220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Topic: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV? (Read 2265 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #25 – May 27, 2015, 10:49:12 pm

Mark open up the drivers side compartment in front of the drive tire. If yours is like mine there will be your 3 batteries.To the right of them is your sewer hookup and fresh water fill. Just up and to the left there should be a round female receptacle with a flip cover on it.this is where your power cord plugs in . mine is pointing down. The cord has a round plug on one end and it goes in and twists to lock.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #26 – May 27, 2015, 11:03:08 pm

Thanks Jor for all your pictures and everyone else contributing..

Mine looks nothing like your bay.. I must say, you have a sharp looking set up

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #27 – May 27, 2015, 11:14:58 pm

Quote from: stump – May 27, 2015, 10:49:12 pm

Mark open up the drivers side compartment in front of the drive tire. If yours is like mine there will be your 3 batteries.To the right of them is your sewer hookup and fresh water fill. Just up and to the left there should be a round female receptacle with a flip cover on it.this is where your power cord plugs in . mine is pointing down. The cord has a round plug on one end and it goes in and twists to lock.

Stump... you've described mine almost to a T ... no flip cover though.. there is a short loose 110 volt male ended cord "hardwired" laying there.. I'll have to look closer, but this is where they had a #14 cord running to it then, that powered the lights in the house... they had the house batteries disconnected..

They may have hard wired this small roughly 12" cord to it.. I'll look at it and snap a few pictures

I'm wondering when you plug yours up, is there a crossover or relay of some sort that quits drawing from the batteries?

It's pretty much a rule of thumb for me that I run a # 10 cord for 110 volt cords.. running power tools, or whatever

Thanks

Mark

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #28 – May 28, 2015, 12:21:33 am

Mark, for clarity and sanity sake please take a picture of ALL the things in each bay and post them so we can help and as everyone has said you DO NOT have 220v and DO NOT try to plug or rewire anything to do with 220v. The 220 comes (as was mentioned) from having 2 different feeds of 110v on each of the HOT legs in the cable connection. Each leg feeds part of the cicuits in the box NOT 240 serving them all. You should easily find the connection point for a RV park feed and I feel it will be the Twist type Hubble (marine style) variaty. Once you find it go buy a 50ft long new one so once you are ready to go you will have it. The air conditioners can be tested/run once you get the gen set going but all else will run fine on a 20 amp 110v regular 10 gauge extension cord.
Forget all the 240v stuff as you do not have anything that needs that kind of power.
JohnH

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #29 – May 28, 2015, 03:49:58 am

Quote from: John Haygarth – May 28, 2015, 12:21:33 am

Mark, for clarity and sanity sake please take a picture of ALL the things in each bay and post them so we can help and as everyone has said you DO NOT have 220v and DO NOT try to plug or rewire anything to do with 220v. The 220 comes (as was mentioned) from having 2 different feeds of 110v on each of the HOT legs in the cable connection. Each leg feeds part of the cicuits in the box NOT 240 serving them all. You should easily find the connection point for a RV park feed and I feel it will be the Twist type Hubble (marine style) variaty. Once you find it go buy a 50ft long new one so once you are ready to go you will have it. The air conditioners can be tested/run once you get the gen set going but all else will run fine on a 20 amp 110v regular 10 gauge extension cord.
Forget all the 240v stuff as you do not have anything that needs that kind of power.
JohnH

Thanks John

Forgive me for calling it a 220 plug.. I am knowledgeable on residential electrical and service panels,
I fully understand the concept of two different legs.. 110 volts each... I may be having a guest stay for a while and will offer her the GV to stay in as guest quarters.. so I am looking to run both ac units off shore power without using the generator. If it's not designed or setup to run two ac units from shore power, then I'll just have to figure something out.

