Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

Not sure what happened here. I was using the RV mostly off the grid, boon-docking in the driveway as a life boat in case the power when out in the house, which it did.

It was probably plugged in for a day, during which i ran the furnace and the overhead heater...but never at the same time. I did have a portable electric radiator that i used for while inside the cab as well which was plugged into an outlet in the gallery. When i used the radiator, nothing else was on in the RV, other than a small light.

Later when the power went out to the house and hence the shore power as well of course, I intermittently used the engine heater to warm it up a bit along with furnace.

After about 30 hours, the house/shore power came back on.

Some time after that I smelled a slight but unmistakable electrical burnt smell and noticed that the side of the 30 AMP breaker in the photo attached was hot to the touch along with those burnt wires...it looks like the insulation burnt off.

Any insight/clues/ courses of action?

Note: everything still seems to work but not sure if i should chance using any components in it.

Thanks

Tom
1995 24' RSB

Tom,

From your photo, it appears that things started to get very hot near that grounding buss bar on the left side of your photo. The reason I say that is because the insulation of the wiring leaving that grounding bar is burnt more severely than those same wires more than 1-1/2" away from the bar to the right. MY guess is that one of the ground leads going to the grounding bar that was carrying quite a few amps current had a screw loose that was attaching that lead to the grounding bar. This high current lead then probably started arcing generating a lot of heat and this heat burning all the wires close by. I would check the tightness of all those screws in the grounding bar and you will probably find one or more loose. Also make sure that the grounding bar itself is securely attached to the metal frame of the charger/converter because if there was arcing between the grounding bar and the metal mounting frame, that could cause severe heat buildup also. Let us know what you find.

Thanks for the reply.

I think I know what caused this. I won't make that mistake again.

Everything appears to be tight. I left the RV plugged into shore but I only have the frig running on AC. No other power draw other than an occasional light i might turn on.

Everything is cool to the touch now.

Would it be prudent to disconnect from shore, loosen/remove those blackened wires, electrical tape them, then reattach them?

Tom

You said that you think you know what caused this. Could you elaborate?

Since the wires that have burnt insulation are all ground wires, if they are not touching anything but other ground wires, I don't think it necessary to unscrew them and wrap them with tape - but you could if you wanted to go to that work.

I think it was the portable radiator when i was on shore. The plug was hot to the touch and I suspect it was pulling in too much current

OR

I did use the inverter when the RV was off shore power to convert 12V DC to 144 watts of AC. 120V @ 1.2 AMPS.
That doesn't seem like very much however.

OR

It could have been the radiator, some lights and the frig at the same time now that I think about it. nothing tripped though

ALSO, in the past, a fan would cycle on/off in/near the circuit board from time to time. No such thing happened this time.

Tom,
I'm not to crazy about the rivet that is holding the bracket to the frame.
Check if the bracket has good ground,
Alek

I see what you mean.

When the Ice Age thaws out here in Austin, i'm going to have this checked out professionally. I've a neighbor who's a electrician,

Thanks

If you had been drawing too much AC power in your Born Free, then that left side 30-amp circuit breaker should have blown and not caused the severe heat near that grounding block. I still suspect some kind of poor ground connection to the grounding block or poor grounding of the grounding block itself to the mounting frame causing this kind of over heating damage.

That was my thought as well, although not as eloquently stated as your response.

Much appreciated!