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Old 10-13-2018, 07:16 PM   #1
Microguy
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 39
Default Maybe this will help somebody else....

We inherited a 2005 BT Cruiser 5250 (I thint it is). Neither myself or my fiance are RV people, but looks like we're gonna be. Checking it we discovered a few problems like cracked fuel pump on the generator (dodged a bullet there), bad motor on the steps and lots of little issues.

We were out there looking at it and turned on the Air Conditioner (while on shoreline power). After a while I guess it quit, we didn't really pay too much attention, but thought it was curious it wasn't working. We went inside the house for the night. Early next morning, she says "I think that AC is still running", it had turned back on, powe had come back. So I went out and disconnected the shoreline and killed the 12v.

Next day, I can't find 120V anywhere. It goes IN the RV, then through an act of voodu, it vanished. Spent two days looking for it, that RV isn't that big.

Long story, short, I started simply looking for "space". I knew there had to be a transfer switch somewhere (the generator worked fine, just not shoreline). Once I started looking for spaces that could contain a transfer switch (or relays), I found it. Buried in the very back corner of the bathroom cabinet. You'd never notice it if you weren't looking for it (dark too).

Sure enough, besides the worst place to put it, the plastic box was melted. Lucky it didn't catch fire and burn the RV (and the pool deck/house) down.

The reason being is, the bathroom is a moist environment, the leak in the vent didn't help much. The inside of that box was horribly corroded. Electronics is my thing, done it all my life just about in one form or another. Corroded contacts on relays and under those cruddy "wire nuts" is a disaster waiting happen. There is a small buss bar in that box, all nuetral connections I think, corroded so badly that the zinc coating had fallen off the bar onto the bottom of the box.

I ordered a new Automatic Transfer Switch (found out that's what you call it). But I'll be using waterproof wire nuts or polyelfin (dual wall) heatshrink tubing for wire/wire connections, and I'll be sealing that box against the elements with plenty of silicone caulk.

Hope I can save somebody some time by posting this, as I didn't have much to go on when I needed it. And I hope somebody can catch a problem before it starts and do something about it.

Cheers.

(Now I have to try and diagram the wiring for this beast...)
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