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Turboclap Samba Member
Joined: June 27, 2020 Posts: 12 Location: Maryland
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:32 am Post subject: Lost Shore Power -- How To Test Circuit Breaker? [Solved] |
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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 Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2005 Posts: 17007 Location: Retired South Florida
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:35 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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Should be a breaker next to the outlet next to the bed. _________________ ☮️ |
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wbailey2112 Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2015 Posts: 482 Location: Grove City, OH
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:56 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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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. _________________ '74 Thing
'83 Westfalia |
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Turboclap Samba Member
Joined: June 27, 2020 Posts: 12 Location: Maryland
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:03 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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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 Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2005 Posts: 17007 Location: Retired South Florida
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:15 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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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 Samba Member
Joined: June 27, 2020 Posts: 12 Location: Maryland
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:19 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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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 Samba Member
Joined: June 27, 2020 Posts: 12 Location: Maryland
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:06 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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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 Samba Member
Joined: June 27, 2020 Posts: 12 Location: Maryland
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:09 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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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 Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2005 Posts: 17007 Location: Retired South Florida
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:15 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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Need to learn to read better. Now you know your circuit breaker works as designed. Priceless. _________________ ☮️
Last edited by MarkWard on Tue Apr 20, 2021 9:33 am; edited 1 time in total |
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jimf909 Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014 Posts: 7400 Location: WA/ID
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:16 am Post subject: Re: LOST EXTERNAL POWER 81 VANAGON |
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The simplest solution is often the correct one but also overlooked as we seem to imagine it's something more complex.
Happy camping! _________________ - Jim
Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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