Hooked up, no lecky (1 Viewer)

[ericonabike]

Hi, hope you can help. Currently on hook up in Bruges aire (not bragging, just thought it might be relevant ). All was fine, now not - electric went off. Checked post and showing green, so assumed not tripped. I've also assumed that as no plug symbol showing on display, that means no current coming into van, so it's not a van problem. Is that correct? TIA...

 

[Gellyneck]

Hi, hope you can help. Currently on hook up in Bruges aire (not bragging, just thought it might be relevant ). All was fine, now not - electric went off. Checked post and showing green, so assumed not tripped. I've also assumed that as no plug symbol showing on display, that means no current coming into van, so it's not a van problem. Is that correct? TIA...

You could put a multimeter over the motorhome end of your ehu cable to check for power to confirm not bollard / cable issue.

 

[Pausim]

Hi, hope you can help. Currently on hook up in Bruges aire (not bragging, just thought it might be relevant ). All was fine, now not - electric went off. Checked post and showing green, so assumed not tripped. I've also assumed that as no plug symbol showing on display, that means no current coming into van, so it's not a van problem. Is that correct? TIA...

No, the plug symbol not showing could mean you have tripped the RCD or an MCB on your incoming mains unit. First thing to check after the post is your own trips. Very possibly a van problem.

 

[Jez1966]

Hi, hope you can help. Currently on hook up in Bruges aire (not bragging, just thought it might be relevant ). All was fine, now not - electric went off. Checked post and showing green, so assumed not tripped. I've also assumed that as no plug symbol showing on display, that means no current coming into van, so it's not a van problem. Is that correct? TIA...

Check with neighbours? "Avez-vous l'électricité".
Do you have something you can plug into post directly with adaptor?
Presuming you have a control panel is it "on" in the van.

 

[ericonabike]

Thanks all, no multimeter or anything to plug into post. Have asked on Bailey forum where consumer unit is located within van .

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[Pausim]

Thanks all, no multimeter or anything to plug into post. Have asked on Bailey forum where consumer unit is located within van .

It should be located on the inside as close as possible to the external hook up socket.

 

[ericonabike]

Found it - all switches I same position, as per photo. So must be external?

 

[Rapido925M]

Switch them all off then switch on again. Sometimes works

Gordon

 

[Gellyneck]

Switch them all off then switch on again. Sometimes works

Gordon

Better still press the "Push to Test" button to see if it trips.

 

[meanders]

If all the above come back OK, then check your cable terminations. MAKE SURE IT IS UNPLUGGED BOTH ENDS before opening the connector.

If someone else is there and plugged in, ask if you can borrow it for a few seconds to prove if it a problem with your cable or if the issue is inside the van. ?

When did the electric go off? Do the aire shut it down during the day. Is it metered, if so, does it need more readies?

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[ericonabike]

Pressed test, nothing happened.

 

[meanders]

There is no power to the panel then. Either nothing coming out of the post (probable) or a problem with your cable (less likely) or possibly the internal wiring (unlikely).

 

[DavidG58]

Pressed test, nothing happened.

That confirms you have no power at the consumer unit

Has someone unplugged your lead, common on airs

 

[ericonabike]

All sorted, engineer came round to apologise and reconnect. Thanks very much for advice

 

[RustyRuss]

Photos please! Take a pic of the connection to the post. It sounds like a loose/broken connection in your electric extension cable. Has the cable got any cuts or breaks in it? Take off the plug and check the wiring is tight, take off the socket and check that too. In my experience it’s normally one or the other. If you still have no joy check the incoming socket connections in the side of the van, they can work loose with vibrations from the vehicle.

Cheers!

Russ

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[RustyRuss]

Great! A happy camper!

Russ

 

[DavidG58]

All sorted, engineer came round to apologise and reconnect. Thanks very much for advice

I wonder how he knew it had tripped

Good to get sorted and even better to know it’s not your equipment that failed

It is still possible you tripped it by over loading , quite likely the limit is less than you think

 

[Gellyneck]

All sorted, engineer came round to apologise and reconnect. Thanks very much for advice

 

[Gellyneck]

I wonder how he knew it had tripped

Good to get sorted and even better to know it’s not your equipment that failed

It is still possible you tripped it by over loading , quite likely the limit is less than you think

Wonder if it was a "site wide" issue, ie the engineer had the power turned off!

 

[meanders]

And you now know what to check next time..... because it will happen. Have a good trip.

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[Gellyneck]

Have a good trip.

