RV Electrical Work
Sep. 30th, 2022 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeTo keep the travel trailer "hot," we had an RV power pedestal (like you might find at an RV park) installed by the carport when we moved here. It contains a 30A RV power outlet and a separate 15A standard power outlet, both of which are protected by a circuit breaker on the pedestal plus the breaker in the main circuit box, to which they are connected by a wire in a buried conduit that runs alongside and then under the sidewalk. Not long ago, Lisa discovered that the outlet was failing, and indeed when she touched the RV plug, she found it was warm, which should never happen. She shut it off and examined the outlet.
What she discovered is that due to corrosion on the RV plug, the outlet had started to overheat and melt, as you can see here on the upper-right prong of the outlet. Yes, I know it's upside down, but it has to be installed that way because the tail of the RV plug sticks out the bottom of the pedestal and would not work any other way.
Getting a new outlet was difficult. All of the outlets in the stores around here, not matter what brand, were made in China. We wouldn't be surprised to learn that they're all made in the same factory.
After some online searching, we found someone selling older US-made stock from Pass & Seymour (which appears to have moved production to China), and we bought a replacement outlet. Lisa shut off the connection to the pedestal from the main circuit breaker, disconnected the partially-melted outlet, and went to work on installing the replacement.
Here she has connected the 10ga wires to the 30A outlet.
She was then able to connect the new outlet to the pedestal box. The previous owner had a smaller ordinary 15A outlet you can see at lower right, but we don't use it. It's too lightweight to run the travel trailer anyway.
Lisa reinstalled the lower plate that covers the outlets. You can see the 15A outlet (also protected by a GFCI) at right.
Lisa filed the corrosion off the RV plug. Even in our dry climate, you do get moisture, and copper connections will eventually corrode. At her direction, I turned the connection back on at the main circuit box. She tested the outlet to confirm that power was flowing and plugged the large RV plug back into its outlet. Presto, everything worked!
While Lisa says this was all pretty easy, and indeed, she does make it look pretty easy, but that's because she reads instructions and pays attention to safety precautions.
What she discovered is that due to corrosion on the RV plug, the outlet had started to overheat and melt, as you can see here on the upper-right prong of the outlet. Yes, I know it's upside down, but it has to be installed that way because the tail of the RV plug sticks out the bottom of the pedestal and would not work any other way.
Getting a new outlet was difficult. All of the outlets in the stores around here, not matter what brand, were made in China. We wouldn't be surprised to learn that they're all made in the same factory.
After some online searching, we found someone selling older US-made stock from Pass & Seymour (which appears to have moved production to China), and we bought a replacement outlet. Lisa shut off the connection to the pedestal from the main circuit breaker, disconnected the partially-melted outlet, and went to work on installing the replacement.
Here she has connected the 10ga wires to the 30A outlet.
She was then able to connect the new outlet to the pedestal box. The previous owner had a smaller ordinary 15A outlet you can see at lower right, but we don't use it. It's too lightweight to run the travel trailer anyway.
Lisa reinstalled the lower plate that covers the outlets. You can see the 15A outlet (also protected by a GFCI) at right.
Lisa filed the corrosion off the RV plug. Even in our dry climate, you do get moisture, and copper connections will eventually corrode. At her direction, I turned the connection back on at the main circuit box. She tested the outlet to confirm that power was flowing and plugged the large RV plug back into its outlet. Presto, everything worked!
While Lisa says this was all pretty easy, and indeed, she does make it look pretty easy, but that's because she reads instructions and pays attention to safety precautions.
