No power in trailer

[davetoregon]

2016 AS International 30 ft
We went for an extended stay for 3 months, leaving the AS at home stored in the garage. It was plugged into house power but nothing in the trailer was on.
Came back, absolutely no power in the trailer - ac or dc. No house breakers were tripped, 30 amp house checked ok, RV cord to trailer was traded out and shows good to the point where it plugs into the trailer. The house outlet checked good. The circuit breakers in the trailer were not tripped. I recycled all the breakers in the house and in the trailer. No change - no power. The store/use switch has a dim red light showing but doesn't seem to click from the store to use position and back. (No power??)
The trailer has solar power inverter (Victron), batteries, etc. It is totally dead as well.
I checked the 50 amp breaker in the trailer circuit board. Volt meter shows 0 voltage for both legs.

Is there some sort of OEM disconnect switch for the whole trailer?

Thanks for any help!

[ROBERT CROSS]

Does your AS have two shore power plugs?....Yes? Try the other plug.👍

There was a transfer switch concern several years ago.

Bob

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Does your AS have two shore power plugs?....Yes? Try the other plug.👍

There was a transfer switch concern several years ago.

Bob

Hi, and that is exactly why my home made generator inlet system uses a jumper cord; No transfer switch.

[BayouBiker]

Does your trailer have a aftermarket hardwired surge protector installed? If so that could be the problem as they cut the shore power lines to the power distribution center to patch in the surge protector.

[wulfraat]

If your 50A breaker in the trailer has no power on both legs and there is no after market surge protector installed then the outlet on your house is dead / tripped. Check to see if it’s a gfci outlet and reset.

If your outlet is working and hot and inside your are not seeing any voltage at your 50A breaker in the trailer that makes little sense assuming your power cord is connected correctly. Do you see voltage at the male connectors on your power cord?

With no shore power your batteries died after 1-3 weeks due to draws (which happens whether they were connected or disconnected from the system). It’s normal that there is a weak red light at the store / use switch but not enough voltage to operate the switch if the batteries are dead. Better get those onto life support with a high quality charger that has a desulphstion mode...

[blkmagikca]

About 5 or 6 years ago my batteries crashed down to 3 volts while boondocking in the Mojave Desert. Using the generator for shore power did nothing, still did not have any lights, etc. So I ran my TV and plugged the Bargman connector in. That did it - it needed the 14 VDC to bring it to life. After a while, I was able to use the generator. My batteries were beyond resuscitation and needed to be replaced. At the time the charger/converter/inverter was the Xantrex Freedom 3012.

[davetoregon]

Unfortunately the 2016 does not have the second plug in. That was a nice feature of our 2010 FC.

The ATS suggestion is probably the answer. AM Solar installed their proprietary Smart ATS when installing an upgraded solar system. (https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...-VT3050KIT.pdf)

There seems to be a fuse within the switch according to the schematic. I will be looking at the actual equipment and trying to find the fuse. Whether that solves the problem, we'll see. Will talk with AM Solar on Monday (if they are open/COVID 19 and all) to see what their take on the situation.

The obvious next question would be why a switch and/or fuse tripped/failed.

I'm hoping the batteries are not toast but we'll address that issue when we get power back in the trailer.

Thanks for the quick replies - this forum is great!!

[Camr]

Trying to logically follow the info, it appears that you definitely have power at the end of the coach power cord, but you do not have power at the main 50 amp breaker. As long as the screws on the breaker are tight, and there is no EMS system between the coach hookup cord, (which you have verified does have power) the only variable is the power connection on the exterior of the coach. Although coaches may be wired differently, it is my understanding that the wiring goes directly from the exterior connection to the main 50 amp breaker. To sum up, if there is power at the female end of the cord, and no power at the main breaker, the issue must be either the main wire between the exterior connection is broken, or the connection at the exterior coach plug is compromised.

[Wazbro]

Originally Posted by Camr

Trying to logically follow the info, it appears that you definitely have power at the end of the coach power cord, but you do not have power at the main 50 amp breaker. As long as the screws on the breaker are tight, and there is no EMS system between the coach hookup cord, (which you have verified does have power) the only variable is the power connection on the exterior of the coach. Although coaches may be wired differently, it is my understanding that the wiring goes directly from the exterior connection to the main 50 amp breaker. To sum up, if there is power at the female end of the cord, and no power at the main breaker, the issue must be either the main wire between the exterior connection is broken, or the connection at the exterior coach plug is compromised.

Not true in all trailers. If his trailer was rewired (he stated work done by AM Solar) with a whole trailer Inverter/Charger instead of a Converter/Charger AC power would go through the transfer switch in the Inverter/Charger before the 50 amp breaker. Also if the batteries are below a certain voltage no power will go through. This is how my mother's Airstream was rewired by a previous owner and power has to be applied to the batteries to get AC power working in the trailer when the batteries are dead.

[Bob Peahl]

We had an identical situation. We ultimately determined that dead batteries were the cause. Apparently the charger/converter needs 12volt power, even when connected to shore power.