Oh very droll!

 

[Diabalo]

I was on the Bath club site when the lecky went off, looked at the trip for my plug all good so went to reception and the manager came out and had a look and he couldn't get it to work so called either so called in an electrician. It turned out that they had had some work done on the post recently and mixed the trips up so instead of being with the socket you plug into they had put them opposite. The moral of the story is check all the trips on the post as you don't if the trip you are looking at is for your socket.

 

[RedFrame]

Hi, hope you can help. Currently on hook up in Bruges aire (not bragging, just thought it might be relevant ). All was fine, now not - electric went off. Checked post and showing green, so assumed not tripped. I've also assumed that as no plug symbol showing on display, that means no current coming into van, so it's not a van problem. Is that correct? TIA...

I'm glad it's all sorted, but I thought that an RCD, or the like, showing green meant that it had tripped?.... Perhaps I'm having a senior moment.

Cheers
Red.

 

[Jez1966]

All sorted, engineer came round to apologise and reconnect. Thanks very much for advice

Note to "self" carry European plug adaptor, a mains charger, phone, laptop, etc.
A much simpler option than multimeter for testing post is live.

 

[Barryh]

These are very useful. Plug the coupler and tester into the bollard to confirm whether the bollard has power or not. If that’s ok you can then plug it into the van end of the cable to confirm your cable is working. If it is then the problem is internal to the van. Glad you’re sorted.

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[Just smiffy]

Now is a good time to get to know your van, no disrespect but I find it difficult to believe that someone who’s been a member on here for 12 years and motorhome experience for the same doesn’t know where the consumer unit is in their van…

Knowing how your equipment works saves a lot of disappointment….

 

[Gellyneck]

I was on the Bath club site when the lecky went off, looked at the trip for my plug all good so went to reception and the manager came out and had a look and he couldn't get it to work so called either so called in an electrician. It turned out that they had had some work done on the post recently and mixed the trips up so instead of being with the socket you plug into they had put them opposite. The moral of the story is check all the trips on the post as you don't if the trip you are looking at is for your socket.

We were on the C&MC site in Forfar when around 05:00 got woken up by the alarm bleeping on our fridge freezer as the power had gone off (we had it set to leccy only). After checking our distribution unit went out to check the bollard and all seemed OK. Fridge set to Auto and fired up on gas.

After some head scratching guessed the site power was out (not just our bollard) so gas kettle out and the tea made.

Out at 06:30ish with the dug and a couple of other guys talking asking each other if there kettle was working. On hearing them told them the site power is out and they'd better check their fridge \ freezers were working on gas.

When coming back with the dug one of them was ranting at the warden saying he'd paid for leccy and why was it costing him more having to use his own gas!

 

[Gromett]

My original trade was Sparkie, and having helped at Jim's campsite for quite some time I became quite adept at very quickly not only finding out where the fault was but proving it to the vehicle owner.
The latter was important as otherwise we would have been tied up for hours with them saying "well it was ok at the site I just left, must be a fault on your equipment"

After using multimeters, and plug in testers I finally settled on the non contact voltage detectors as the quickest method of finding the fault and proving it..

This is the one I bought. I also bought the socket tester at the same time. You can get the non contact voltage detector separately for £8-10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proster-Non-Contact-Voltage-Flashlight-Pre-Installed/dp/B08F1YXXZH/?tag=mhf04-21

The extremely quick method I used was to take the vehicle owner to the Hookup point, and put the tip in front of the MCB to demonstrate that it beeps when there is power. (I already checked this to ensure that the site wasn't off).
1) I would then touch the end of their hookup cable where it was plugged in, and show that the power was hitting their cable;
2) I would then touch the other end of their hookup cable to show the power was getting to their van.
3) I would then touch the front of the MCB in their consumer unit.

Each step shows where the failure is. I am personally happy if I get to test 2 and 3 because it means it is not my fault/problem, and can then help cheerfully and without any pressure on myself.

I would recommend that all motorhomers carry one of these non contact voltage testers (pen style).

It will allow you to very rapidly check that there is power to the hookup point.
That it gets to the end of your cable,
That it gets into your consumer unit.

The 2 main things that I discovered over those 6 odd years was. The most common faults are the cable and the boiler/heating. Basically anywhere that either gets fiddled/messed with or has both electric and water.


PS: carry a spare battery

 

[Gromett]

PS: The other advantage of the non contact testers is that you don't need to understand electric or go anywhere near live wires to use it. Much safer.