RV outlets not working: The 120 volt side

Every outlet in the whole RV is dead

Look upstream: the pedestal, the shore cord, the main breaker on the panel. If you have a 50 amp RV, remember it has two 120 volt legs, and one leg being dead takes out roughly half the coach while the other half works normally, which looks like a partial fault but is really a supply fault.

A string of outlets dead, others fine

A tripped GFCI upstream of them is the first thing to check, and it costs nothing.

One outlet dead, neighbours fine

That specific outlet, its connections, or the fact that it is simply not on the circuit you think it is.

Outlets work on shore power but not on the inverter

Usually not a fault. An inverter feeds a subset of outlets rather than all of them.

Outlets dead but all the 12-volt things work

Confirms the fault is the 120 volt side, and the two systems are separate except at the converter.

Any shock or tingle from the bodywork

Stop here and read the hot skin section. That is a different class of problem.

The pedestal

Before anything inside the RV, confirm the pedestal itself is supplying power. At a campground, check the breaker at the post first; if it is tripped, that one is the park's to fix.

The main breaker

You cannot tell whether a breaker is tripped by looking at it. To reset one you have to push it firmly to off and then firmly back on, not just flick it. If it will not stay on, stop, because there is a real fault on that circuit and repeatedly resetting it is not a fix.

The branch breakers, one per circuit, typically 15 or 20 amps. Same reset action. A dead branch kills everything on it, and the outlets in an RV are chained rather than run individually, so a fault in one outlet taking out the ones after it is normal behaviour rather than a mystery.

The GFCI

RVs put a ground fault outlet at the head of a chain, normally near a sink or in a wet location, and it protects every outlet downstream of it. When it trips, the whole downstream string goes dead at once. The practical consequence is that the outlet you are testing may be perfectly healthy and simply not receiving any power. Find the GFCI on that circuit first.

The inverter

An inverter/charger has an AC pass-through circuit with internal relays that feed its designated outlets from shore power when it is present and from the batteries when it is not. So some outlets work on battery and some never will, and that is by design. Xantrex documents a failsafe behaviour worth knowing: on this unit the AC output stays live if AC input is available even when the operating switch is set to off. Do not assume an outlet is dead just because you switched the inverter off.

A GFCI that will not reset is a specific diagnostic rather than a vague problem. Leviton's literature describes a lockout feature that prevents reset in three situations, and here they are in its own terms.

One, there is no power reaching the outlet

A GFCI cannot reset without power, so a dead upstream breaker presents as a failed GFCI. Check the supply before condemning the device.

Two, the line and load leads are reversed (check this with the shore cord unplugged, as the safety note at the top says)

Wiring the incoming supply to the outgoing terminals is a common mistake after replacement, and the device locks out rather than functioning incorrectly. Leviton's LED indicator diagnosis chart names reversed line and load leads as a specific reading.

Three, it has failed its own internal test

A GFCI that has failed this way may no longer be able to protect you in a ground fault. This is the one that matters for safety, because it still looks fine.

When to replace it

The instruction is direct: if the red indication continues, or the GFCI will not reset, replace it, after ruling out moisture as the reason it is refusing (moisture is covered below). Leviton's own wording is: if the status indicator does not turn green when the reset button is pressed and released, or the GFCI cannot be reset, it must be replaced.

Water in the box is one reason a GFCI will not reset, and it is worth testing before you spend anything: unplug the shore cord at the pedestal first, as the safety note at the top says, then dry the outlet and try the reset again. It is the one cause that costs nothing to rule out.

The outlet tester, and what it reads

A multimeter tells you whether voltage is present. Hold the probes only by their insulated handles with your fingers behind the finger guards, and keep the two tips from touching each other or anything else while the circuit is live. A tester tells you how the outlet is wired: whether the ground is connected, whether hot and neutral are reversed, whether the neutral is open. None of those show up in a voltage reading. Any of those three readings is a wiring fault rather than a supply fault, so stop using that outlet and have the wiring corrected before you plug anything back in.

Test a known good outlet first

Every tester has its own pattern of lights and the charts assume a particular model. Plug it into an outlet you know works so you can see what a good result looks like on your tester before you try to interpret a bad one.

Press the test button on the GFCI and listen

A working GFCI clicks off when you press test, and clicks back on when you press reset. If test does nothing, that is another sign the device is not functioning.

What actually causes dead outlets

The problems behind dead outlets are a tripped GFCI, a tripped pedestal breaker, a loose connection at an outlet where the wiring is push-in rather than screwed down, and corrosion at outlets in damp locations.

If you feel a tingle or a shock when you touch the vehicle body, or when you touch a metal part of it while standing on wet ground, that is a condition commonly called hot skin. It means voltage is present on the chassis that should not be there. That is a shock risk to anyone touching the vehicle, and it is not a curiosity.

What to do

Unplug from shore power immediately. Do not continue using the RV while it is doing this, and do not treat it as something to tolerate. It should be found and fixed before the RV is used on hookups again.

Why it happens

The usual causes are reverse polarity at the pedestal, or a missing or broken ground connection somewhere in the path. Note that this is the 120 volt grounding and bonding system, which is a completely different thing from the 12-volt chassis return. They share the word ground and nothing else.

A cheap multimeter cannot meaningfully assess the grounding and bonding path, which is why a hot skin problem is best handed to someone with the right instrument. Getting someone qualified to look at it is the correct call.

A GFCI is a cheap part, and a weather-resistant one costs a little more, which is what you want for an outdoor location. If the maker's instruction is to replace it, that is not an expensive decision.

Professional diagnosis is charged as its own fee, and labour by the hour, and both are the reason to do the two free checks first. Finding out whether it is a tripped breaker or a reset GFCI before anyone is paid to look takes a few minutes rather than a callout.

Where it gets expensive

A hot skin fault or a damaged run inside a wall is a different scale of job, and neither is something to price up from a guide. If the safety tests point at either, the next call is to a qualified electrician rather than to a parts supplier.

Remember this is the 120 volt system, so the 12-volt diagnostic guide covers a different half of the RV. If your lights rather than your outlets are out, that is lights not working. And if the fault is that the batteries are not charging rather than outlets being dead, see converter not charging.