Iwould like to alert subscribers to something that happened to us recently thatI 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 whichwe bought used last year (and we love it, BTW!). We usually boondock, but on arecent trip we rented an electrical site because I had not yet had a chance tocheck out the entire electrical system. We got set up and hooked up at RideauRiver Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada (nice park!).

On thesecond day, I noticed that the fridge was indicating “no power” (flashing redlight). I had to re-set the GFCI outlet, and all seemed fine (the GFCI outletprotects 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 gothome. But I WAS able to re-set the GFCI.

Later,Gwen and I were sitting outside at the picnic table when I heard a strangenoise 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 wentto investigate. I just stepped into the trailer when I heard it again, onlythis 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 Igot back in the trailer, I could smell that burnt, electrical kind of smell andthere was a slight bit of blue smoke coming from the under-sink cabinet. Thatcabinet is kind of cheaply made, so removing a couple of screws gave me accessto the entire area. I was surprised to see that, directly under the p-trap forthe sink were two electrical connectors (see photo), clearly 115V. They wereblackened and broken.

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

Wespent the rest of the trip on 12V and propane, which was fine. Once home, I wasable to affect repairs (see photo – overkill, I know. To do it again, I wouldjust make Marrette connections and tie them out of the way). One connection isfor the kitchen outlet (located in the slide-out wall) and the other is for themicrowave plug-in located in the overhead cabinet. But I will add that whenchecking the entire electrical system, I noticed that the plug-in for themicrowave was incorrectly wired (hot and neutral reversed). This was preventingthe GFCI from resetting, so I knew something was wrong somewhere. I eventually correctedthis at my new plug-in arrangement, since it was really hard to access theoutlet. 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’sbackside).

All isnow back to normal and everything is working as it should, thankfully. I can’tbelieve that the installer would locate those connectors in such closeproximity to plumbing! In retrospect, that GFCI was trying to tell mesomething. If yours trips, don’t ignore it! If you have a unit with a kitchenslide-out, I strongly suggest you take a look under the sink and think aboutwaterproofing those connectors and tightening the plumbing. If we hadn’t beenon site to follow up on this strange noise, we might have lost our trailer. Orworse! Please be careful!!