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Lost Shore Power -- How To Test Circuit Breaker? [Solved]
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Turboclap
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:32 am    Post subject: Lost Shore Power -- How To Test Circuit Breaker? [Solved] Reply with quote

Hi all, last night I was camping on a residential property and had shore power hooked up to a 20A house circuit. Only had a 1500 watt space heater plugged in the van and another 40 watt bulb (I know I was pushing the van’s 15A limit but I really thought I would’ve been fine 😳) I’ve been doing this configuration multiple nights now and haven’t had a problem, but last night my van lost AC power, I still have DC power.

The house circuit breaker that I was plugged into didn’t trip and I troubleshot by plugging a light bulb into the input the van just lost power to and the light bulb turned on, narrowing it down to my van being the only thing that lost power.

I went through the wiring diagram in my Bently and noticed a circuit breaker that runs through the external power source, my only problem is: Where is that circuit breaker located in my 1981 Vanagon? Any other advice?

Thanks,

Sean
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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:35 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

Should be a breaker next to the outlet next to the bed.
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wbailey2112
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:56 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

If I'm running a space heater or an AC I always crack the side window and run a separate dedicated extension cord to these devices. I would not try to run these through the internal wiring system unless I absolutely had to. Hopefully all you did was trip the breaker by the bench seat as was already mentioned.
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Turboclap
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:03 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

wbailey2112 wrote:
If I'm running a space heater or an AC I always crack the side window and run a separate dedicated extension cord to these devices. I would not try to run these through the internal wiring system unless I absolutely had to. Hopefully all you did was trip the breaker by the bench seat as was already mentioned.


I pushed that breaker back in and still no power 😬. Looking at the wiring diagram there really isn’t much to be checked. *scratches head*

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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:15 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

The circuit breaker interrupts the hot leg looking at your schematic. You would need to check for power between the hot leg and the neutral and between the hot leg and chassis ground before the breaker.

That said, if you are not familiar with AC circuits, I’d suggest getting some help local. You can accidentally shock the shit out of yourself.

An alternative would be to unplug the van and disconnect the breaker wiring. Then use the ohm meter feature to test the circuit breaker for continuity. If it tests ok, the problem is elsewhere.

Please be careful with 110 volt circuits.
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Turboclap
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:19 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

MarkWard wrote:
The circuit breaker interrupts the hot leg looking at your schematic. You would need to check for power between the hot leg and the neutral and between the hot leg and chassis ground before the breaker.

That said, if you are not familiar with AC circuits, I’d suggest getting some help local. You can accidentally shock the shit out of yourself.

An alternative would be to unplug the van and disconnect the breaker wiring. Then use the ohm meter feature to test the circuit breaker for continuity. If it tests ok, the problem is elsewhere.

Please be careful with 110 volt circuits.



Alright, I’m gonna disconnect AC power and pull the circuit breaker and bench test it by reading the ohms.

I’ll get back to you with photos and results.

Thankfully this happened while I’m parked in a friends yard for the summer and have other power sources. But this is a good learning experience to say the least.
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Turboclap
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:06 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

MarkWard wrote:
The circuit breaker interrupts the hot leg looking at your schematic. You would need to check for power between the hot leg and the neutral and between the hot leg and chassis ground before the breaker.

That said, if you are not familiar with AC circuits, I’d suggest getting some help local. You can accidentally shock the shit out of yourself.

An alternative would be to unplug the van and disconnect the breaker wiring. Then use the ohm meter feature to test the circuit breaker for continuity. If it tests ok, the problem is elsewhere.

Please be careful with 110 volt circuits.


Here are the results of my ohm check.

Please let me know if I did this correctly.

I had a reading of 0.0 ohms. Does that tell me the CB is good? No resistance is good right?

I tried different grounding techniques too. I grounded the CB with my finger first, then my motor. All was reading 0.0 but when I grounded the CB with it’s self, then my ohmmeter would continuously beep, fluctuate to a higher number, then quickly lower back down to 0.0 but it would beep still.

I forget if the beeping and ))))) this symbol on the ohmmeter means there is continuity and the breaker allows AC to flow? Or if the beeping is telling me there is no continuity and AC does not flow and 0.0 means no flow.
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Turboclap
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:09 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

Problem solved:

I must’ve reset the circuit breaker while I had it out to bench test it.

I reinstalled the CB and now power is back in the van.

Thanks all for the help!
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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:15 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

Need to learn to read better. Now you know your circuit breaker works as designed. Priceless.
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jimf909 Premium Member
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:16 am    Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON Reply with quote

The simplest solution is often the correct one but also overlooked as we seem to imagine it's something more complex.

Happy camping!
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