I was having trouble with my lights flickering, then the power went out totally. I checked the main breaker inside, and it was not tripped so I went out to the disconnect at the meter and found that it was tripped there.
I reset the breaker, and the power came back on.
The next day some circuits were dead but others still worked, so I checked the disconnect again and saw that one side of the the prong the breaker attaches to for hot was loose and not on the frame. When I tried to seat it, the breaker felt loose so I shut it off and called the maintenance guy.
They changed out the box and the 100 amp disconnect. While doing so they arced the hot wire to the box almost starting a fire, but they were able to get the box replaced and the power back on.
The problem is that now I only have one hot 120v leg in my mobile home. The outside disconnect has 240v across both legs, 120v between each hot and neutral. I noticed that it only has 3 wires, which go underground and come out under the house as 4 wires: red, black, white and green.
Inside, the panel has a 100 amp breaker. Red and black are hot, white and green go to neutral and ground which are joined together.
I show 120v from each leg to ground and 240v across both legs with the main on.
With the hot water heater breaker off and the main on I show 120v from one hot leg to ground, 0v from the other leg to ground, and 120v across both legs. Resetting all breakers has not helped.
I am concerned that the wires may have shorted between the point that the 3 wires leave the outside disconnect, and enter the house with the 4th (ground) wire.
The ground seems okay in the disconnect, and there is 240v across the hot legs. If there was a problem with the neutral or the ground, wouldn't I have problems with both legs?
Right now I have all the 240v breakers off and show no signs of trouble. The 120v circuits that are on the remaining leg shows 120v in all the plugs that are hot, and the lights seem fine. Is there something I am missing, or anything else that could have caused one leg to be dead?
Best Answer
To me it sounds like one of your hot leads to the mobile home was damaged. Turn every breaker off but leave the main on and you will probably see one leg is dead.
My guess is with the smaller breakers on there was enough pass through to provide a voltage, remove the opportunity for this to happen and the bad leg shows up.
How can this happen? I’m my experience it is usually the water heater turning on or trying to so there is voltage on both legs but no potential difference. Open or turn all breakers off and that will usually provide the dead leg.
Someone working with a live circuit like that should have the training and gear to do it safety it is obvious they don’t and should not have done this.