Advice needed on power distribution center

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Samcro619

Samcro619

New member
Joined
Mar 16, 2020
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4
Location
Independence, Mo.
Hello everyone,

I have an older class A motor home. Its a 1989 Komfort Trendsetter. My problem is that when I plug into shore power and turn the breakers on it trips the GFCI in the bathroom. I have removed every outlet, one at a time, to determine which outlet was causing the problem. Turns out it wasn't any of the outlets. My question: Is it possibly a problem in the power center? The power center is a Magnetek series 6200, model 6345. And this power center, when turned on, hums like crazy. Very annoying.

Thanks for reading and any advice will be greatly appreciated,
Steven
 
It's possible but first disconnect the converter to see if the GFCI continues to trip. Quite often builders use a standard ac outlet to plug the converter in. Locate the plug and unplug it. If there is no plug, locate the AC breaker and turn it off. Unplugging the unit is always best.

It is possible you have a bad GFCI. It is also possible that you have a bad outlet outside the coach that is wired to the bathroom GFCI. Check that outside outlet and disconnect it to see if the GFCI continues to trip. Continue to isolate the GFCI to see  if you can find any change in its behavior.

Make sure everything is wired correctly. gnd, neutral, hot.

 
Well a Magnatek 6300 Power center/Converter does need a converter upgrade (Progressive Dynamich 4600 series is suggested)

But that has nothing to do with the GFCI.
First Pull the GFCI out and find the LOAD wires and disconnect both of them
Does it still trip?

IF yes: bad GFCI

if no: First suspect is the outside (patio) outlet.. Often the Caulking fails and rain gets in and Well. Trips the GFCI.

After that it is a lot more complex  Pull all outlets on the GFCI chain. Re-attach the wires to the GFCI itself. and if it does not trip (With all outlets un-wired) find the wires that are hot and connect that outlet, if it trips replace outlet, of not connect the OTHER pair of wires in that box and repeat till you run out of connections or find the bad run/outlet.
 
While the old Magnetec 6345 power center is obsolete and could stand upgrading to get a far superior converter/charger, it's not the source of the ground fault if a GFCI outlet in the bath area is tripping. The fault must be in the branch circuit, either at the GFCI itself or downstream from it. It could be something hardwired rather than another outlet, though.

The converter/charger is part of the 6345, so you can't unplug it. And it's not the problem anyway, since it is upstream from the GFCI trip.

You state you have disconnected the outlets and it still faults. Just to be sure, remove the hot (black) wire at the GFCI that feeds power to the rest of that circuit.  This would be the black wire leading FROM the GFCI outlet toward the next outlet or hardwired device.  If the fault still occurs,  double check all wiring at the GFCI outlet and replace the GFCI outlet itself.
 
Do what John from Detroit says. The gfi outlet controls any outlet within 6' of a water source.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
You state you have disconnected the outlets and it still faults. Just to be sure, remove the hot (black) wire at the GFCI that feeds power to the rest of that circuit.  This would be the black wire leading FROM the GFCI outlet toward the next outlet or hardwired device.  If the fault still occurs,  double check all wiring at the GFCI outlet and replace the GFCI outlet itself.
Click to expand...

Just to be sure, I would also remove the white wire. A ground to neutral fault could trip the GFCI, or a downstream outlet could be miswired.

Joel
 
John From Detroit said:
Often the Caulking fails and rain gets in and Well. Trips the GFCI.
Click to expand...
The outside outlet on mine wasn't even installed in a box. The manufacturer just inserted an outlet in the wall and attached wires. If you got something in that space in the wall from the inside, it could have easily caused a short.

I have also found that mice love to chew wiring. I have to replace the 10g romex in my rig because they chewed the insulation off. Luckily, I don't have a generator equipped, so there was never power applied to this particular wire. I am thinking about running these wires through a metal conduit to keep mice out of the areas that I can't see easily.
 
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