No Shore Power 2014 Vista 35F

[Macevir]

I'm trying to help husband troubleshoot why we don't have power in coach. The surge guard has the green lights lit, can't reset the gfci switch by the door, even the new one he just installed will not reset. The inverter is working, the battery switches are on (sometimes that gets turned off by mistake) and everything is working fine via the generator. We just returned from a weekend camping and all was fine there. Can anyone give any suggestions? 2014 35 foot Vista F

Thank you!

 

[bigbAZ]

I'm trying to help husband troubleshoot why we don't have power in coach. The surge guard has the green lights lit, can't reset the gfci switch by the door, even the new one he just installed will not reset. The inverter is working, the battery switches are on (sometimes that gets turned off by mistake) and everything is working fine via the generator. We just returned from a weekend camping and all was fine there. Can anyone give any suggestions? 2014 35 foot Vista F

Thank you!

Did you verify (with a meter) that the shore power is good? Do you have an automatic transfer switch (ATS)?

 

[Morich]

One "quickie" way to check AC power is getting into the RV is to look at the microwave for lights on it as they are AC. On your RV the power comes in, goes to the transfer switch before going to the load center main breaker.
This will not involve the battery disconnect, etc. as they are 12VDC.
If no power at outlets nor lights on the micro, I might suspect the transfer switch??
One thing that may tell you something is if you pull the power cord plug out of the outlet and start the generator. If you then get AC power to outlets and microwave, it will quite likely be a problem with the transfer switch!

Some things that can go wrong there involve screws holding the big wires can get loose and begin to not make good contact.
If you get to that point, it may be worthwhile to pull the plug and shut down the generator to make sure you have no power in the switch. That makes it safe to remove the cover and you may see signs of arcing, burns, etc. on one of the wires!

It "could " be lots of other small points but loose wires is a frequent complaint! If wires can still reach, just tighten them all down. But the bigger problem is they can actually arc and burn too much to be used again!
But that DOES make it easy to spot them!

Big picture here for AC power:

https://www.winnebago.com/Files/Files/Winnebago/Resources/Diagram/2013/13_wire_182386.pdf

The portion I think involved is whether it gets from cord or generator through switch to load center!

If micro nor outlets work, we suspect neither air will run? All those failed says it is the main coming from the transfer switch. Maybe it runs on generator but not cord? That means look in the switch!
Good luck on the chase!

 

[Macevir]

Found a loose wire at the hardwired surge guard. He reset that and power works now except for the gfci in the kitchen area. He replaced it but still will not stay on. Maybe the new one is bad too.

 

[bigbAZ]

Found a loose wire at the hardwired surge guard. He reset that and power works now except for the gfci in the kitchen area. He replaced it but still will not stay on. Maybe the new one is bad too.

All GFCI's produced after June, 2015 are required to have self testing and mis-wiring protection. If it detects a mis-wired condition it will not stay energized. Are you sure it got wired correctly, line to line and load to load?

If it is wired correctly and it still won't stay on, disconnect the load side wires and if it resets that indicates a ground fault downstream.

My money is on a mis-wire.

 

[powercat_ras]

If neutral and ground or hot and neutral are getting reversed because of a mis-wire of the hardwired surge guard everything would work EXCEPT the GFCIs would trip and could not be reset, as was stated above. Either one is a saftey hazard and needs to be corrected ASAP.

You can buy a plug-in outlet checker and a test button that will confirm that GFCI will trip with 3 lights and a GFCI test button for about $ 10 - 12 that will tell you about a HOT <> NEUTRAL or HOT <> GROUND reversal but it WILL NOT display that there is a GROUND <> NEUTRAL reversal, but the internal circuitry of the post June, 2015 GFCI can detect it. The checker also comes in handy to figure which other outlets are fed by the GFCI.

 

[Macevir]

Thanks I’ll have him read the above. The outlets that don’t work (both bathrooms, couch wall, kitchen at stove, cargo bay beneath that outlet and at least one other) I read once before they are tied to the gfi outlet. Thanks y’all!

 

[Blastvalve]

Long shot but I wanted to chime in. I have a 35b, which is very similiar design to yours outside the changes for the bunks.

I had the same issue with that GFI outlet. Took a ton of time, but finally chased the issue to one of the outlets downstream. The outlet by the stove has a power cable that runs down the wall and then out of the wall to a junction, it’s accessible under the drawers under the oven. When the factory ran the wire to that outlet they used the bare minimum of wire, it was stretched a little tight. Because of that, where it came out of the junction and entered the wall, it had rubbed over time enough to cause wear and start tripping the GFI. I at first thought thr GFi was bad, but eventually ran it down. I ended up replacing thr wire from the junction to the outlet by the stove (making it about 6 inches longer so it had a little slack) and it’s been good.

Long shot but wanted to post in the off chance it might help. That GFI runs the outlet for the outside TV, the one over the stove, the outlet in the basement compartment for outside things (we use for lights on the awning) and the outlet in the master bath if my memory is right.

 

[Morich]

A map of what works off the GFCI!

 

[Morich]

Suggestion? Sometimes it helps if we cut the "extra clutter" and first look at one step at a time. One of the sneaky thing on GFCI is they refuse to reset at different times when things are not what they like.
I might suggest first going to the gfci, remove the wiring going on to other outlets and see if the power works and resets at that first GFCI outlet without the question of faults on down the line messing with your mind!
Once you have the GFCI working to power things you plug in, THEN add the lines going further out to the RV.

If, at some point the GFCI stops working and won't reset, then it is telling you there is a "ground fault" somewhere on the section you have just added.
In that case, I might favor looking at the one in the outside compartment next as that is where things can get banged around at times and we don't notice!

 

[Macevir]

Hey y'all! Just wanted to report that hubs rewired the gfci again, he found that one wire was not in highly and it is now working. The shore power issue was fixed with tightening the wires in the surge guard. Thanks!