New van electrical problems

[Ernesto]

Well we did it - we bought a new van despite the warnings, and here we are on our first major venture with no power

I’m no electrical expert at all, but if anyone has some ideas, it would be really appreciated .
Last night, as we were filling the kitchen sink, the water pump suddenly cut out. I checked and all the taps, and loo flush - all had stopped working, with no pump noise at all. The truma display showed we still had EHU power so I assumed a pump fuse fault or pump itself fault.
Then this morning I noticed the Truma display no longer showed we had EHU - I assumed the site supply had failed but they confirmed all live - and the main ground fault circuit breaker in the van, wouldn’t stay open.


So we’re on leisure battery power only with a 100W solar, and it’s cloudy
Any ideas please ? I’m guessing the water pump developed a fault, and the rest is linked....?
Many thanks in anticipation

 

[HandyAndy]

Start disconnecting circuits and retest the trip switch, you can then at least vonfirm which circuit is faulty.
By disconnecting, I don't just mean turning the individual circuit trip off but physically disconnect the wires, both live and neutral.

 

[pappajohn]

Water pump won't trip the hookup.
You have a 230v fault.
Turn off all the breakers, including the main switch in the consumer unit then make sure the hookup breaker is turned on.
Turn on the main switch.
Turn on each breaker, one at a time, until the main switch trips or that breaker won't set.
That is the faulty circuit which needs investigating

 

[pappajohn]

Start disconnecting circuits and retest the trip switch, you can then at least vonfirm which circuit is faulty.
By disconnecting, I don't just mean turning the individual circuit trip off but physically disconnect the wires, both live and neutral.

It's a brand new van Andy, it won't be appreciated pulling the fuse box apart for warranty purposes.

 

[Camping Gaza]

Unplug ALL of your 240v appliances before doing what Pappajohn says as it could be a dicky appliance tripping out your 240v circuit

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[MikeD]

I am a little confused as the water pump would be running on 12v.

As above turn everything off, close down the breakers and leisure battery charger and then see if the 240v will maintain.

Turn on one by one each circuit and see which one blows the supply again.

 

[Ernesto]

The breakers (2 of them on one switch) both stay open. The main ground fault breaker will not stay open no matter what.
Just seems strange pump failed last night when we still had 230v showing on Truma and now Truma shows nothing

Thanks for the comments - I suspect we’re going to have to head to our local french Adria dealer for help...

 

[hilldweller]

Just a guess - turn the battery charger off. It's common to 240 and 12V.

 

[pappajohn]

The breakers (2 of them on one switch) both stay open. The main ground fault breaker will not stay open no matter what.

That's why you should turn them off and see if the RCD main switch remains on.
Then turn the breakers on and see which one trips the RCD.

 

[Ernesto]

The RCD main switch will not stay on at all ... irrespective of the position of the breakers?

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[Robert Clark]

What make

The RCD main switch will not stay on at all ... irrespective of the position of the breakers?

could be the RCD is faulty

 

[autorouter]

Is the mains hookup inlet near the sink? Maybe there's a pipe joint leaking fresh or waste water onto the mains inlet. That would trip either the MH RCD or the hookup post RCD.

 

[Parrot Face]

We had a similar problem many years ago in France in a caravan. Site electrician spent 3 hours investigating our caravan, repeatedly told me that it wasn't the site electric box. Couldn't fix it and went off scratching his head. I went out and plugged into a different box....everything worked.

 

[Terry]

May be try a different hook up lead

 

[Ernesto]

Update : many thanks for all the suggestions. We played the old “turn up unannounced at the local dealer and ask for help” card ... and it worked a treat. The french chap couldn’t speak any English and our French is limited but we sat in the shade and he poked around for 20 mins or so ...and all fixed ? he wouldn’t take anything for it - but just to show the times we live in, he asked us for a positive Google review instead ??

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[HandyAndy]

Nice work, so what was the issue... You might need to know for "next time" if it was more of a get you home type fix

 

[Ernesto]

not sure - in 33 degrees and with the language challenges - we said our profuse thanks and headed off. Loose connection on EHU connector ...? That was my guess but I’m defo no expert