RV Earthquake - The Saga Part 2

In our saga of repairs, the second thing that decided to give us heartburn was our shore power electric cord reel.

Virtually every RV, from pop-ups to buses, has a cord to connect to campground electric service. These come in many types and sizes depending on the electrical requirements of the RV. The simplest are like big extension cords that plug into the RV on one end and the campground electrical service on the other.  When not in use they are simply coiled up and stored away in the RV. 

The most extravagent type is permanently connected to the RV and fed out and retracted using an electric reel that is supposed to keep the cord neat and tidy, and simplify the process of setting up and tearing down at each campsite. 

Of course we have the latter. 

I suppose perhaps the first question is 'are these really necessary'. As a guy I say heck yes!  They are no less a survival requirement than snake skin boots or chrome wheels on your car. It's a guy thing 😀

Anyway, upon arrival at our campsite, when I plugged into the power, nothing happened. So what do you do? You call the campground to come fix their power. 

When they come out and tell you their power is fine, you stick your head in the sand and ask for a different site. You pack everything back up, ready the RV and move. You do this because certainly it can't be an RV problem and must be the campground power. Even though the maintenance guy just checked it and said it is working he must be mistaken  It's a guy thing. 😀

But when you get moved and find the exact same issue, the light finally comes on in your head (but not in the RV) and you have no choice but to begrudgingly concede there might be a problem with your RV. 

So the first thing to understand is that the modern RV is fairly complex. The power comes in via a massive power cord, through the internal connections of this electric reel, into a voltage checker and surge protector, and on to a transfer switch. And all of this is before it connects to anything useful inside the RV. So if there is power at the campground plug, but nothing inside the coach, which one of these gems is dropping the ball?

Not sure if I mentioned it or not but I am a guy. We tend to jump into diagnostics looking at the most expensive part first. Sometimes we even replace the most expensive part before realizing that was not the culprit. It's a guy thing 😀

But with the new found extra time that retirement affords me,  I broke tradition and performed a thorough diagnosis. That indicated it was the cord reel that was the issue.  

I am going to simplify the technical side of this.  Inside the cord reel are a set of contacts. They allow the reel to spin while keeping the cord connected to the RV. I suspected one or more of these had failed, thus breaking path for the flow of electric to the RV. 

This reel is not intended to be repaired so they rivet everything together.  I spent an hour drilling out rivets and disassemblimg the reel. Sure enough, when I got inside to where I could inspect the contacts, one was badly burned.  

I called the manufacturer to order replacement parts only to be told they don't sell parts because the reels are not supposed to be repaired. You have to buy a new one and they are only $800 plus. $75 shipping!  Ugh.

So back to the drawing board. I decided that if I  could clean up the contacts perhaps I could make it serviceable again. So I attempted to sand down the contacts. I worked for about an hour sanding and polishing and actually got it to work.  And believe it or not, I carry rivets and a rivet gun (it's a guy thing 😀) so I was able to reassemble it as good as new.

Of course there is always a chance this could happen again, but for the moment it is working and all is well. 

The next installment in our "Saga" will be about our electic flush toilet. 

In the meantime I am considering changing the blog name to "The Next Hundred Dollars" 😀

Thanks for reading!