Manufactured Home Troublehooting

[busman]

I don't have any experience with manufactured homes (double wides). We just don't really have much of that type of housing in my area. Got a call that about 8 outlets in a unit in the one-and-only park around here aren't working. I'm just wondering if there are any unique aspects I should be aware of when troubleshooting. I expect that there is some kind of connector that joins the two halves when they are mated. Is it just one connector? Is it/they prone to failure. Is it under the unit? Near the service?

Any help would be appreciated so I don't need to start cold. It could just be the usual back-stab receptacle problem.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[jumper]

Yeah, there is a box connecting the two halves somewhere. I cannot remember where it is usually found, only worked on a few many years ago.

The recs are probably these funny molded ones with no box, the romex gets directly connected.

Good luck, trailors are a PITA.

 

[augie47]

Jumper is 100% correct on the PITA
The items you and he mentioned are probable in my experience. The mating connectors are usually found at one end, under the home. The "molded" receptacles he mentioned are notorious for loose connections and real fun to work with.

 

[busman]

If it makes this any better story, this is a freebie job for a down-on-their luck family.

You gotta love a no-cost PITA.

Thanks for the help,

Mark

 

[augie47]

We've all been there...
bless you
(hopefully they won't have 12 cats)

 

[Cow]

My coworkers have always warned me about having to climb in the crawlspace and look in the connection box between the two halves. So far, after several service calls to work on trailers, it always seems to be a bad back stab just like every other house. Maybe I'm lucky...?

 

[K8MHZ]

My coworkers have always warned me about having to climb in the crawlspace and look in the connection box between the two halves. So far, after several service calls to work on trailers, it always seems to be a bad back stab just like every other house. Maybe I'm lucky...?

Pretty much the same experience here. I would check connections at the receptacles long before I would look for the dreaded bulkhead disconnect. I would start at the bad receptacle closest to the breaker panel and go from there. It may not hurt to pop the panel cover and make sure all the connections in there are OK, and use a meter to check for voltage at all the breaker terminal screws. Check the neutral connections closely, it may not hurt to check for tightness using a screwdriver. If you don't find anything at the receptacle, that is.

 

[growler]

manufactured homes (double wides). We just don't really have much of that type of housing in my area. Got a call that about 8 outlets in a unit in ar not working.

It may not hurt to pop the panel cover and make sure all the connections in there are OK, and use a meter to check for voltage at all the breaker terminal screws.

Folks if there are about 8 outlets that they know about and perhaps a few they don't know about this could easily be the complete circuit that's not working. I would always start at the panel to see if the circuit were are working on can be identified, It's also good to know which breaker so it can be turned off for repairs.

Until you get there you don't know if it's the hot or neutral that's open. Once you know if it's a hot or neutral you can check the breaker or the neural bar. A burned neutral will shut the circuit down as quick as a bad breaker. A break is a break.

 

[Cow]

Folks if there are about 8 outlets that they know about and perhaps a few they don't know about this could easily be the complete circuit that's not working. I would always start at the panel to see if the circuit were are working on can be identified, It's also good to know which breaker so it can be turned off for repairs.

Until you get there you don't know if it's the hot or neutral that's open. Once you know if it's a hot or neutral you can check the breaker or the neural bar. A burned neutral will shut the circuit down as quick as a bad breaker. A break is a break.

I agree. I ALWAYS ALWAYS pull the panel cover first and run the meter down ALL breakers. It's amazing how many times you'll find an unmarked or mismarked breaker that is tripped but still "on" that'll save you a ton of troubleshooting.

I also like the Larry Fine trick of plugging an extension cord into a known good receptacle and dragging the cord around to test against. Great simple troubleshooting tool.

 

[growler]

It's amazing how many times you'll find an unmarked or mismarked breaker that is tripped but still "on" that'll save you a ton of troubleshooting.

Sure and even if you don't find anything wrong you haven't wasted much effort. It's not like going into an attic or crawl space and ending up covered in dirt or insulation. Some things I need a reason for but if it only takes a few minutes and no hard work I figure it's worth it just to eliminate the possibility. I would hate to crawl in an attic only to find I could have repaired a problem by opening the panel.

 

[ceb58]

Pretty much the same experience here. I would check connections at the receptacles long before I would look for the dreaded bulkhead disconnect. I would start at the bad receptacle closest to the breaker panel and go from there. It may not hurt to pop the panel cover and make sure all the connections in there are OK, and use a meter to check for voltage at all the breaker terminal screws. Check the neutral connections closely, it may not hurt to check for tightness using a screwdriver. If you don't find anything at the receptacle, that is.

The thing to ask is were they working before and what happened when they stopped working?
Just be aware you cannot just go and start pulling out receptacles. They are an assembly, you just cant pull out the receptacle to look at it with out the box coming with it. The romex is ran across the back of the receptacle and a piercing plate is locked on the back of the recp. You would take a back stab over it any day.
The cross over plugs are not that bad to check it is just finding them. But if it is only receptacles that are out it more than likely is not the cross over. The cross over will contain several circuits.
You picked a good one for a freebie. But you are doing the right thing.

 

[Cow]

Just be aware you cannot just go and start pulling out receptacles. They are an assembly, you just cant pull out the receptacle to look at it with out the box coming with it. The romex is ran across the back of the receptacle and a piercing plate is locked on the back of the recp. You would take a back stab over it any day.

Not all trailers are that way, my last couple weren't.

 

[ceb58]

Not all trailers are that way, my last couple weren't.

With all MOOOOO respect I don't know if you can compare a mfg. home in the North West with one from the South East. We have a lot of them here and every last one I ever worked on were assemblies. But you never know.

 

[Cow]

With all MOOOOO respect I don't know if you can compare a mfg. home in the North West with one from the South East.

We do have that style up here as well, it's just my last couple were the typical nail-on box type.

 

[jaylectricity]

So this is more like a mobile home rather than a manufactured home on a foundation? If it were the latter I could offer some advice.

This post is not completely worthless, though. If you have a tone tester you can connect it to the hot and/or neutral of one of the dead receptacles and see if you get a tone at the other locations. Check for a tone at the panel. You can also check for a tone at nearby working recep. A working receptacle coupled with a tone is almost a sure thing that the loose connection is there.

 

[kwired]

Knowing how old the home is can help, older ones had different quirks than newer ones, plus codes have changed so some things you used to see are now code violations. I have spent a lot of time on not working outside receptacles before only to find a tripped GFCI in a bathroom was feeding them. It was common practice on some older homes to do that until code no longer allowed other outlets on bath circuit.

 

[hillbilly1]

If your lucky, it may be one of the manufactures that does the splices in two boxes in the wall, usually in the rear bedroom that straddles the halfs. No crawling under the trailer for those!

 

[readydave8]

Following circuits in trailer was always a night mare, seemed to skip around illogically. At some point I realized they wire the outside walls with a circuit, circuit up the middle for interior walls, often lighting is separate. So one room may have 4 circuits, something to do with manfactoring process, electrician is not going around a room, he is running parellel with trailer.

Last time I was sure I had a bad crossover connection I was wrong, turned out that trailer was laid out so that only 3 circuits ran the half that didn't have the panel, happened to all be on the same "phase" (or leg, I'm not going to argue), and this was the "phase" that was showing problem.

 

[busman]

All,

Thanks for ALL the help. I'm sorry I should have been more clear that I was just looking for troubleshooting advice that is specific to manufactured homes. Like the molded plugs/switches and the junctions between halves.

Anyway, here's what I found and you've probably all seen before:

1) One tandem breaker had melted right off the bus bar, so they need a new panel. That was the cause of two circuits not working.

2) About 2/3 of the receptacles are melted/burned and the ones that aren't won't hold a plug.

My plan is to rewire all the devices in the good old box/device/cover method. They don't care about drywall damage (the husband is a mud-slinger) or if the devices move up or down a bit to get slack in the cables. I was going to just do all of them.

Thanks again for all the help.

Mark

 

[augie47]

Watch out for wall depth. Some M/Hs won't allow a box that is the depth required for a Code compliant
install.