Fire!

[choctawmel]

This not good. I'm in Cherokee Okla doing some mission work while staying in the Silver Bullet. I open the bathroom door and I hear something shorting and the night light plugged in the bathroom socket starts blinking then goes out. Followed by the smell of burning insulation with smoke!
The ground fault breaker is tripped and won't reset. DANG!!!!!
Open the door and vent the smoke out, pull the plug out in the bathroom, remove the wires and check the breaker again. Works! Find the in wire and push the other into the wall. Now the only plug that I can find that don't work is the outside outlet on the other side wall.
Wire must have chafed somewhere between the skins.
How the heck am I going to rewire that!

[crazeevw]

Hi,
My only thinking is to 'pull' original wire, with a string (or something similar) FIRMLY attached to end of wire in bathroom. Maybe, just maybe, even have the 'new' wire firmly attached to the old? Start pulling and see what happens. Otherwise, you're going to have to remove the bathroom inner skin.....

[Inland RV Center, In]

Attempting to pull a wire, thru the walls of any Airstream product, is extrememly hazardous.

Why?

There are sharp edges within the walls that would be encountered.

Not knowing how you may or may not have sliced off some insulation on any wire, both 12 volts DC and 120 volts AC, is always the question, not only at the time of installation, but down the road in time.

Any risk of a fire, in any Airstream product, should be avoided, at all costs.

Andy

[streamquest]

I guess you know you have a problem when no one wants to talk about it.

Are you certain that the two outlets are on the same circuit?
Are you certain that the one on the other side was working before hand?
If not, is it possible that it was only the receptacle that failed?

Just throwing it out there. I would want to have a real good sense of the exact source of the problem before tearing into the walls. Learned that the hard way, and continue to do so.

Charly.

[Wayne&Sam]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Any risk of a fire, in any Airstream product, should be avoided, at all costs.

Andy

I don't think that applies only to Airstreams. Generally unintentional fires are not good things.

[choctawmel]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Attempting to pull a wire, thru the walls of any Airstream product, is extrememly hazardous.

Why?

There are sharp edges within the walls that would be encountered.

Not knowing how you may or may not have sliced off some insulation on any wire, both 12 volts DC and 120 volts AC, is always the question, not only at the time of installation, but down the road in time.

Any risk of a fire, in any Airstream product, should be avoided, at all costs.

Andy

Thanks Andy.
Just from the past work I've done in and under parts of my motor home I know their is no way to 'pull' wire. I can do two things; 1-forget I have a outside plug; 2- dream up a way to go from the breaker box down then around in and under the cabinets. I'm leaning toward number 1. I'm thinking one of the screws in the bathroom wall maybe damaged now.

[crazeevw]

Hi,
My suggestion wasn't well thought out. Didn't consider the fact of all of an Airstream is metal, and surely sharp metal at some points. Going with your #1 thought maybe the best for now. That's until you can't stand it and start tearing out walls and such. With me being a 'newbie' to anything Airstream, I guess I'll be on the same learning curve as you....
Thanks, Derek

[jdalrymple]

Are you certain the problem isn't in the flimsy receptacle and not the wiring? Perhaps the internal parts of the recip have melted or broken and allowed the metal parts to short.

You didn't mention how many wires you unhooked from the recip in question. If more than just 3, the outside recip may be downstream from the one you unhooked.

Regards,

[Bill M.]

If you did not find any burning insulation or melted plastic then I doubt if you have found the problem yet. Not sure that just taking it out and putting it back in is a real fix. There are worse things than doing without a 110 circut in a trailer. 2 of them are catching it on fire or getting shocked. I would tend to leave that breaker off and make other arrangements until I could get it repaired. One thing to look at on both receptables is is the wiring where it is hooked to the receptable shorting against the skin. You only have about 1 inch clear space between the inner and outer skin so it is easy to get a short there.

[AirRowan]

I had a fire in a outlet on my boat when entering New York in the fog just when I needed to have radar the outlet started shooting a Plasma ball about 8" long. I had to turn off the main power to shut down the inverter. The radar needs 76 sec to reboot in that time a 800 foot ship passed about 40' from my port side. Could not see the hull just the fly bridge passing like a ghost ship. A family live on my boat for a time and there kid blow a dry chem fire extinguisher in the outlet for fun that is what caused it and the heave humidity.
I think if you start at one end and figure out what is the first outlet (disconnect power leaving that source) you should be able to find the short with a simple ohm meeter (power disconnected and checking the aluminum skin at every outlet (before reconnecting the leg to the next outlet) of course).

[choctawmel]

Originally Posted by jdalrymple

Are you certain the problem isn't in the flimsy receptacle and not the wiring? Perhaps the internal parts of the recip have melted or broken and allowed the metal parts to short.

You didn't mention how many wires you unhooked from the recip in question. If more than just 3, the outside recip may be downstream from the one you unhooked.

Regards,

I took the plug out of the wall. Two 12-2 w/ground house type wires attached to the plug. I took all wire off/out of the plug. Reset the GF breaker, checked for voltage and found it on one wire, turned breaker off, reattached the known 'Hot' its natural and ground to plug, reset breaker. Bathroom plug works, outside plug don't. Checked other wires/outside plug with VOM; hot/natural shorted but not to ground. I did not reattach the second 'shorted' wire. I pushed it back in between the skins for a future project.
What amazed me is the kitchen plug has no GF and isn't on this circuit.

[choctawmel]

I got into the wiring and found a way to get power to my outside plug. Take the drawer out of the kitchen cabinets to get to the back of the outside plug. Got the cover off and low and behold, two wires in the plug. It goes somewhere else.

The converter is plugged to a plug right next to it, so I plug the converter into my drop light and sparks! I no longer have a working drop light now too.
Check the wire and no short, go pull the plug in the bathroom reattach the wire, turn power on, no sparks.
I got to get a new converter.
http://www.adventurerv.net/wfco-9800...mp-p-7234.html
Anyone know if 'WFCO' converters are any good?

[Silverwanabe]

Hi,

I have a WFCO converter for my '67 unit, it is the combo converter/12 volt fuse panel/120 volt circuit breaker unit.

So far so good.

[choctawmel]

I pulled the PPS converter out today, took the cover off and it was fried!

You see the capacitor with it's top blown out, the leads to the fan are smoked and the lead to one of the coils is burn off to? I had a fire when this shorted out.
Installed it in May of 2008. That's only three years old!