Potential Electrical Safety Issue - PLEASE READ

I would like to alert subscribers to something that happened to us recently that I think has serious implications for safety. Please read this post, particularly if you have an R-Pod with a slide-out. We have a 2013 RP-177 which we bought used last year (and we love it, BTW!). We usually boondock, but on a recent trip we rented an electrical site because I had not yet had a chance to check out the entire electrical system. We got set up and hooked up at Rideau River Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada (nice park!).

On the second day, I noticed that the fridge was indicating “no power” (flashing red light). I had to re-set the GFCI outlet, and all seemed fine (the GFCI outlet protects ALL the standard 115V outlets). But it tripped again in about an hour. I put the fridge on propane and figured I’d have to check it out when I got home. But I WAS able to re-set the GFCI.

Later, Gwen and I were sitting outside at the picnic table when I heard a strange noise from inside the trailer. It’s hard to describe: kind of a cross between a “pop” and a “thump”. About a minute later, we heard it again. This time, I went to investigate. I just stepped into the trailer when I heard it again, only this time it was accompanied by a brilliant flash from under the kitchen sink. Arc-flash!! I immediately ran outside and unplugged from the utility post.

When I got back in the trailer, I could smell that burnt, electrical kind of smell and there was a slight bit of blue smoke coming from the under-sink cabinet. That cabinet is kind of cheaply made, so removing a couple of screws gave me access to the entire area. I was surprised to see that, directly under the p-trap for the sink were two electrical connectors (see photo), clearly 115V. They were blackened and broken.

I also noticed that the plastic drain fittings were dripping, and of course they were dripping right onto the connectors! Since the plumbing is all “hand-tightened” fittings, I assumed they had loosened off a bit with hot-cold and travel vibration. It was easy to re-tighten by hand and stop the mild drippage that had been taking place. It must have been recent, because while the area was wet, it certainly wasn’t soaked and I couldn’t see any water damage other than the burnt connectors.

We spent the rest of the trip on 12V and propane, which was fine. Once home, I was able to affect repairs (see photo – overkill, I know. To do it again, I would just make Marrette connections and tie them out of the way). One connection is for the kitchen outlet (located in the slide-out wall) and the other is for the microwave plug-in located in the overhead cabinet. But I will add that when checking the entire electrical system, I noticed that the plug-in for the microwave was incorrectly wired (hot and neutral reversed). This was preventing the GFCI from resetting, so I knew something was wrong somewhere. I eventually corrected this at my new plug-in arrangement, since it was really hard to access the outlet. Note that, in my solution shown, those two outlets are electrically separate (I broke off the tab that connects the “black” and “white” screws on the outlet’s backside).

All is now back to normal and everything is working as it should, thankfully. I can’t believe that the installer would locate those connectors in such close proximity to plumbing! In retrospect, that GFCI was trying to tell me something. If yours trips, don’t ignore it! If you have a unit with a kitchen slide-out, I strongly suggest you take a look under the sink and think about waterproofing those connectors and tightening the plumbing. If we hadn’t been on site to follow up on this strange noise, we might have lost our trailer. Or worse! Please be careful!!