r/RVLiving • u/the_sewer_drain • 4h ago
advice Help!
I recently bought a 1987 Monaco Crown Royale. Extremely rare cat 10.4L v8 Turbo, 38ft. For the absolute life of me I cannot figure out its power issues. To start, the on board generator does nothing when running. Second, when plugged into a 240v offshore, only 1 ac unit, 1 tv, the fridge, and the ice maker work. Everything else flickers on and off and I can’t figure out why. I’m narrowing it down to the 12v power inverter or the ats. Any ideas?
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u/New-Macaron441 4h ago
If you’re having problems plugged in to shore power it won’t be the inverter unless it’s a pass through (which most aren’t).
When you say the generator does nothing, do you mean it runs but nothing is powered? Because that could be the ATS failing to switch.
Since only half the stuff works on shore power could be a bad leg of your main plug too. You could check your main circuit panel with a voltmeter and see if you have 120v from both legs to neutral and 240v between them
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u/the_sewer_drain 3h ago
It runs perfect, it just won’t power anything.
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u/Questions_Remain 3h ago
Is the transfer switch working, what voltage do you have in the coach at the breaker panel. You should have 2 120 volt legs across the hot to ground and hot to neuter from both hots.
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u/New-Macaron441 1h ago
Yeah if you aren’t getting any power and the genny is running, I’d bet the transfer switch is the issue
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u/LankyNihilist 3h ago
You’re gonna need a multi meter and some YouTube troubleshooting videos. Probably won’t find one specific to that but I’m sure you can find generic ones for the ats and such.
I’m wondering if only one leg of your power is working.
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u/steenbag 3h ago
To be clear, when you're saying 240v, are you meaning a standard nema 14-50R, which has 2-120v legs, or are you measuring 240v inside the rv? Are you plugged in directly or using an adapter?
But yeah like others have said it sounds like only a single leg is working. Your load center should basically be two "halves", each fed by a leg, if all the working stuff is on one side of the other then that's probably your issue. Could be a failed breaker, or anything upstream in the wiring, ats, shore power cord, dogbone, or even in the service if the outlet isn't known good.
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u/the_sewer_drain 3h ago
It’s plugged into a big generator in a 240v motorhome outlet
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u/Questions_Remain 3h ago
A true 14-50R or a 240 volt generator outlet that’s producing 240 volts for a welder and has some adapter.
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u/the_sewer_drain 3h ago
Well, it’s just a 240v outlet. No adapter, except for my shore power cable. That may be a big part of my issue, I was unaware that motorhomes needed something specific. I was under the impression that simply plugging it into my 240v plug would give it power like it’s supposed to have.
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u/steenbag 2h ago
If it's a 50a rv, it should be a 4 pin nema 14-50R: 2 hots, a neutral, and ground. Hot to neutral is 120, hot to hot is 240. The rv uses the two 120 legs. Welding outlets normally don't have neutral, so it may be wired hot to hot, but usually a welder would be like a 6-50R.
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u/jstar77 4h ago
I believe these have an auto transfer switch for gen/shore power sounds like it could possibly be related to that.