RV Electrical Repair in Conroe

Most RV electrical calls in Montgomery County start the same way: the rig was fine sitting, it got plugged in at a dock or a storage-yard power box, and something does not work. Nothing at all, half the outlets, the air conditioner but not the microwave, or everything for ten minutes and then nothing. Almost all of it is findable with a meter in the first hour, and a surprising amount of it turns out to be outside the rig.

An RV runs two electrical systems side by side, and the first question on every call is which one has the fault:

• 120-volt AC: shore power from a dock pedestal, storage-yard power box, or the generator, through the transfer switch and the breaker panel, to the outlets, the air conditioners, the microwave, and the electric side of the fridge and water heater.
• 12-volt DC: the batteries and the converter that charges them, feeding the lights, the water pump, the furnace, the slide motors, the leveling jacks, and the control boards on nearly every appliance.

A dead 12V system makes the rig look dead even when shore power is fine. A dead 120V system leaves the lights on and the air conditioner silent. Telling them apart is step one.

What we repair on site

• Power drops when plugged in: source testing, cord and plug inspection, surge protector and EMS diagnosis, and tracing the fault that trips the breaker.
• Automatic transfer switches: burnt contacts, failed relays, and the “works on the generator, not on shore power” pattern.
• Melted or scorched shore-power plugs and receptacles: cut back, re-terminated, or replaced with the right-rated parts.
• Dead outlets and GFCI chains: one tripped GFCI often kills several outlets that look unrelated, including outside ones.
• Breakers that trip under load: undersized circuits, a failing breaker, or two big loads fighting for a 30-amp supply.
• Converters and chargers: batteries that never charge, lights that dim, a cooling fan that has quit.
• Inverters on motorhomes and fifth wheels that have them: no output, faults, and the settings nobody told you about.
• 12V faults: blown fuses, corroded grounds, failed battery disconnects, and the loose cable that takes a slide or a jack down with it.

Why “we lose power when we plug in” is common here

Older power boxes are under load too. Some Montgomery County storage yards and docks were wired for a different generation of rigs. On a hot afternoon with several units on the same circuit running AC, older wiring can sag under the draw. Compressors do not like starting on low voltage, breakers trip, and the rig gets blamed. Measuring voltage at the time of day the problem happens is the first test we run.

Your surge protector may be working perfectly. Many owners run an energy management system (EMS) rather than a simple surge strip. An EMS watches incoming power and disconnects the rig when voltage drops too low, rises too high, or the source shows a wiring fault. That feels like a failure. It is the device protecting your air conditioner compressor from a bad supply.

Storm-restoration surges are a real Montgomery County risk. After outages like the ones Hurricane Beryl caused across the Conroe electric network in July 2024, grid restoration can send its own surge through a rig left plugged in. An EMS, or at minimum a hardwired surge protector, is cheap insurance against that.

Heat is hard on connections. A 30-amp plug that has carried a full air-conditioning load all summer, with a slightly loose contact, gets hot. Heat raises resistance, resistance makes more heat, and the plug end scorches or melts. A discolored or melted plug is the most common fire risk we see on a shore-power system, and it gets fixed before anything else.

Transfer switches: the usual suspect inside the rig

On a rig with a generator, the automatic transfer switch decides which source feeds the breaker panel. Its shore-side contacts carry the load every season, and over time they pit, burn, and stop making a clean connection. The symptoms: everything works on the generator, nothing works on shore power; power flickers or drops when a big load starts; a buzzing sound from the switch’s compartment; scorching or a hot smell at the switch box.

We confirm it by metering voltage in and out of the switch, not by swapping it on suspicion. Replacement is a same-visit job when the unit is on the truck.

What it costs

Same approach as every other job on our pricing page: diagnosis first, then a number you approve before any work starts.

The safety part

A “hot skin.” If a power source has a missing ground and the rig has a fault to its frame, the metal body of the RV can carry voltage. The warning sign is a tingle when you touch the rig’s metal and the ground at the same time. If you ever feel that, unplug at the breaker and do not touch the rig until it has been tested.

Anything that smells hot. Scorched plugs, a warm transfer switch box, or a breaker panel that smells of burnt plastic are not wait-and-see problems.

Where the 12V side fits

Dead batteries, a converter that has quit charging, and a rig that only has lights when it is plugged in are covered in detail on our batteries dead or not charging page. The appliance repair page covers the water heater, furnace, and fridge control boards that depend on a healthy 12V supply. And if the AC is the load that keeps tripping things, the RV AC repair page explains soft-start devices, which solve a lot of marginal-power-source complaints for less than any electrical repair.

Where we work

On site across Conroe, Montgomery, Willis, The Woodlands, Magnolia, New Caney, and Huntsville. Dock and storage-yard calls are the most common electrical jobs we take, and the pedestal or power-box amperage, and whether you run a surge protector or an EMS, are worth telling us when you book.