New batteries solved our problem.

[wulfraat]

Originally Posted by rhpeahl

We had an identical situation. We ultimately determined that dead batteries were the cause. Apparently the charger/converter needs 12volt power, even when connected to shore power.



New batteries solved our problem.

OP is not getting any 120v power. Different issue

[Camr]

I agree. I missed the additional post referencing AM Solar. That adds a whole bunch of pieces to the puzzle. In that case I would focus on the transfer switch, as it would be an additional disconnect to the incoming shore power. I helped two of our friends change transfer switch assemblies. In one case the relay was dead, and in the second case the relay was switching, but the points were burned from transferring under a heavy load.

[blkmagikca]

Originally Posted by wulfraat

OP is not getting any 120v power. Different issue

Not necessarily. As I mentioned in my post, I ran a 3KW generator and it didn't provide any power when plugged in. So I started the TV and plugged in the Bargman connector. Within a few minutes I was getting 12-volts and when I reconnected the generator, I had 115-volts ac.

[Camr]

It’s difficult to make a connection between 12 volts being applied from the truck plug and suddenly having 120 volts within the coach. A scenario that may (or may not) have played out while you were gone was that the power went out at your home, which would have had the transfer switch flip it’s contacts to the inverter. When mains power was restored, and the contacts within the transfer switch were compromised, the mains power would remain blocked. If the contacts are capable of making intermittent contact, that would explain the supply of 120 volts the second time that the generator was plugged in. The two points (among several) that I would check would be the connection at the exterior 120 volt connection of the coach, and the points in the transfer switch. If the transfer switch is readily accessible, pull the cover off and check to see if the relay is in fact clicking.

[davetoregon]

An update.
And again, thanks for the replies and ideas.
I'll go through what I've done as it might help someone else.
1. I isolated the batteries to check their voltage. I have AGM - 3 - 170 Ah. They were at 3.7 volts. Obviously they were drawn down and may be toast but we still checking that out.
2. I connected my truck electrically with the trailer and left truck running. The lights and electrical monitoring system (Victron Color Display) came on and indicated 10.5 volts.
3. I connected the shore power to the trailer and it immediately was pumping about 2000w into the trailer and the batteries on the monitor were at 14.1 v.
4. I disconnected the truck lead and system stayed up and running.
5. The Victron inverter/charger continued to charge the batteries at a bulk, then absorption, then float.
6. I isolated the batteries and they read 13.7 v.

This morning I got an email and call from AM Solar. I talked with Shawn and reviewed the above info. His take was that we lost power long enough to drain the batteries below 11 v. The inverter/charger will not kick in at that low voltage. So the batteries continued to drain via parasitic draws, etc down to the 3.7 v I reported above.

Right now I have isolated the batteries and will wait 4 hours for the batteries to reach "resting voltage" to evaluate the real condition of them.

Shawn and I discussed some of the techniques to prevent this happening in the future as we (like lots of others) leave their trailer for several months at a time. I wrongly assumed that since the trailer was plugged into to shore power that it was completely safe and fool proof. Wrong.

Will keep you posted.
Thanks again to everyone and to AM Solar!
Dave

[wulfraat]

Originally Posted by davetoregon

An update.
And again, thanks for the replies and ideas.
I'll go through what I've done as it might help someone else.
1. I isolated the batteries to check their voltage. I have AGM - 3 - 170 Ah. They were at 3.7 volts. Obviously they were drawn down and may be toast but we still checking that out.
2. I connected my truck electrically with the trailer and left truck running. The lights and electrical monitoring system (Victron Color Display) came on and indicated 10.5 volts.
3. I connected the shore power to the trailer and it immediately was pumping about 2000w into the trailer and the batteries on the monitor were at 14.1 v.
4. I disconnected the truck lead and system stayed up and running.
5. The Victron inverter/charger continued to charge the batteries at a bulk, then absorption, then float.
6. I isolated the batteries and they read 13.7 v.

This morning I got an email and call from AM Solar. I talked with Shawn and reviewed the above info. His take was that we lost power long enough to drain the batteries below 11 v. The inverter/charger will not kick in at that low voltage. So the batteries continued to drain via parasitic draws, etc down to the 3.7 v I reported above.

Right now I have isolated the batteries and will wait 4 hours for the batteries to reach "resting voltage" to evaluate the real condition of them.

Shawn and I discussed some of the techniques to prevent this happening in the future as we (like lots of others) leave their trailer for several months at a time. I wrongly assumed that since the trailer was plugged into to shore power that it was completely safe and fool proof. Wrong.

Will keep you posted.
Thanks again to everyone and to AM Solar!
Dave

I didn’t realize you had a victron multi. That would have changed my original post [emoji6]

[hotfoot88]

depending on how your rig is wired, I know that in marine installations the inverter charger needs to have good battery voltage to get excited, somewhere between 11 and 12 volts. Usually batteries at that low of voltage need replacement.
Hope you got it handeled