Pole Breaker Problem

[Coloradobus]

Gary,
A similar thing happened to us a ORA Motorcoach Country Club Indio. None of the 220 appliances worked. Of course they were very quick to accuse the Marathon Coach, "OH not them!!!", they said. With much cussing, they tried to prevent me from moving the bus to the site next door. So, I got out my 50 amp 50ft extension cord and plugged in. The office came running over and said I can't do that, that lot has an owner. I told them either move us, or I will run the generator. "Oh You can't run the genset in the resort." I said, "OK, fine, I will stay plugged into the next site and YOU guys can hash it out with the owner.",
End of story. Boy I was fuming when they accused the coach. We just went thru a re-programming at Marathon because of faulty shore power earlier in the year.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary, glad to hear that problem is solved.

Not to rain on your parade you mentioned that even while driving down the highway your generator was coming on due to the autostart.

Before you settle in and start thinking life is good, you need to check to find out why that is happening. You should have been getting more than enough battery charging power while in motion to never hear the generator start.

Maybe this should go over to another thread.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

We had an auto-start that would sense other reasons besides low battery voltage to auto such as cabin temps and preset exercise intervals for times of dormancy. If not disabled they could be the culprit.

[garyde]

Those pesky breakers. Sometimes gently tapping on a breaker will fix the problem with a intermittant breaker. Sometimes when a breaker has tripped and been reset, the internal spring,and thermal mechanism does not sit properly. Gently tapping can re align the internal trip mechanism.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Over the years we have had this happen a few times. On more than one occasion I was measuring power to all legs, but the coach was not getting it on one leg.

Since I am from the school that says do the simple checks first, I remove the deadfront on the shore power and check the bus bar lugs and then the breaker connection. Our meter will read power to the receptacle when there is a loose connection, but when there is a load a loose screw on the cable at the breaker will not allow power into the coach. This type of problem is usually visible because a loose connection at the load wires will show a lot of blackening.

Sometimes merely tightening the screw on the breaker does the trick. But as Gary says sometimes giving the breaker a slap will work.

[jello_jeep]

Gary, here you are giving up the "tap the breaker" trick! The next thing you will tell folks how to reset GFI's! Electricians have to make a living for crying out loud

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Sometimes gently tapping on a breaker will fix the problem with a intermittant breaker.

Gary De: I considered using my 20lb sledge for the tapping, but couldn't find it in my bus anywhere? !

Gary S.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Not to rain on your parade you mentioned that even while driving down the highway your generator was coming on due to the autostart.

Before you settle in and start thinking life is good, you need to check to find out why that is happening. You should have been getting more than enough battery charging power while in motion to never hear the generator start.

Maybe this should go over to another thread.

Jon, you were correct as usual, which is no big surprise.

On our way out with our mini rally to Buckhorn, I noticed that my gen would keep starting. I didn't have but one A/C on and that is suppose to be handled by the invertors. So I mentioned that to Jon, while he was trying to help me solve my other power issue. ( Bad Pole Breaker ).

So when we got home, I took it to Birdland, ( Loc's Favorite RV Resort ) here in houston to have the power issue looked at.

CRAP ! I need to replace both battery equallizers, the power isolater, and what the hell, might as well replace ALL SIX OF THE 8D Lifeline Batteries while they are at it. (4) Batteries were 2005 (2) Batteries were 2003

Good thing my step-daughter doesn't expect any ineheritance when I die, cause there won't be any.
And for good measure I had Michael ( Birdland ) fix the door hinge safety pin that keeps it from swinging out and knocking the mirror out of alignment.

I hope to be able to afford fuel sometime in early 09, so we can go somewhere?

But at least I think everything is fixed, electrically?

Gary S.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary,

While you have replaced everything in the house charging circuit but the alternator, for future reference I would have run a check on the components before replacing them. Here is my thinking for what it is worth.

The equalizer is easy to check. The 24volt side should be 2X the 12 volt side plus or minus 1/2 volt. If that checks out the equalizer is good. Check it with the bus running and the alternator charging.

An ohmeter can check the isolator which is an indication to me that you have a single large 24V alternator charging both the house and the chassis. The isolator is working if you get power from the alternator thru to both the house and chassis circuits, but with the bus engine off you do not get power back from either the house or the chassis to the alternator post. The isolator allows current to flow into the batteries, but not from them.

My guess is one of the house batteries, likely the 2003 battery had failed and it sucked the others down. A simple battery test with all batteries disconnected from one another would have sufficed to show the problem.

You should be good for many months and miles now as long as you properly keep the batteries topped off.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Thanks Jon, for all the wisdom you shed on our problems and concerns.

Birdland is just waiting on the Isolater to arrive in town, so they can put it in my bus, and I will be on the road again. Hopefully today, but no guarantees?


Loc won't tell me where he is going this weekend, so even if I get my bus, I won't be able to find him so that Peg and I can camp with him and Courtney. Courtney really loves, Peg's Margarittas. !!!

Come to think of it, maybe not knowing where Loc is, would be a good thing.

Gary S.