Life on the road, electrical, long post

[jjrbus]

 Why me??   I pull into Largo Fl and into my new site.  I hook up the bus and the electric is going on and off. I poke around and after an hour or so trace the problem to he resorts box or my plug. I'm 99% sure it is thier box. I go to the office and the manager tells me it cannot be thier box as she had just vacated this site after two years with no problem, but will send mantainence to check it out.
Maintanence shows up, he has a Fluke meter he must know what he is doing, opens the box and the one white wire, common is ok, the red wire, ground is ok. The other white wire, hot is broken but sitting on the terminal, causeing the problem.  I'm back in business.
I notice an occasional slight flicker in the bathroom light, 3 bulbs and think it is a bulb going bad, I unscrew one bulb at a time and cannot isolate it. Hmmmmm Next day lights are shutting off momentarialy. I have to trace this down. Now this is the second time I am pulling covers checking screws etc and I am back to thier box.  I call maintanence he comes over, loking things over, I pick up ground wire and ask should this be connected to some thing? He tries to reattach it to ground rod, but there is no ground rod.
He installs ground rod, checks things with his Fluke meter and declares everything fixed!!! I dont think so, but everything is working. What can I do? 
Next day I notice I am on inverter?? No shore power, I'm out with meter, temp gun, pulling covers looking for broken wire, loose screw something wrong. Now the neighbor is over trying to help.  We trace it to what appears to be the marine type connector to the bus. I check a new end is $25/30 a new 40 ft 30 amp cord is $50.
Buy a new cord cut the marine end off and install a RV type plug. The neighbor does this, he seems competant, plug in, reverse polarity!!!! He reversed the wires!!
Put everything tgether I have electric!!!!  Life is good.  I have electric, I get to abuse the neighbor I only spent $50, happy ending.
Next day, the inverter is on??   I go out check this and that, it appears to be the receptical at the parks box. I call the maintance man, he comes over and agrees with me (smart guy) gets a new receptical and I am back in business.  Life is good!!!!
Later on the inverter is on, life is not so good, I am getting sick of this cr##.  I go out, There is a dead squirrl laying on my cord, SOB had to wait till I bought a new cord!!! I find myself hopeing its death was slow and painful.  I check, coincidence, no bite marks in cord,. The neighbor shows up, the maintance man wanders over.  Any time we touch anything the power comes on, the transfer switch clicks (like it is suppose to). The inverter (trace Dr3624) goes into bulk charge mode for a few seconds and then stops. It looks like I have a problem with the inverter, last time I sent the inverter in for service they had it six weeks!!!! But you gotta do what you gotta do. This is getting to be a pain. But I am bonding with the neighbor and the maintance man so some good is coming out of this.
We check everythig, everything is fine till the inverter goes into bulk charge??   You may not find this in the troubleshooting guide, but on a hunch/desperation I unplug and start the generator. Everything works fine!!?? I turn off the generator. Get out the extension and plug into a different site, everything works!!! Why did'nt I try this in the first place?? 
Turns out the bar the circut breaker (new breaker) attaches to in the parks box is worn, sometimes it works sometimes it does not, a little load can break the circut, wiggleing a wire can make the circut. Any type of fluctuation will make or break the circut.
  I know some of the electrical types will say I would have checked that first, all I can say is go poop in your hat Mr Smartypants!!!!
Now out of all the RV resorts in FL, why did I have to pick this one? With all the empty sites in this park why did I pick this one? Is it becuse the bus Gods hate me? do I have bad bus karma? Do the gremlins really travel with me?

[kyle4501]

If it weren't for crap like this, we might not be able to fully appreciate the times when everything is good.

My bus stopped in a bad neighborhood (It looked fine before the bus stopped) & I was really sweattin' it out working on getting it started as darkness fell & we noticed there weren't any street lights. But once she was running, I sure did enjoy driving without problems!

Just think, the next time this happens, you'll be a seasoned pro! 

AND, (after all the problems they have caused me) any time you can kill a squirrel, it is a good thing! Those darn tree rats sometimes cost me more than both kids!

[Hartley]

Should have rembered the "Hammer" method of troubleshooting...

Use a rubber hammer and tap on stuff til the problem appears or disappears.

"The $10,000 service call"

( Knowing where to hit stuff! )

Dave....

[H3Jim]

And at least it didn't do any permanent damage to your inverter or anything else.  Could just a likely have fried something expensive!

Thanks for the post

[Busted Knuckle]

yes anytime an electric problem is correct before letting the smoke out of something expensive, it is good! FWIW   BK 

[gumpy]

Why me??   

Hey Jim, how's your fuel gauge working?   

[jjrbus]

Gumpy, I just checked the fuel gauge is working flawlessly!!!!!
Dr Dave, rubber hammer my foot, If I have to go out there again and I'm going to use the 9MM probe!!!!

[Sojourner]

Should have rembered the "Hammer" method of troubleshooting...

Use a rubber hammer and tap on stuff til the problem appears or disappears.

"The $10,000 service call"

( Knowing where to hit stuff! )

Dave....

JimR...that was a good step by step of history report and the results...thank you.

FWIW...the following is for anyone who wants save the time of the run-around and save more money via using one of DIY electrician's secret without touching electricity before you call or DIY repair ...read on and try it your self.

What Dr Dave suggested is better than what would have done...rubber mallet on the outside of box. I use the heel of my shoe to get it to react if poorly connected internally under load. No load would less likely show results. At the same time, have an AM radio near it and tune to no station and listen for electrical connection cracking noise along with electrical ac humming sound. I use my hearing aid set on telephone setting for the same thing as radio's cracking noise. It works every time...no crackling noises mean fine or OK. Look elsewhere using AM radio until you locate poor connect via wiggling cable. No humming means no load but it still alive.

IR temp gun can trace poor or high resistance connection as well. If any connection temperature is much higher than wire or elsewhere within the box...you have a problem to correct.

BTW...Dr Dave can use your donation for his advice anytime.

FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

PS...the more you practice it, the more you appreciate the diagnostic method.

[jjrbus]

Jerry I dont know if you were a poor teacher or I was a poor student.  Everytime I started troubleshooting and found "THE" problem, I stopped , I should have remembered my lessons and kept looking.