I'll snap some pictures of my bays and service panel

Mark

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #30 – May 28, 2015, 07:51:05 am

You should be able to run everything off shore power. That is as long as you have at least a 40 amp circuit for the coach. If all you want to is run 2 AC's then all you would need is around 30A @ 240V. Everything in the coach is 110V On the AC's one is on one leg and the other is on the other leg. It is possible to run both AC's on a 20A @ 240V circuit but that might trip out if the battery charger load is increased or microwave is used at same time as AC.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #31 – May 28, 2015, 08:10:55 am

Turbo.. wow tell me how you ran 2 AC units with 1 20a.. I'm faced with this all the time visiting family.. I even use an autoformer.. thanks in advance, send me a pm so we don't hijack the thread

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #32 – May 28, 2015, 08:20:57 am

Mark,
These are for a newer coach but may help

Note that the air conditioner circuits are rated for 16 amps EACH

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #33 – May 28, 2015, 09:40:21 am

Quote from: turbojack – May 28, 2015, 07:51:05 am

You should be able to run everything off shore power. That is as long as you have at least a 40 amp circuit for the coach. If all you want to is run 2 AC's then all you would need is around 30A @ 240V. Everything in the coach is 110V On the AC's one is on one leg and the other is on the other leg. It is possible to run both AC's on a 20A @ 240V circuit but that might trip out if the battery charger load is increased or microwave is used at same time as AC.

Thanks Turbo Jack, and thanks Brays for the diagrams.. Barry sent me some schematics. I'll have to look again,
but don't remember it having these.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #34 – May 28, 2015, 09:42:56 am

Quote from: fouroureye – May 28, 2015, 08:10:55 am

Turbo.. wow tell me how you ran 2 AC units with 1 20a.. I'm faced with this all the time visiting family.. I even use an autoformer.. thanks in advance, send me a pm so we don't hijack the thread

fouroureye.. Don't be rude, please hijack my thread with info like that !!!

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #35 – May 28, 2015, 09:44:24 am

Mark,

As John suggested above, please take pictures and post of your bays, particularly the wet bay.

Then we can be of more help. Your coach WAS wired for 50 amp RV service from the factory. No idea what owners have done since.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #36 – May 28, 2015, 12:18:32 pm

For general info I have attached a chart of all plug/receptacle types used in the US. Look at the 50 amp section and you will see that IF THE CORD IS UNALTERED you cannot plug a 50 amp 250/125 volt RV cord into a 250 volt receptacle. Older RVs have the twist lock type plugs newer have the straight pin units.

There is also another option for confusion. Some enterprising (me) people have added a second 120V 15 amp line to plug into the matching receptacle on the power post. This goes to a change over switch so I can run the front A/C or a heater from it as well as everything else from the existing 30 amp service. When I have 50 amp I can not plug it in or if using it I have in effect 65 amps but not via the 50 amp cord. If you have a thin cord as well as a thick one this may be the case.

Keith

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #37 – May 28, 2015, 08:49:14 pm

Excuse all the dirt.. Haven't had a chance to clean anything too much yet..

My Bad, the 220 volt that I was thinking laying loose at the generator is obviously only 110 volt..

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #38 – May 28, 2015, 08:51:54 pm

I see with picture 009, the wire is marked 6-3, Thats pretty impressive, 6 gauge wire with ground

009 and 010, taped up yellow cord goes from 010 then up thru the floor, or so I thought.. I'll have to go recheck this..

There may be a plug laying, if I remember correctly in the box under the queen bed. I didn't get that picture yet.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #39 – May 28, 2015, 09:40:00 pm

Mark,

What is inside of the cap that is located just below the cable TV/phone box? In pics 11 & 13 That could be your electric hookup you are looking for.

Pamela & Mike

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #40 – May 28, 2015, 09:42:58 pm

Mark,

I will get this started:

Start with picture 15. That is the ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch). As originally wired, it had two "IN's". One from the generator and one from the shore power cord/shore power cord connection.

As originally wired, the "OUT" is to the 120 VAC breaker box.

Ignore 11 and 13, they are for phone and coaxial connections.

8 and 17 scare me. Electronic equipment (i.e. source of sparks) should never be in the same compartment with batteries (i.e. Hydrogen as a by-product of charging).

9 and 10 are also scary. Certainly not the way/place for connections with 120 VAC.

