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Old 10-15-2018, 12:17 AM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: Illinois
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THOR #4121
Wiring situation

While on a longer trip recently, with the weather being in the upper 80's and high humidity I was using both air conditioners for an extended period of time after reaching the campground. After around 2 hours the rear air conditioner stopped working and upon inspection I found what was designated "water heater" (which hadn't been turned on yet) on a 15 amp service popped out in the breaker box. Upon resetting the breaker, the air conditioner started back up. The next day after similar circumstances the same thing happened again. After checking the manual I found that the air conditioner breaker (next to the Water heater breaker) was supposed to be a 20 amp breaker. My son-in-law is an electrician and he found that the wires had been swapped. This situation was quite concerning as you would believe. At the end of the stay and before dumping I found that the similar situation appears to be occurring with the "gray and black" tanks indicators being swapped, we had been using the toilet in the middle of the unit. The Gauge indicated that the black tank was almost empty but the grey tank was almost full. When I dumped it was obvious they too are swapped---not encouraging.

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Old 10-15-2018, 12:44 AM   #2
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Model: ACE 27.1
State: Florida
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THOR #7035
So which "still looking" coach is this?
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Old 10-15-2018, 03:15 PM   #3
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Sorry about that, I updated the info Today, I have a 2018 Thor Hurricane.
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Old 10-15-2018, 03:58 PM   #4
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Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
Posts: 388
THOR #5190
I had the same problem in our ACE 30.1 - 3 circuits were mis-wired. The water heater circuit was wired to the breaker labeled passenger side outlets. The converter was wired to the breaker labeled water heater along with the driver side outlets. After a bit of wire chasing I was able to straighten out the wiring problems and get everyone on their right circuit.

I found the problem when I was upgrading my converter from the POS OEM WFCO converter to a Progressive Dynamics. Also explains the reason why I had no passenger side power when I flipped the water heater breaker off the winter. I could have burned up my water heater elements if the wall switch had gotten flipped.

I still have a chore ahead of me to dig down to the water heater pig tail connections - several people have found bad connections on the Thor connection to the water heater fortunately before having a fire. Mine is really difficult to get to as its buried under a cabinet drawer below a bunch of heating ducts.
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Old 10-15-2018, 04:33 PM   #5
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If your AC is accidentally wired to the 15amp breaker for the water heater, and vice versa, then, yes, that could be your problem. Typically the AC units are wired to 20amp breakers, even though they might can run successfully on a 15amp circuit. What might take them over the 'edge', though, is that fact that you are running it during extreme heat - which means that the wire itself is already at an 'above average' ambient temperature, and can easily add to the 'tripping' of the breaker. You might otherwise not even have realized this had the AC been running in lesser temperature.

Another thought: some of us have had individual AC 20amp breakers tripping, even though they are certainly sized correctly. In high heat situations, as above, AND if the wire exiting the breaker is not 'tightened' correctly(or otherwise is loose), the AC may run fine for a time, then suddenly trip the breaker for no other reason. The wire has become HEATED, and the expansion/contraction of the wire can make it lose it's connection, or otherwise 'short circuit' the breaker, causing it to trip.
This happened to us on our first outing, in 99degree temps in central Texas. The front AC unit worked fine, while the rear would trip periodically. The wire exiting the breaker was loose. I simply tightened it...No problems since.
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Old 10-15-2018, 04:54 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TurnerFam View Post
I
Another thought: some of us have had individual AC 20amp breakers tripping, even though they are certainly sized correctly. In high heat situations, as above, AND if the wire exiting the breaker is not 'tightened' correctly(or otherwise is loose), the AC may run fine for a time, then suddenly trip the breaker for no other reason. The wire has become HEATED, and the expansion/contraction of the wire can make it lose it's connection, or otherwise 'short circuit' the breaker, causing it to trip.
.
We had a loose neutral problem on the travel trailer we had before the ACE. We stopped at an RV park near the Little Big Horn Battlefield on a very hot day. We were running the AC and started smelling burning insulation and had smoke coming out of our breaker box. After opening it up, we found that the AC circuit neutral wire had burned insulation about an inch back from the connection and several other circuits showed some discoloration of the wires at the neutral bar. Tracked it down to a loose connection at the neutral bar on the AC circuit. Everybody got tightened.

As this was due to a poor neutral connection the breaker would not have seen any over current. We could well have had a fire if we weren't in the trailer to smell the impending fire and shut things off. So now all our AC connections at the breakers and neutral bar get a yearly tightness test.
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