Pole Breaker Problem

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Peg and I went to Buckhorn for the Memorial Day weekend. We followed behind Loc McNew and his crew, and drove just in front of Tuga Guidry and his harem of lovely ladies.

Had an uneventful ( a good thing ) trip from Houston after meeting up with everybody on I-10 at the Turn Out Picnic Area just West of Brookshire. ( This is the area where I took all the pictures of you guys going by last year to Buckhorn for POG III).

Anyway we all got into our spots hooked up and that is when my electrical problems started. Not enough power to run things correctly on my bus. I checked and Loc checked my power pole and the Progressive Industries Black box was showing nothing wrong at the source.

So that is when I had numerous conversations with all the great guys at Panterra Coach, Bob Makin, Don Wolf, and Dustin the electrical guru. We also called everybodys buddy and Prevost Master Jon W. All parties seemd to think I had burned the shore circut buss fuse, in my Electrical Transfer Switching Panel, ( WHICH IS NOT A GOOD THING) especially on Friday night, a memorial weekend.

Well after 2 hours of fussing and cussing, yes lots of cusing, the Buckhorn electrican shows up to see what he can do, and we look for the 12th time at the pole for proper voltage on both legs. CRAP ! Why is it showing all of these ERRORS coming off of the post NOW ! It never showed us a problem when Loc and I looked at it the other 12 times?

We plugged our cord into the empty spot next to us, and within 5 minutes everything was back up and running. TURNS OUT THE CAMP GROUND POLE HAD A TEMPORMENTAL 50 AMP BREAKER which they replaced the next morning.

So to say again, when you plug in and things don't work, plug in somewhere else before thinking there is something wrong with your bus, and bothering all of the helpful friends you know. One of these days they won't take your call?


Thanks Very much for the guys on the other end of the phone.

Bob Makin, Pantera Coach
Don Wolf, Pantera Coach
Dustin, Pantera Coach
and last but not least Jon Werenburg

Gary S.

[Jim_Scoggins]

Glad it worked out. Your situaion is a great reminder for all of us.
Try easy and simple first!

My next door neighbor who is one of the master mechanics for Honda told me that years ago. However, when something happens to me I start thinking worst case scenarios. I will then usually come to my senses and try easy and simple first.

[tdelorme]

Glad it wasn't the bus, Gary. I'm like jim in that I always do worst case thinking on these deals and it usually clouds my thinking so that I miss the simple fix.
The Progressive Black Box issue bothers me though. The first one I bought did something similar. Plugged it up and it went through the built in checks and showed everything fine. When I plugged the coach in, several things did not work including the microwave and two cruise airs. I went through hell trying to figure out what was wrong with the bus. When I finally checked the receptacle with a volt meter, one leg was down, no voltage. Progressive sent me a new unit and so far so good b ut it was sure frustrating at the time. It ain't always the bus, thank goodness.

[truk4u]

Gary,

Get one of these! Mine is built-in, but you can buy them for stand alone.

IMG_2139_1.JPG

[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