T&T: Debugging an electrical problem

[Peter Bennett]

Sunday, July 1, 2007, 4:19:47 PM, Greg wrote:

GB> I am a bit stumped and was hoping someone could help me out.  We just
GB> bought a 44' Thompson Trawler in Ft. Myers, FL about 2 months ago.  We
GB> have successfully moved the boat from Ft. Myers to Kentucky Lake to sit
GB> out hurricane season this year.  Now that we are sitting at our dock on
GB> Kentucky Lake, I'm experiencing an electric problem that we did not
GB> have up to this point.

GB> We we are on shore power (50A), we get enough power to power everything
GB> on the boat (including dual air conditioners at the same time) except
GB> the electric stove.  The electric stove will sort of power on, but the
GB> burners never get very hot and the LED "On" light does not light.  This
GB> is the first marina where we have had this issue.  The stove has worked
GB> fine in other marinas on shore power.  If I switch to generator power,
GB> the stove works just fine.  I have tried two shore side outlets (both
GB> in the same box) and both inlets on the boat (one on each side).  There
GB> are no other 50A shore side boxes close enough to reach.  My multimeter
GB> doesn't have prongs long enough to measure voltage at the box.  I'm not
GB> sure what else to test.

GB> Is it my cable going bad?  Is it the shore side box that is bad?  Is it
GB> the internal boat wiring having troubles?  

GB> Thanks...
GB> Greg...

You will have to measure voltages at various points,even if it means
opening the outlet box.

I assume that you have not changed the boat's wiring recently, so we
can assume that the boat wiring is correct, and the problem is the
voltage available at the shore power outlet.

-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ennos 31 "Honeycomb"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca