Trojan Boat Forum

Went down to the boat yesterday which is on the hard at the local marina to mess around and plugged into shore power to run my heater. Everything was fine then all of a sudden I lost all power on the starboard side.

I checked the breakers and none had tripped. I swapped the the terminals for port and starboard side outlets on the breaker and nothing. I then checked the 3 outlets on the starboard side and everything was tight.

Never had a problem before, port works fine, starboard is out. Fridge, stove is all working. Any thoughts? Thanks to all in advance!

Mine is a 1976 model. In the picture you see two blue breakers. Those feed the port and starboard outlets, those are the ones I swapped.

Did you trip a GFI receptacle?

There are no GFI outlets unless I don't know about them. All original equipment. Only know of three starboard side outlets, one in the v bunk that is back to back with one in the dinette and then one in the corner of the salon by the glass door above the sliding cabinet door.

just a dumb thought, but pull your breaker and inspect the bus bar, damaged or corrosion would keep it from making contact, lost power and not flip the breaker, just a thought because i just ran into this problem with my paint booth. fought it for days, no power, breaker doesnt flip, darn bus bar had a burnt spot in it that wouldnt allow contact

Thanks Jeff, I thought they looked clean when I pulled the breaker but i'll have to double check.

Did you just visually inspect the breakers, or actually flip the all off and back on? I have seen mine trip without necessarily flipping the switch.

i was thinking that his were not tripping. leading to different problem. must have read wrong, sorry

captainmaniac wrote:Did you just visually inspect the breakers, or actually flip the all off and back on? I have seen mine trip without necessarily flipping the switch.

sorry I didnt catch this CaptM, yes ...just like you said. My booth was doing this. never once thought to look to the main supply,

Try opening up the rest of the outlets and check for burnt wiring. The problem may be at the last outlet in the circuit that is still working. Unless you have actually verified it, don't assume the starb and port circuits physically isolate the actual port and starb outlets. Check other locations you may have overlooked for outlets such as cockpit, and this is a no no but it's not out of the question to see an outlet in the engine compartment installed by a PO. The only other thing you can do is a voltage drop test; start at the beginning of the circuit; the distribution panel, and check for voltage at the first load or switch in that circuit, then on to the next if voltage is present there. When you don't get a reading, the problem lies between there and the last location you got a reading. Be careful, you're dealing with a live circuit. Buy a volt stick tester, they are safer to test with and don't require taking hardware apart to test for live wires, they also allow testing for voltage in a wire run. So you can check for voltage as you're following the wire through the boat to the next load or switch. Everyone should have one of these. Several companies make them now and prices are negligable.

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/usen/electri ... trck=1acii

Unplug the shore power cord. Re-cycle the main breaker and the other breakers. Plug in shore power cord. All should be fine. The main probably tripped and sometimes won't reset properly until the shore power is removed. Check all cords and contact points for burning and corrosion. Check grounds and if possible check at shore for good connections to their breakers.

Thanks all, some great suggestions. I'll be down at the boat this weekend and I will let you know what I find.