I plugged a regular cable into the wall of my garage and took the plug out of the only socket in the generator compartment. I plugged that into my monster extension cord. I can hear the converter humming and I switched the big knob to SHORE. Nothing. Am I close? I have a 1989 gas powered Bookmobile and I don't think I have ever loved anything so much. $3500.00. Most things work fine with the generator on. Any tips on anything I should do to go short trips. 100 miles. I already took it 80 miles and all I noticed was horrible gas mileage. 8/mpg

Then where does the cable from the shore (Garage or power box at a campsite) enter the RV?

The plug arrangement you mentioned is farly common on smaller RVs - the 120VAC is supplied either by plugging the cable into the outlet for the generator, or by plugging into shore power. However, with that arrangement, (which would be very rare for RV Barths), there would be no need for a SHORE switch, as one manully makes the change with the plug.

If the converter is working, you have 120VAC. All the lights in the coach are probably 12VDC.

How did you determine you're not getting shore power, and did you try returning the SHORE switch to the original position?

Then where does the cable from the shore (Garage or power box at a campsite) enter the RV?

The cable that you unplugged from the generator compartment should be the main feed into the coach for 120VAC. Plugged into the generator, it supplies power. Plugged into shore, that's the source.

There may be another arrangement that I've not run across before - and having both the receptacle at the generator and a manual switch is odd.

How long is the cord from the generator recptacle?

2 feet

Usually they're longer....how did you determine there was no 120VAC when plugged into shore power? The converter/charger running means that there was 120VAC. Did you check the 120VAC outlets? Typically, the only 120V items are the A/C, microwave, converter, and refrigerator.

it is a bookmobile. no appliances. outlets lights and AC no work but they do on genny and with the swith to generator.

That's very odd. If the converter runs, then 120VAC should be available to all circuits.

This is probably going to need tracing of circuits and wiring. There's a good chance a jumper wire is missing, meaning that the genset can power the A/C and outlets, but the shore power can't.

The only other workaround I can think of is to try the system on shore power with the switch on "Generator".

There's also a possibility that there's a breaker tripped that prevents shore power from supplying all circuits, but this I doubt, as the breakers are generally wired to protect overcurrents from whatever source.