Fridge issues

[boom301]

Ok. In Feb 2021 a surge protector was installed in my kodiak 3371 (pics in another thread). Went camping 2 times in April and May. 3rd trip in May 190 miles, fridge stopped working. Dropped trailer off for warranty work on fridge. was told that its not covered because when SP was installed the ground neutral bar was disconnected/shorted. Yes that was what i was told. Nothing else in trailer was not working. Does this make sense? If the neutral bar shorted/ disconnected, wouldn't other items not work? So now i got to fork up $430.

Thanks in advance for any help on this issue.

Sry posted in wrong topic and dont know how to move it to appliances

[ATCguy]

Sorry to hear of your trouble… the electricians among us will be able to help you better than I.

But this scenario sounds damn near exactly what we discussed here in a thread, way back in 2013. It shows why the SEARCH function of this site & others should be utilized more before making major modifications to one’s rig.

The link to the entire thread is posted below, along with a copy & paste of my post there (#9):

https://www.dutchmenowners.org/forum...ctors-608.html

I asked my service guy about installing one... and he STRONGLY advised me to NOT get a hard-wired unit. Said he'd seen lots of rigs in his time come through for electrical work with one installed, and even a few units that had caught fire and were badly damaged. And all of them had trouble trying to get reimbursed for the cost of repairs.

His take was that... if Dutchmen had installed one with the build, then that'd be great. It'd be located in a convenient place... and (more importantly) if anything ever went wrong, it'd be covered under warranty.

As for an aftermarket one... he said that while they are far more convenient, in that you don't have that big, heavy, box on the end of the plug... if anything should ever go wrong with it, the hassles of trying to diagnose the trouble and/or remove it from the system completely are much more complicated.

And 'good luck' trying to prove to either Dutchmen, the dealer who installed it, or the company that made the surge protector that the problem is their fault to pay for repairs. That each would blame the other. Dutchmen would say the surge protector was defective or installed incorrectly... the surge company would say the rig electronics were defective or installed incorrectly... and the service dept. who installed it would say it was either bad wiring on the rig or the surge protector that caused it.

(and "good luck" going against their lawyers if you installed it yourself!!)

Either way, the rig owner would have to pay any repair costs up front, and then try to get reimbursed from whoever they could get to claim fault. Expect a few years before your case would ever appear in court.

All of that is avoided with a portable plug & play portable unit. There's virtually nothing to screw up. You plug the unit on the shore-power pole, plug your cord into the unit, and you're in business. Everything is self-contained, with no user modifications required.

So that was his opinion on it... take it for what it's worth.

__________________

[persistent]

" was told that its not covered because when SP was installed the ground neutral bar was disconnected/shorted."

On a 50 amp 240 volt RV power system, if the neutral wire is disconnected while power is "on", the 120 volt legs inside can go to 240 volts on one leg and zero volts on the other. Voltages in between are also possible.

The high voltage can destroy many 120 volt appliances. That is the purpose of having a high performing surge protector with detection capability for many possible faults. You are lucky only the frig failed.

If the neutral wire is disconnected after the surge protector, the surge protector cannot help you. So the surge protector will protect against pedestal faults, but not against neutral wires that come apart inside the trailer.

Most warranties exclude events not under the control of the manufacturers. So freeze damage and excessive line voltage are excluded. However, Dutchmen, Keystone, and possibly Voltage are skilled at denying warranty claims if there is a remote possibility it is excluded. They tend to ignore facts and probabilities.

Other manufactures are more concerned about customer image and tend to cover more even when they are not at fault.

I wish you good luck and happy trails ahead!

[boom301]

2 1/2 weeks at stealership. The only thing they fixed was trim piece.
Bought it home and fridge still not working but "intermittent on/off
I requested technician to show me the problem. He tried to blame the surge protector. ( it doesnt protect from battery) Fridge is 12v.
He moves wires and is like hmmmmm. Ill make it a priority.
5 days later. Hey Jay, your surge protector is faulting out and my technician doesnt feel comfortable around it. So I bought it home.
A/C was left on. That caused the surge fault.
I am no electrician but im not dumb
this pic is the ground bar mounted to the floor by the manufacturer. On the left side of bar are 2 black wires then 1 thick white one. Guess what. That thick white one is to the fridge. The set screw was not screwed tight.
Fridge works fine at the cost of $360 and I did the work,

[franktafl]

The white wires are your neutral bus. Because that connection was intermittent, I imagine that's why the surge suppressor was faulting since that may be the main connection to the neutral bus bar.

IMO that is a P... poor way to do it and doesn't fit my mind as a normal electrical service connection but apparently the RV has it's own electrical world. I guess it's because it uses the shore power as it's return point.