprised if you have to replace every elect appliance in the RV. Sorry this happened to you... this is why I have THIS
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...ge-guards/2480
hardwired into my RV.. there are so many post at campgrounds miswired that it is scarey. Funny thins is I seldom stay in campgrounds or am hooked to power... solar boondocking...

[tlhdoc]

Sorry this happened to you. Items that work now may have been damaged and may fail in the near future.

[jwstewar]

Hope you get this taken care of Ron.

Now, on the other side of the coin. I see this happening so often, I can't help but wonder how it keeps happening. It hooks up the same as a normal 15 A outlet, but instead of using 12-2 or 14-2 wire you use 10-2 and a 30 A breaker. There is only 3 wires and only 3 places on the back of the outlet to connect wires. How are they connecting the 4th wire? How did the even power the 4th wire? Did they install a 30A dual pole breaker instead of a 30 A single pole? When I installed my outlet on the side of my barn, of course, I wired the whole barn my self including the service entrance, it was a very simple connection. Just trying to figure this out....don't mean to distract from the original posters issues.

[clutch]

We had a polarity problem with a plugin we once used on our old Prowler. Fortunately for us it only ruined the refrigerator. Sorry to hear of your problems.

[SPUTTER]

Well seems I might have got a little luck on my side for now, everything seems operational except big TV and microwave when changed back properly. Trying to get the drawer out to see if the converter is a plug in, manual says unplug wait a few minutes then plug back in. Question when plugged into (correctly) shore power, (purchasing a surge protector this week-in) does the slides still run off battery? Seems when I slide in and out that my battery gets run down but back almost to pull power

[CJames]

I had the same thing on my Motorhome.
Breakers would pop.
Once the wiring was corected everything worked fine.
See if there is a re set button on the TV and Microwave.

[tlhdoc]

Yes the slide runs on 12 volt. Any time you use power from the battery, the battery gauge shows a bigger drop in power than you really used. [/QUOTE] It will recover quickly and show the true level of power. As for "unplugging" the converter, just unplug the camper. The power converter is hard wired to the trailer.[/QUOTE]

[Murphie]

Originally Posted by clutch

We had a polarity problem with a plugin we once used on our old Prowler. Fortunately for us it only ruined the refrigerator. Sorry to hear of your problems.

Clutch, that's where this story gets confusing. He doesn't mention if he checked the plug to see if the neighbor wired it right. Trades guys carry lock out locks to safeguard their work so stuff like this doesn't happen. It's too bad this happened but just imagine the campfire stories he'll be able to tell.

[newrvguy68]

I hope that you're able to escape with little to no permanent damage to any of the electronics within your unit. With any luck there would be circuit breakers that would come on should the wrong amount of power end up coursing through the trailer.

Best of luck with everything.

[cekkk]

I'm glad to hear all was not lost. I see you did not have a Surge Guard or similar product at the time.

If I can ask others through your post, would the Surge Guard Seann cited stand up to a 220 mishap?

[Wyotraveler]

Sorry for all the problems. In the future it is a very good idea to buy an electrical book and never trust anyone else to wire. Even if an electrician does wiring for me I check polarities and voltages before I turn on the power. A very good investment would be a volt meter.

[Moving Target]

Originally Posted by SPUTTER

Well I believe I have learned a big lesson and not to trust a good friend whom informs me he knows electrical. SITUATION: Setting up a box at my residence to plug in TT, informed buddy that I needed 110-30 amp service out to trailer, and showed him the writing by the plug that says it all in black and white. Dug the trench for 100 feet and layed out the wire in conduit, all he had to do was hook up the box by the TT and inside the main breaker box. I had to go on travel upon my return he called and said everything is good to go, just plug in and you should be set. Without checking I plugged in the TT, opened the camper to see what worked. Microwave was not on, no power, TV would not turn on, turned air on ran for a few seconds then tripped breaker, what in the world, so I turned on the fire place and sparks and popping noise, turned off went outside unplugged went into main breaker and oh my goodness, (few other choice words), YES he had 240 hooked up. I changed to a regular 30 amp single pole, pluged up the TT and started to see what was wrong, microwave no power, TV no power, fire place no power, hooked to a 110 extention cord no power, believe they are gone unless someone knows something else. Ac and furnce work all electrical outlets work, second TV works.

Question: I am not a electrician, but what else should I check, exspecially in the fusebox? How about the converter? It seems like the battery is running everything when I plug the TT in, slides wants to run on the battery etc. All outlets run when plugged in and off when unplugged.

I know I made a huge mistake, but be easy, first time camper, and now will be asking lots of questions I pray that I did not blow everthing up; will take all comments because this should not had happened -

I bought a 2012-JayFlight 33RLTS from a guy whom purchased in April

I am sorry you had to go thru that. I invested in a TT, and I had a reputable electrician come out and put a resident elec box in for me. I wasn't about to fry my elec unit in the RV with someone who didn't know what they were doing. I will skimp on some things......elec isn't one of them.
Hope you got everything fixed and out camping soon!

[Moving Target]

Seann,
I don't have the hard wired one but DID invest in the surge protector I plug in to at campgrounds. I beleive it saved me $$ after a hard hit thunderstorm when power went off at campground one trip. Well invested $130 I believe.

[ewald628]

we are planning to run a 30 amp service from our home next spring when we get back from AZ. Sorry this happened and I appreciate all the posts like this that will help other folks prevent the same. Good luck

[hausknwa]

My brother-in-law several years ago installed a 50 amp service for his motor home and made the same mistake (240 v). He called his insurance company and they covered all of the damage less his deductable. He started the phone call to his insurance company with "You are not going to believe what I just did.). Their response was "Yep, we have heard this before." I guess my point is that you might contact themjust incase something expensive fails 2 months down the road. Hope everything works out.

[hausknwa]

Forgot to mention, he fried his converter. Cant remember if anything else was damaged.