I wanted to have a 30 amp service installed to run the air conditioner when we are getting ready to head out or when we come home from a trip and my neighbor said that he could do it for me. He installed another electric box because our current box was maxed out and he ran the cable out to a box near our motorhome.
Today was the day to flip the breaker and test everything. Unfortunately things did not work out well. The breakers tripped in the motorhome and smoke started to billow out of the electric box in the motorhome. Below is a picture of the converter.
Below is a picture of what I think is a capacitor that exploded when the power was connected.
Any ideas on why the breaker tripped, what could be wrong with the wiring and what I need to do to fix the converter would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your advice and help.
God Bless,
Kevin & Tracy
1993 Fleetwood Tioga Arrow, 30', Ford 460...Still on the road! My Blog
Any chance he wired that 30A outlet as 240 volt instead of 120??? Common mistake.
Your converter may be fried. I hope the fridge, TV, Microwave and any other 120V appliances were not plugged in at the time.
Keith J.
1999 Sunnybrook 27RKFS Fiver.
2005 GMC Sierra 2500HD CC/SB/DA 2WD, LBZ air cleaner, 52 gal Titan tank, Bilsteins, Line-X, Westin steps, Prodigy, Retrax cover, 16K Superglide, 5th-Airborne pin-box, Multi-vex mirrors, TST TPMS.
That capacitor may have saved everything, Replace that one capacitor and run a 30 amp instead of high voltage and everything should be fine,
FINGERS CROSSED.....
kaydeejay wrote: Any chance he wired that 30A outlet as 240 volt instead of 120??? Common mistake.
Your converter may be fried. I hope the fridge, TV, Microwave and any other 120V appliances were not plugged in at the time.
You are absolutely correct, he said that it was testing out at 240 volts when he hooked it up. Everything was hooked up as normal, can I test the microwave and fridge using the generator prior to having the converter replaced to make sure that they did not get damaged? Thanks for your help.
There is one step that was likely missed. Flip the breaker and check the voltage with a meter before plugging anything in. This should be done after installing any new outlet.
You can still check it the outlet.
By the way, yes that is a capacitor (electrolytic). When they let go it can sound like a firecracker.
Look at the bright side. This could be your excuse to upgrade to a Progressive Dynamics converter (I presume you still has the OE battery boiler).
pianotuna wrote: Yes, you can test them all, provided the 12 volt battery is charged. Just use an adapter to an ordinary house hold outlet.
Whenever I hook up any power to the MH the converter smokes, can I bypass it to test the appliances by running them off of the generator? My neighbor feels terrible and is willing to pay for repairs, he and I both have learned a valuable, but I hope, not expensive lesson.
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