Clearly, the strain reliefs for the ATS as well as that poor splice need to be eliminated and the rest of the 120 VAC wiring needs to be checked carefully. Certainly until the "coach side" of the ATS.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #41 – May 28, 2015, 10:26:12 pm

Quote from: Pamela & Mike – May 28, 2015, 09:40:00 pm

Mark,

What is inside of the cap that is located just below the cable TV/phone box? In pics 11 & 13 That could be your electric hookup you are looking for.

Pamela & Mike

I have no idea.. I haven't touched anything yet..

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #42 – May 28, 2015, 10:31:57 pm

8 is where the previous owner had a 14 gauge lead cord running for powering the interior lights.. also powers the dashboard radio

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #43 – May 28, 2015, 10:42:45 pm

On the side of the ATS with two cables (one with splice): Originally, one went to the generator. The other to the shore power outlet.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #44 – May 28, 2015, 11:08:03 pm

Quote from: wolfe10 – May 28, 2015, 10:42:45 pm

On the side of the ATS with two cables (one with splice): Originally, one went to the generator. The other to the shore power outlet.

Wolfe.. it only appears the line is spliced to the ATS line on the left side.. it actually is spliced into another piece of yellow cord ( or a repair of the same cord)

Are you saying none of the electronic equipment was originally installed in the battery bay ?

One to generator and one two shore power.. I will trace the two tomorrow..

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #45 – May 28, 2015, 11:10:49 pm

I think this unit has had some significant changes to it since leaving the factory. You are going to busy for while getting this restored to a functioning level.

#8 looks like a 12 volt power supply or battery charger. The original sat ABOVE that plate on the 4 threaded posts - no real loss there as the original was a converter and not a battery charger.

The three batteries were originally in a fiberglass box that had an 1-1/2" ABS pipe venting to a hole in the rear bulkhead. It looks like only remnants of the old bottom half are left. Yes, originally the transfer switch and converter were install in this bay, but with enclosed batteries.

Main power connection to the coach is in #11 and #13 (as Pamela and Mike suggested). It has a hinged cover. It looks like the connector body is cracked in #13. It takes a twist lock style connector.

I believe the larger white cables (in #9 and #10) are the 12 volt power connections from the power supply and feeding the coaches 12 volts. They are both white because the red has faded over the years.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #46 – May 29, 2015, 09:33:03 am

While the shore power cord inlet (at least from the factory) will be covered, it is not 11/13. You can clearly see in 11 the phone and coaxial connection.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #47 – May 29, 2015, 09:42:55 am

@wolfe10

I think Mike and John are talking about the "downward facing" round cap on the bottom of the white plastic case shown in 11/13.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #48 – May 29, 2015, 09:59:48 am

Quote from: cajk – May 29, 2015, 09:42:55 am

@wolfe10

I think Mike and John are talking about the "downward facing" round cap on the bottom of the white plastic case shown in 11/13.

Chuck,

Yes, sorry, I was just looking at the rectangular one.

Re: 220 volt shore power on my 89 GV?

Reply #49 – May 29, 2015, 11:17:09 am

If you are having trouble comparing the Foretravel schematic to the owner modified wiring, go to Home Depot or HF and buy a inexpensive cable tracer/signal injector/tone generator. Here is an example from HF: Search results for: 'signal tracer'

Several owners have used this to trace out the extra wiring loom from the back of the coach to the front by the driver's seat. I just used it to trace which coax went to the transponder antenna in an aircraft. You just turn it one, clip the red clip to the center conductor in a coax or to a wire and the other to ground. You then just turn on the receiver and listen for the tone when the little wand on the receiver gets near the wire. Starts making noise about a foot away and increases when you get closer to the "injected" wire. Ultra easy to use.

To put the icing on the cake, take the schematic to a copy shop and have it blown up (again, thanks Bill). Armed with several copies, use one as a working schematic and pencil in the changes you find and the new cable routes. Once you get it all figured out and everything is working, ink in the changes for a permanent copy and roll it up in a mailing tube to carry with you in the coach.

Pierce

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