No power

[craig wagner]

Have owned a 78 ambassador for several months and last week the power went out. Breaker box had no tripped breakers. Found the j box where the so cord tied into the romex and had power at the cord. Figured that the romex was bad so last night I bought some 10/2 and ran it down the hall. Thought that would solve my problem but I was wrong. The vac. works but the lights and plugs have reduced power. I have a little experience with standard eletrical installations but realize that I am unfamilar with this set up and if I keep messing around I could do some harm. Would hate to take it somewhere and then find out it was something simple. I am trying to live in the trailer while working out of town in Corpus Christi and it is becoming a bit inconvenient. Would appriciate any and all help. Thank you.

[moosetags]

I would start by running a couple of heavy duty extension cords into the Airstream to get some power to work with. Then I would pill the breaker panel (after disconnecting from shore power) and see what's going on at the back of the circuit breakers. I don't understand what your are referring to when you say that the vac. is running.

[Druupy]

I agree about getting an alternate cord for lights and power, temperary.

Sounds like a loose or dirty or corroded connection. So unplug the shore power, disconnect one wire at a time, clean-scrape-sand the contact point, add a little grease or antiox goop, retighten, go to next wire. That includes both ends of both battery cables. Should be about an hour, and you may never find which one was bad. It might be all of em are just a bit bad, but it adds up.

This is the cheep fix, about a tablespoon of grease is the only cost.

[craig wagner]

The vac referrs to the central vacuum system. I have an outside cord which is pushing a fan. Is there a plugin to get lights and fridge back on line? I don't understand about removing the breaker box, what can be discovered by pulling it off the wall? Could a loose 12v connection shut down the whole system? What wires should be disconnected and cleaned and where is the fuse box located? Silly questions maybe but when you don't know you don't know.

[HiHoAgRV]

The 12v and 110 are completely seperate circuits. If I understand, you have no 110. Get a multimeter and see if you have 110 coming into the main breaker. These things are typically wired a little goofy with the power being backfed through the main breaker, and it feeds the others. Most house electricans will go "what the..." My guess is the main breaker has died.
Can't decide which is the main breaker? Turn them all off and check for power on the "output" of each breaker. One should be hot, thats the 'main' and the feed to the system. If none are hot, start checking your way back to the plug.

[craig wagner]

The breaker box is back fed through a 30 amp breaker. The box has power. Someone at work just told me that the ac side runs through the inverter and that the lights and fridge are converted to 12volt. Could a bad inverter be the problem?

[HiHoAgRV]

All of the lights should be 12v and it really needs a battery in the system to make most of the converters work properly. So you have 110 but no 12V? If so it's sounds like the old univolt converter is outta whack. In a pinch I've used a 6A car charger to keep the battery charged. I really don't know about the fridge, mine is LPG or 110 only, double check yours. A 12v unit may pull more than a car charger could keep up with.

[davidz71]

Craig,
I had a problem with my '77 Excella 500 31'. It turned out to be a 30 amp power cord plug that was shorting out in addition to a bad breaker. I replaced the breaker first and things were working out but every once in awhile the system was acting screwy. After replacing the power cord plug everything was fine and it quit tripping the house GFIC (on 15 amp circuit)and campground GFIC breakers (30 amp circuit). I was getting 125 v. into the breaker box but nothing on the other side of the breaker from time to time (new breaker time).