Caution! check your electrical connections.

Hi All,

I've had a couple issues with the electrical wiring on the 2013 178 and wanted to warn you all to check your outlets and connections looking for blackened/heat damaged connectors.

1. First issue - while camping in summer months I was connected to shore power and running AC, HW heater and refrigerator all on electric. As I exited from my shower the AC Fan shut off. I checked the breakers in the camper and on the pole outside and everything looked fine. It wasn't until I tried to remove the main power cable from the camper i noticed it was warm,  was stuck and difficult to pull off. The connector had melted fusing the plug and socket together. I concluded that the cable wasn't making a good connection and the fridge, HW heater and AC was too much draw for the connector and almost caused a fire. After purchasing a new plug and replacing the damaged one I noticed the female pins on the old plug were spread making for a bad connection. When running AC I now run the refrigerator and HW heater on propane to avoid overloading.

2. My second issue was just recently and I experienced the GFI next to the bed tripping off. I was running a small cube heater on the GFI outlet and thought perhaps a bad connection in the outlet was causing the issue. The breakers in the power panel were not tripping only the GFI. When I returned from camping and connected the RPOD to a house exterior outlet the house GFI  began tripping. I never had an issue before on this outlet. While troubleshooting i turned all breakers off in the camper and back on one at a time until finding the microwave ckt was causing the issue. Tracing the wires I found  a Molex (high current) quick disconnect connector under the sink melted and black.

The factory uses cheap quick install outlets and connectors and they are less than reliable. I recommend everyone inspect them in your camper.