68 fusebox light is on, no power

[Stefrobrts]

In my Caravel I usually leave the trailer plugged in and a space heater running on low during the winter so it doesn't get musty inside. The heater quit running, and I was investigating the cause and I see there is a light on the side of the breaker box and it is lit. I'm sure I've never seen it lit before. I thought maybe there was a problem with the extension cord so I plugged the trailer directly into the recepticle, but the light is still on. No power to the 110v outlets. I flipped the breakers on and off, no change. A couple years ago I replaced the original univolt with a new intellipower with charge wizard (just thought that might be relevant somehow). Little help, please?

[TomW]

That light is a polarity indicator to alert you to an improperly wired campground outlet.

Your shore power's ground, and neutral circuits should be at the same potential (more or less). The light will come on if that is not the case.

Something has obviously gone wrong. I suspect your house's wiring. But it could be an open neutral in the Airstream's breaker box. Determining the source of the problem will require a voltmeter. Or a licensed electrician.

If other members don't chime in with a procedure to analyze the situation, feel free to PM me - I have one, and it is somewhat numbing.

Nothing anyone good with Mustangs can't handle, though...

Tom

[wmarsha]

first rule of trbl shoot'g-ask what changed? If no circuit breaker has operated in your house panel, then I would suspect the outlet into which the trailer is plugged is on a GFCI outlet, and it has tripped. Test the heater in the house on a known good circuit to determine it is okay. Then ascertain you are getting clean voltage to the point at which the trailer is plugged(this tests the gfci). then make sure you are getting clean voltage into the trailer's circuit breaker box(this tests the trailer's shore power cord). Somewhere along that path, you must have something wrong. The heater would draw a fair amount of current, and remember the trailer is NOT grounded therefore the neutral and ground on the older unit(s) are bonded together, meaning if any current decided to go through the ground conductor, a GFCI in the house, or garage or wherever you have the trailer connected could have operated (tripped). If ya can't figger it out-give me a call, like old Vic Roha's slogan: "If ya can't find your shorts-give us a call"
ol' bill

[silverleeper]

Hi Steph, I could be the Intellipower. First, Have you plugged the Airstream into another outlet that is not on the same circuit as the one you normally plug into?

[Stefrobrts]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I was too close to the problem to think of the simple stuff! It is normally plugged into an exterior outlet on our shop (which we only built a couple years ago). I took an extension cord and ran it to the garage, and plugged it in there, and everything went back to normal - no light on the fusebox, and the heater is working again. I'm glad the problem does not seem to be the trailer! I guess something has gone wrong with that exterior plug. It's a GFI plug, so maybe something to do with that. We wired the shop, so I guess we should be able to figure this out. I might wait until spring for that. For now I'm just happy to have the trailer plugged in again.