I have recently purchased a 30 foot Keystone 5th wheel trailer as a weekend get-a-way place. It’s more or less permanently stationed in a trailer park and has been for about the last several years.
First let me say know virtually nothing about how the guts of these things work. Anyway, we went to stay in it last weekend and found that only about half of the trailer had power. Specifically, the microwave, some of the plugs and the TV had power. The fridge, lights and radio did not.
I went out and toggled the breaker at the shore post and it restored full power… however, it only lasted about 15 minutes (this went on for a while). I contacted the park and they sent an electrician to change out the breaker. This seemed to work for about a day then it went back to it’s previous situation. Now if I toggle the breakers in the distribution panel (inside) I can get full power but again only for a short time.
I have called the Keystone help line and they were only of limited help. I have also found several places online but I can’t seem to get a good answer. Of the guesses, some seem to think it might be the converter. I am willing to change it out but I would like to be reasonably sure that that is the problem as they are not cheap.
Finally, there is a small fan near the converter that I have yet to see running.
So, questions:
Does anyone know what the problem might be or have an educated guess?
Is there a way to test if the converter is bad?
Could the fan not working be the problem?
My advice would be to call someone like Camping World or whoever the big local RV and camper dealer is, and get an electric expert on site to look at the thing.
RV wiring can be seriously funky with the batteries, chargers, inverters, DC power distribution and AC power distribution. I’ve seen RVs and campers where Joe Sixpack tried to work on them, and they often end up with a squirrely situation like you’ve got right now.
Yes, the converter may be bad, but like you said, they’re expensive, and it’s entirely possible that you may just need a piece of it replaced rather than the whole thing.
The fan for the converter could be a part of the problem. I would assume that the fan is to help dissipate heat build up in the converter, if it’s not operating properly that could lead to the converter getting hot and malfunctioning.
Question… Was the trailer used any at all during this extended storage period?
I have lived full-time in a 32 foot motorhome for 6 years, so have picked up a few things. First, make sure the power provided outside is correct. When I first moved in to my present location, I quickly discovered the hot and neutral wires were backwards (or switched). I informed the park manager and a repair was performed promptly. I hear it is quite common. Pick up a receptacle tester at a hardware or major deptartment store. It will have three lights, and will identify common problems. An adjustable voltage detecter is also very helpful and inexpensive. It allows you to check the outlet BEFORE plugging in. (I recommend a Greenlee GT-16, presently $21 on Amazon.) On a 15 amp polarized plug outlet (NEMA 5-15), the shorter is the hot one. On a 30 amp RV outlet (NEMA TT-30) with the ground above the two blades, the hot wire is on the left. Here is a chart-
Caution! A hot ground wire can be deadly! It happens.
If your incomming power is OK, next check your GFCI outlets. A GFCI that has “popped” will disconnect other outlets, so trip and reset all of them. This happens often, and, from what you described, may be your problem. Continued tripping may indicate a short or bad GFCI outlet.
Hope this helps.
The reversed polarity problem is well known here if you go camping on the continent. In the UK there are regulations to ensure that they are correctly wired because we use single pole switches. In France, double pole switches are the norm, so they don’y care which way they wire them.
I always carried a tester, and an adapter to reverse the polarity if required.