Fresh water enters power cable door on LY MH

[Santart]

I am curious if anyone else in a Land Yacht MoHo has this problem when filling the fresh water tank. The power cable door in just below the water fill door and any dripage or overflow finds its way into the rear storage trunk even though the power cable door is closed. I tried removing the cable door and resealing with no success. Please let me know if this is a common or isolated problem. Maybe an aluminum angle iron baffle between them might help? Any ideas why this is happening?
TIA, Frank

[reday]

Mine was leaking too. Did not find it until I was drilling out a place for a second 30 Amp cord. It turns out that the water was coming in at the top of the trim that runs the length of the side - just a very small gap near the rear. Water would run down the side and then follow the trim back to the crack. A little calk stopped the leak before any major damage occurred.

[blkmagikca]

At first reading I thought that it was bizarre. My '94 LY had the water fill in the center of the road side and my power cords are in the rear most compartment roadside, about 15 feet from the water compartment. Why would Airstream change that around?

Ralph, why were you drilling out for another 30-amp cord? Did your LY only come with 30-amp service, or was is equipped with 50-amp service?

Howard

[reday]

My water fill and electrical are all at the rear. My water tank is at the rear under the bed. Is yours tank in the middle of the coach?

Only had one 30 amp service, two AC's and a factory thing that would switch power back and forth between the two which meant you never really could cool down in the heat of the day at the beach in the summer. My second 30 Amp puts the rear air on its own cord so that you can plug into 50 amp, split it out into two 30 amp legs and stay cool when you need it. Have it rigged to "switch" back to factory when you are in a 30 amp only location. Need to figure out how to move over some of the other loads on the front air circuit and be able to switch those back and forth as well. One air, water heater, microwave, charger and TV are too much. Any more than 2 or 3 of those going with any thing else trips the main. But, at least I'm cool...

[blkmagikca]

My water tank is in the middle of the coach - what is under the bed in the rear is the 5.9-litre Cummins engine, Allison transmission and diffferential. The bed actually swings up to access the engine, although most of the work done on it is done from below.

As for the 30-amp service - mine came with that too. However, a tech friend of mine who designs and services quite a bit of 220-v equipment looked it over, spoke with the folks at CSA and then proceeded to redesign the circuit using both of the ATS switches. 50-amp service is really just a combination of one leg of 110v 30 amps and the other leg of 110v 20 amps - so a 220-volt circuit works just fine. I can provide you with the design, if you wish. He used the same gauge wire as the old 30-amp 110v system, but instead of 3 wires, I have 4 and I get the so-called 50-amp service now. As part of doing this, I used 100-feet of cable, so I no longer have need for an expensive extension cord.

Along with all this, he designed and built a box that the 50-amp circuit plugs into and it has two 110-volt 30-amp plugs and a test circuit built in. In some campgrounds which normally provide only 30 amp service, the pedestal is made for 2 adjacant sites, and the wiring is really 220-volts, with one leg going to each site. This is exactly what 50-amp service is, so I plug both 30-amp plugs in and get the benefit of 50 amps.

The only parts that were needed for this conversion were: new cable (4 wire as opposed to 3 wire, but the same gauge), plug (a plug assembly for a home dryer is exactly what you need - costs $10 for a moulded plug with 4 feet of wire, which we spliced to the cable) and a 20-amp circuit breaker for the new leg. I would caution you, though, to have a professional electrian to the actual work. The circuit is a bit tricky, because it has a a couple of time-delay relays in the automatic transfer switches (ATS switches) which allow the generator to get up to full output before any load is put on it. The original circuit switched both the hot and the neutral leads, while the revised circuit which we used switches just the hot leads - this was checked with CSA before we did the modification.

(CSA is the Canadian Standards Association - they approve electrical designes and equipment, much the same way as UL - Underwriters Laboratories - or ETL - Edison Test Labs).

Howard

[gunworks]

Howard, your box design with two 30 amp plugs sounds intriguing. My 94 LY came with 50 amp service built in, but on several occasions I have stayed in parks with just 30 amp pedistals (I just use a conversion cable). If I had another plug wired in then I could have gotten the 50 amps as you described. Would have been usefull last summer in Tucson. I'd like a look at the design.

Thanks,
John

[blkmagikca]

John, PM me with your email address and I'll send you the schematic.

Howard

[myfirstrv]

John,
Howard,
Progressive Industries makes a "Cheater Box"
it has two cords that plugs into a 20 amp and 30 amp and the output is a 50 amp
has anyone used this it sounds like what your talking about price is $80.00 ?
but if its off the shelve they should warranty it ?

[myfirstrv]

ADT 230

The Cheater box plugs into and 30A and a 20A source on separate circuits to give user a 50A output. Will not operate on a GFCI circuit.

One year warranty. 4 ¾" W x 18" L x 3" H

[blkmagikca]

My box is similar EXCEPT that it also has a test circuit built in to make sure that the neutral is common.

[myfirstrv]

I wonder why they say "Will not operate on a GFCI circuit" ?

[blkmagikca]

I may be wrong (and if so I'm sure I'll be corrected), but a ground fault circuit breaker tests that there is no potential above ground on the neutral - which means that if there is voltage on the neutral that is above ground or zero, the breaker will trip. When you look at 50-amp service, what you are really getting is one leg of 110-volts at 30 amps and a second leg of 110-volts at 20 amps. The neutral on both is a common wire.

In my LY, the 20-amp circuit is only for the rear air conditioner, and the 30-amp circuit is for everything else, including the front air conditioner.

Here is the circuit for my adapter.

[myfirstrv]

Makes sense - so the neutral will see voltage and the GFCI breaker does not like this (however I'm not an electrical guy)
I like your idea of the test circuit built in, this one would be nicer if it had it, you should market yours.
So yours IF connected to a 110Volt 20amp GFCI circuit will also trip, correct?
Now I'm trying to remember if most 110Volt 20amp camp sites are on a GFCI circuit ??
I pretty sure the 30 amp are not.

[blkmagikca]

Originally Posted by myfirstrv

Makes sense - so the neutral will see voltage and the GFCI breaker does not like this (however I'm not an electrical guy)
I like your idea of the test circuit built in, this one would be nicer if it had it, you should market yours.
So yours IF connected to a 110Volt 20amp GFCI circuit will also trip, correct?
Now I'm trying to remember if most 110Volt 20amp camp sites are on a GFCI circuit ??
I pretty sure the 30 amp are not.

I may be wrong about this, but if the only way a GFCI breaker will trip is if there is a voltage difference between the neutral and the ground, then as long as the circuits are correct (i.e., no potential between neutral and ground) the GFCI breaker should not trip. I guess that the issue is really how well the wiring was done at the campground. Even if one access point was done on the black (primary) side of the 115-0-115 main and the other camp access point was done on the red (or secondary) side of the 115-0-115 main, the neutrals should be the same. As long as there is "leakage" between the neutral and ground, the GFCI breaker should not trip. I should ask my techie buddy to provide a clearer explanation; I'm only an old ham radio type, and my knowledge can sometimes be pretty rudamentary.

[myfirstrv]

Update,
Well I bought the Progressive Industries "Cheater Box"
it actually has two 30 amp cords / plugs and with a 20 adapter on one,
seems pretty sturdy, I will see if works this spring.
FYI i did buy a 50 amp voltage protector also to place in line "just in case" -this protector has various circuit protectors built in like "blk-magik-ca" has also a low voltage and high voltage shut down. anyway like I said we shall see if it works as claimed
Regards
Rob