We have been experiencing sporadic problems with our house electrical system, most notably since our stay at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.  There it took me half an hour of fiddling with the breakers and shifting from 50 to 30 amp before we managed to get the systems working.  And yet even when it settled out, something nagged at me: during our stay at Thompson’s West End Campground in Washburn, WI, I had reported to the camp host that the 50 amp connection was not working, and that I had switched to the 30 amp circuit.  They promptly sent out a maintenance man who found no problems with their breaker.  Hmmm.  Maybe our problems have been developing and worsening for longer than I though.  Perhaps going back as far as May when we had our odd electrical problem in New Jersey?

There is a cat in this picture if you look hard enough.

Since Scott AFB each campground revealed and clarified the worsening problem.  At of our stop in Robins AFB we could power the rear AC but not the front one, and none of the outlets nor the battery charging system were receiving power, though the water heater was.  As this turned from an oddity into a crisis, I put in calls to RV repair facilities along our planned route, while also consulting with our extended warranty company, Easy Care.  The well rated option near our current location could not fit us in for another three weeks, but they referred us to Horizon RV near Valdosta.  I talked on the phone with their lead service mechanic, who tentatively suggested that our automatic transfer switch was partially burned out and in need of immediate replacement.  Though booked solid, he agreed to fit us in if we could arrive early on Friday morning.

More clearly seen in this one.

Accordingly, we left Wanee Lake Golf and RV Resort before dawn for the 90 minute drive south.  Upon arrival they promptly got to work trouble shooting, discovering that the transfer switch was just fine; our problem was our shore power cable had a break somewhere in the cord.  I had actually suspected this at one point, but didn’t have an extra cable to check with, and borrowing someone else’s would be uncomfortable: who wants to loan you a power cable so you can possibly mess it up with your broken electrical system?  Anyway, my failure to follow through on the shore power cable suspicion did not end up costing me much money as our Easy Care policy covered the bulk of the bill, and our deductible was not much more than the cost of the new cable.  Thanks to Horizon RV for fitting us in and getting us on the road to Florida within a couple of hours.

No cat, just our new shore power cable.