Electrical confusion

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Howard Kelly

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Joined
Apr 22, 2010
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576
Hi  We just traded down from a diesel truck and 32 ft trailer to a gas  truck and a 26 ft trailer. I missed that the trailer ( a 2012 Coleman ) had a 30 amp plug in connector.  ( did not check under the electrical cap )  Found our when I tried to plug the power in at home. Bought an adapter and was good . After a few days  the battery was only 1/2 charged and that's when I discovered the outside plug in was tripping off.
Now for the confusion....The only reason I thought I would need 30 amps would be to run the AC,  so 15 amp should charge the battery and run the house lights..
So does the trailer have a wiring problem , or does my stick and brick electrical have the problem.
Just to add to the confusion the trailer is a remodel as it has new roof and appliances and flooring.
I am prepared to install a 30 amp plug in here at home but is it necessary ???
Going to take to back to the dealer but would like some opinions on why I would need 30 amps .
Will my Honda 2000 generator have to be replaced ?? as we do a fair amount of boon docking.
Thanks Howard
 
Doubtful its the house.
The trailer also has a breaker panel. Start there.
Turn off all breakers and then 1 on/off at a time to see if it trips house breaker.
Obviously if trailer breakers are less than house breaker it should trip before the house breaker does.
You may have to turn on several trailer breakers to trip the 15 amp house breaker.
Indeed usually the 30 amp power requirement is to start A/C.
Is the fridge a residential model? (you mentioned new appliances)
I'm not sure I understand your question about the Honda 2000 genny.
 
Are you saying the house breaker is tripping and not the breaker in the camper? That's what it sounds like to me. If so, is the breaker feeding the camper a dedicated circuit with it's own breaker, or does other things feed off of that breaker? How far away from the breaker is the receptacle for the camper? Are you using an extension cord from a normal receptacle on the side of the house?
 
You do NOT need a 30A outlet at the house and there is no reason at all that a 30A-->15A adapter would not work for loads other than the trailer a/c.  Nor is there any reason to replace your Honda 2000 unless you want to power the trailer a/c at times.

Please explain "tripping off" further, i.e. is the house breaker tripping or the GFCI (assuming it is GFCI-protected)?  It's possible the trailer has a ground fault in its wiring and that would trip the GFCI on any house outlet that is protected (and most exterior house outlets have GFCI protection). 30A outlets generally do not, though it is becoming more common nowadays.
 
If on your home, you are using an outside outlet, that outlet should be fed from a GFCI outlet located inside somewhere, (a code requirement). It does not take much to trip a GFCI circuit so that is most likely the case.

Need a 30 amp plug on the house?? Not likely if you are not running things like AC etc. For just keeping the batteries up, your existing arrangement using the adapter will work fine.

Your Honda should work fine as well but keeping in mind the limited amperage available to you. (16 amps peak, not continuous).
 
Many modern RV's have both the converter which charges the batteries and a dual power water heater and dual power Fridge

Some numbers
Water heater is often 1500 watts. that's 12.5 amps
Fridge about 350, figure 3 amps
You are not overloaded on a 15 amp circuit.

Converter... I have a Progressive 9180 with charge wizard.. IT draws just over 10 amps if the batteries are hungry.. Closer to 1 if they are full.  (The point is variable amps)

But even i9f the converter is only drawing 5 amps.. A 20 amp breaker is not clickey.

TURN STUFF OFF other than the converter .
 
Thanks for all the reply's, It  is the  garage plug  with the GFCI that is breaking the circuit, looks like a ground fault problem in the trailer Going to work through the suggestions I have received to isolate the problem.
Thought I did not need to upgrade to 30 amp service, thanks for the conformation.
Will get back to you with the solution or an unsolvable problem :D :eek: ::)
Cheers
Howard
 
The common causes of a ground fault in an RV are the fridge electric heat element, with a high resistance short to the metal tube is rests in, or an improperly grounded converter/inverter charger.  And sometimes a careless tech has connected a neutral wire to the ground bus in the load center (breaker box), guaranteeing a GFCI trip.  Another possible place to check is the the adapter itself and the plug on the shore cord. Once in awhile they are screwed up, e.g. neutral & ground reversed or a stray strand of wire connecting neutral & ground terminals.
 
Ground fault problems can be a pain in the you know what.. One common culprit is teh converter. Some will trip when batteries hungry, others when full. others.. Who knows. Some never trip it.

Fridge, water heater and the ever popular "other" are on the list as well.

One person had GFCI issues. found a pair of junction boxes under his slide out (Common, mine has that too) Full of water NOT COMMON, in fact NOT supposed to happen) Dried em out and problem gone (Sealed 'em up too)
 
As Gary said, a 30A plug is NOT required.  Right now, my 50A FW is plugged into a dedicated 20A GFCI receptacle, with adapters!  Working fine with occasional GFCI trips.

Tom S recently gave the best description of how a GFCI works that I have seen.  Paraphrased, his version was better.

The GFCI  measures EXACTLY how much current went out the black wire (only route out) and how much returns on the white wire.  If the numbers are not the same, some power found an alternate route back, thru the ground wire or thru YOU!.  It trips.  Immediately.
 
Then do the same test for the refrigerator.  Switch it to gas and unplug it from the socket behind the fridge instead of having to remove the wires from the heating element.
 
Update
after following the suggestions the results are ..... No 110 in the rv,    Gfi does not trip now .
12 volt systems work with the exception of the slide out no power there. and the hand crank handle has no place to attach to ...
Dealer was good and moved me to the front of the line for repairs. Was  taking the Trailer there at 9am this morning
Hooked up the trailer the night before , checked the tire pressures and was ready to get an early start only to find the trailer had a flat  GRRRRRR  Flat is fixed but missed my time spot... so now I wait till the 7 of May  MURPHY is working overtime 
The sun is shinning and it has warmed up here so now we get to do yard work  lol
Thanks again for all the help,  the saga will continue and I will keep you informed  :( :D :mad: :)
 
Sounds like a bad power cord.
12V systems ..... as in lights and water pump?
If so, then probably running off battery. Not enough power to operate slides.
I'm guessing they are electric?
 
Slide does not work when the trailer is plugged into the truck, Battery shows full charge  It's Murphy at work 
 
If you have no 120V at the RV, start working backwards.  Is there 120V at the receptacle where you are plugged in?  How about at the end of the cord?  Through the adapter?  At the Breaker box?

In the meantime, if you have a separate battery charger, run a cord from the house to the camper and hook it up to the battery.  After a good overnight charge, I suspect the slide will work.
 
Well got the trailer home from the dealer and the problem was a lose wire connection at the water heater. They did not find a problem with the slide and found the manual connection for it, was  behind a wooden panel and funny thing is the handle is to big to use in the small space but a ratchet will do the job so we are looking forward to our first outing at the end of this week.
Thanks for all the responses
 
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