Electrical Problems on My 05 2955rl - Montana Owners Club

EagleRunner · 05-30-2006, 08:14 PM

After giving my trailer a good wash I sat down for a while to relax and enjoy the TV and a cold one. When powering the TV it clicked then nothing. The DVD is dead also. Further searching I found the entire living dead (all outlets) then I found the Refer/Freezer on Auto but on Gas instead of AC - no voltage at outlet for Refer. Upon further searching I found the ceiling fan & light also dead. What's working: all bedroom outlets, bath outlets, Bedroom TV outlet, kitchen outlets, outside outlet, AC. I found no breakers tripped but reset all of them. I suspect a defective breaker that controls two circuits. All the breakers are dual 15Amp breakers. Its a guess because half the legends are gone on the breaker panel. Could not find a GFCI for any of the living room/TV-DVD outlets. Everything worked this weekend, so I think it happened during the wash down, and I was plugged into my shed's 30Amp service at the time.

Short of going inside the breaker panel to isolate the wiring, anyone have any ideas?

JH Sechelt · 05-30-2006, 08:40 PM

Hi Tom,

I wonder if your 50Amp to 30Amp Adapter is the culprit? It sounds like one of the 120Volt legs going into the trailer has no Power. If you have a 120Volt tester, Unplug the plug ( the big yellow one ) off of the trailer and check if you have two hot legs ( they should be the two side ones ). If you're not sure what you are doing it might not hurt to get a Electrician. But I'd bet it's out side the trailer, just my guess. Good Luck

J&D

Charlie · 05-31-2006, 03:35 AM

Sounds like a GFIC is tripped. Mine has two of them, one in the bathroom and the other is on the island in the kitchen area. The second one when tripped shuts down the same items you described. Last time mine tripped was after a good rain and I rolled in the slides. Water ran off the kitchen slide cover and down the side and the outside 110V outlet got wet. After a few resets it finally dried out and everything was OK.

EagleRunner · 05-31-2006, 09:25 AM

J&D and Charlie,
Thanks for your feedback. It got a bit late on me last night so I didn't have time to check the power feeds on my 50Amp plug. I'll do that tonight.

J&D, I think you are on to something here. I suspected a breaker, but with the number of circuits that appear to be dead, it may well be one of the legs on the breaker panel is dead. I'll check the 50/30Amp adapter plug out tonight and if that appears to be good, I'll open the breaker panel and check to see if I have power on the two circuits bars. It may well be one side of the main breaker is bad. I just hope I do not find a bad wire between the plug and the breaker panel! I'd hate to pull the belly panel off to rewire... Will post my findings here.

Charlie, That was my first thought when I discovered the problem. However, there are only two GFIC's that I could find on my trailer. One is located on the kitchen cubboard wall adjacent to the entry door and the other is above the vanity in the Shower area. Neither of these have any impact on the living room circuits, refer, TV/DVD/Computer, or ceiling fan circuits. In fact, I can plug the lamp into those two GFIC receptacles and have power. I didn't have my volt meter last night to check for proper voltage, but the lamp bulb was lit at normal intensity for 60W when plugged into those two receptacles. When I tripped the GFIC on those two receptacles the lamp went dead and came back on when I reset them. That tells me that those GFIC's are good. Couldn't find another one in the trailer.

Sure wish I had a wiring diagram or at least all the breaker legends still in place. I bought this unit used and either the previous owner or service department personnel apparently used tape over the legends and later removed that tape. Two of the breaker's legends have been torn away so they are not legible. I'll fix that when I get to the bottom of this problem.

Thanks again! I'll be back with my findings....

EagleRunner · 05-31-2006, 03:56 PM

Good News!!! I am back in service. Even better news is it cost me nothing!

After checking the plug on the 50amp cord to verify both hot sides were active, it was onto the circuit breaker panel. Once I verified the hot side was continuous to both hot bus bars and each circuit breaker was good, I then began the task of looking for a loose connection. Luckily, it didn't take long before I noticed an arcing on one of the return wires (white wires) to the return lug strip. The wire apparently had been arcing over time because the last half inch of insulation was discolored a bit. Luckily, it didn't knock out any electronics yet, which is a typical result of a loose or missing return line.

Check those screws on your ground and return strips and you may even want ot check the screws on the individual breakers as well. Make sure the power is disconnected or be extremely careful when you do.

This makes me wonder if I shouldn't also pull each outlet and verify those screws are tight too. Something to add to the PDI check list!

Charlie · 05-31-2006, 04:12 PM

Great news Tom.....now you know that all the connections in the breaker panel are tight. Gives one a "warm and fuzzy" feeling to figure out the problem and fix it yourself. Now on to the fun things!!!

JH Sechelt · 05-31-2006, 04:32 PM

Glad it is fixed, great to be able to find and fix those kind of problems.
J&D

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