Replacing a bad outlet

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C

CGXterra

Active member
Joined
Feb 12, 2012
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38
Hi all. I had a 15 amp breaker start tripping this afternoon all of a sudden. I've been on campground power for 4 uneventful days, then is morning DW said that she saw a drag on the lights and a/c and then that breaker tripped. Everything plugged into the two outlets that are affected was turned off at the time. The TV and satellite dish tuner are plugged into the one outlet, nothing in the other. The breaker will not stay on even with nothing plugged into it.  Just does a split second drag when I turn it on and then flips. I called the dealer and the owner said that it sonds like an outlet went bad and that I'd one goes bad, the ones that follow it might too.

I have the tv and satellite tuner plugged in elsewhere in the camper now and everything is working fine.

I pulled the outlet out and found that its one of those outlets that you just push the two black wires, two white wires, and two ground wires into the wire harnesses.

The guy from the lot said I should replace the outlets with better ones from the hardware store. Went there and got 2 15 amp outlets and went to plug them in. White to the proper screw, black too, but two ground wires and only one ground plug. ?

I've read where I can wire nut the two grounds together and use a pigtail to connect them. Does that sound like the correct course of action here?  Or should I call an electrician before I blow us all up???

In case you hadn't realized, I'm not exactly an expert in this stuff, so if you can offer some assistance, please be gentle. ?

 
Wire nutting ground wires together is very common. As long as you get a good crimp on the wire nut you will be fine.  And the outlets with the push in connections are always suspect in a RV because of the shaking that the rig endures.  The screw terminals are always a better bet.
 
Thank you for the advice. One more thing. There's insulation in the wall all around the hole where the outlet is that has the consistency of that fake spider web stuff you spray around at Halloween. Should I get a box to put the screw on wires in and slide that into the hole or will it not matter if that insulation touches the wires?  I can push it away while I'm working, but it always works its way back down to the plug wires.  I'm not sure if I can find a thin enough box that won't stick out of the wall, but I can dress it up and make it look like is supposed to be that way if it those wires need some protection.
 
Appreciate it. I talked to the owner of the place that I bought the camper from and since its under warranty they came out to me and checked it out.  We full time and they had work our camper into its spot with a tractor because its a parallel spot on a lake. They traced all the outlets and found a short in the last one in the chain. They isolated it and everything is working now except for one plug. They said they could fix it by it would require some pretty extensive work and we don't want to blow what's left of the summer with the rig in the shop so it's what I call a decorative outlet now. I'm going up make a point to replace all of those cheap outlets with new ones sometime over the winter.

Thank you again for the assistance all. I can always count on this board.
 
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