05-24-2016, 04:57 PM
I am posting this for two reasons. One to help anyone in the future with a similar problem, because this was a great learning experience for me. Two, to thank the guru support group who helped me solve the problem.
First of all, this was not a Newell, and no one was hurt. While visiting the inlaws, a friend of theirs who recently bought a new motorhome, called and said while washing the coach that it shocked them. They knew I was in town and asked for help since the coach had been at CW for a month, and they were leaving in two days for a trip. They didn't want to repeat the CW experience.
When I got there the owner had a voltmeter showing about 20 volts AC from the hubcab to another probe stuck in the ground. I guess that did buzz when washing the coach in barefeet.
We pulled the cover on the transfer switch, and the voltages on the neutral, hot 1, and hot 2 were all good. However, the prob from ground to neutral in the xfer box showed 30V AC.
Tom and Forrest suggested running the gennie. The problem did not exist with the gennie.
There were no apparent problems with the 50 amp plug in box. There were several 50 amp extension cords used to reach the coach. All of the plugs were wired correctly and by partially plugging them I was able to get the probes on the lugs. Ground to neutral was zero on all plugs in the extension as it should be.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. So it has to be between the xfer box and the outside connection. The coach used a marine style connection instead of a hardwired cable like the Newells. The owner thought I was quite daft when I took the connection off the coach. It appeared that everything was wired correctly. I tightened all the lugs with no change. I did notice that the ground wire appeared to be too loose in the connection. When we completely removed the connection it was obvious what had happened. The ground wire was inserted into the blind hole on the WRONG side of the tightening clamp. Easy fix now.
Thanks to the boys for helping me and the owner out of a very perplexing problem. The strategy of cutting the electrical problem in half until you find it worked yet again.
The key learning for me was that if there is a charge on the chassis when plugged in, even though the neutral and ground are not bonded, that the ground circuit back to the power source is interrupted somehow somewhere. The other learning, probably easily explained by the EEs, is that the charge between neutral and ground was 100% correlated to the refrigerator compressor running. Frig on, 30 Volts neutral to ground, Frig off 4 Volts neutral to ground. After repairing the ground connection at the plug, 0 volts in all situations.
First of all, this was not a Newell, and no one was hurt. While visiting the inlaws, a friend of theirs who recently bought a new motorhome, called and said while washing the coach that it shocked them. They knew I was in town and asked for help since the coach had been at CW for a month, and they were leaving in two days for a trip. They didn't want to repeat the CW experience.
When I got there the owner had a voltmeter showing about 20 volts AC from the hubcab to another probe stuck in the ground. I guess that did buzz when washing the coach in barefeet.
We pulled the cover on the transfer switch, and the voltages on the neutral, hot 1, and hot 2 were all good. However, the prob from ground to neutral in the xfer box showed 30V AC.
Tom and Forrest suggested running the gennie. The problem did not exist with the gennie.
There were no apparent problems with the 50 amp plug in box. There were several 50 amp extension cords used to reach the coach. All of the plugs were wired correctly and by partially plugging them I was able to get the probes on the lugs. Ground to neutral was zero on all plugs in the extension as it should be.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. So it has to be between the xfer box and the outside connection. The coach used a marine style connection instead of a hardwired cable like the Newells. The owner thought I was quite daft when I took the connection off the coach. It appeared that everything was wired correctly. I tightened all the lugs with no change. I did notice that the ground wire appeared to be too loose in the connection. When we completely removed the connection it was obvious what had happened. The ground wire was inserted into the blind hole on the WRONG side of the tightening clamp. Easy fix now.
Thanks to the boys for helping me and the owner out of a very perplexing problem. The strategy of cutting the electrical problem in half until you find it worked yet again.
The key learning for me was that if there is a charge on the chassis when plugged in, even though the neutral and ground are not bonded, that the ground circuit back to the power source is interrupted somehow somewhere. The other learning, probably easily explained by the EEs, is that the charge between neutral and ground was 100% correlated to the refrigerator compressor running. Frig on, 30 Volts neutral to ground, Frig off 4 Volts neutral to ground. After repairing the ground connection at the plug, 0 volts in all situations.
Richard and Rhonda Entrekin
99 Newell, 512
Maverick Hybrid Toad
Inverness, FL (when we're home
)
