Lost power trying to reset itself?

[BettyQ]

I don’t even know if I can describe accurately what happened.
We are plugged into full service electric.
In the middle of the night, we lost power in our 385BR.
We’ve been living in our RV full time for a year. Things were beeping letting me know the power was out. We weren’t using any extra space heaters or anything like that.
No breakers tripped. I tried flipping the main breaker just in case. There was a loud clicking sound as if the power was trying to reboot or reset on its own, coming from the breaker box. About every 30 seconds it would try to “reboot”. Power would flicker on for a few seconds then nothing again. It did this approximately 20 times and the power came back and stayed on for about 20 minutes, then off again. No “rebooting” attempts this time.
Help! I don’t even know where to begin troubleshooting!

[RMcNeal]

Almost sounds like an auto transfer switch problem?
Do you have the generator prep? Not sure what year your unit is, but mine is a 2019 and several have had the auto transfer switch for the gen prep go out. Must have been a bad batch of switches.

[DutchmenSport]

Do you have an EMS (Electric Management System - AKA ... Surge protector) either portable or hard wired? If so you might try by-passing it. If you are not using an EMS, you really need to get one.

[jsb5717]

First, Welcome aboard! Glad you found us.

Can you be more specific? We need to isolate whether it's a 120v or 12v issue.

• What things are beeping?
• Which devices or appliances lost power?
• Is there power to your microwave? TV?
• Is your fridge a 120v residential or 12v or gas/electric? Is it working?
• Do your house lights work?
• Can you operate your furnace or AC?

Did you check the power at the outdoor pedestal? Wouldn't hurt to make sure the source power is good. As Dutch said, an EMS would help with that.

Anyway, it might help to know exactly what is and what isn't working.

[Foldbak]

Welcome to the MOC. Sounds like a transfer switch. You describing "There was a loud clicking sound" was most likely the transfer switch. What year is you unit?

[rames14]

I am always interested in emergency posts (this one was at 2:49 am), with quick responses and then nothing from the OP. Betty, is it fixed or do you need further guidance?

[Kyle and Lisa]

Surge protector ?

[rohrmann]

First, it would really help knowing the age of the trailer and what you were/are connected to, park pedestal, home connection and 30 or 50 amp receptacle. The only way to find the problem is to start at the source connection and check voltage at that receptacle, and then work your way to the trailer. The problem can be anywhere. We lost power a few weeks ago, no heavy loads at the time, and got strange sounds from our EMS. After checking power good at the source, I started working my way to the trailer and found the problem. We were parked on our property and had a 50 amp extension cord to reach the panel. First photo is the male to female connection, good side, and the second photo is the same connection, bad side.

[Ahdmeyer]

Bob,
any good ole lineman has seen this scenario!

[rohrmann]

Yeah, have seen it on everything, even 21K volts. Had to straight splice the wires until the new plugs showed up.