2000 Adventurer 35U - 110v Elect Problem

BrentHG · Mar 16, 2016

The GFI duplex outlet on the end of the sink cabinet keeps tripping, so I replaced it thinking it had gone bad. Still the same problem, so I replace the 15amp circuit breaker, still trips GFI. Anyone with 110v AC experience have an idea where I should be looking for the trouble? There must be a a dead short somewhere.

John Hilley · Mar 16, 2016

Is it tripping without anything plugged in or only when you plug in a specific device. It may be that the outdoor receptacle is on the same circuit and is wet or damp.

Alfa38User · Mar 16, 2016

I would check any outdoor plugs (as on the Patio) for moisture. A GFI plug can protect up to 6 other daisy chained ordinary plugs and so there are many candidates for checking (possibilities might include plugs found in storage compartments, bathroom sink area, 120V in back of the refrigerator etc.)

cbeierl · Mar 16, 2016

Here are the Body, 110 Volt Wiring Diagram and Body, 110 Volt Wiring Installation diagram for your coach. They well tell you what else is on that circuit as well as (roughly) where the wires physically run.

John Canfield · Mar 17, 2016

See if it trips when unplugged from shore power and with the gen set running.

BrentHG · Mar 17, 2016

John Canfield said:
See if it trips when unplugged from shore power and with the gen set running.

Hey John, it trips on shore power or generator power. I have checked the outside duplex, dry as a bone. Must be another outlet somewhere. I have a technician working on it.

John Canfield · Mar 17, 2016

If all of the outlets on that circuit are unplugged, then you might have a chafed wire. I'm trying to think if I've ever heard of a circuit breaker causing a GFCI trip. We need Seilerbird here for an opinion.

Gary RV_Wizard · Mar 17, 2016

A GFCI trips when the hot or neutral wires in the outlet are shorted to ground, e.g. the ground wire or the RV chassis. The short may also be downstream from the outlet, if additional outlets are daisy chained to it (very likely in an RV - see the schematic Chris provided). Breakers have nothing to do with GFCI tripping.

If you don't have any lucjk visually inspecting for a short, disconnect the wires that daisy-chain to the next outlet and see if the trip still occurs. Repeat this process one at a time, along the line of outlets until you isolate the one that is causing the trip. The optimum method is to pick a place in the middle of the circuit first, thus immediately showing which half has the problem. The other popular technique is to start at the farthest end and work back towards the GFCI outlet. That may take longer (depending on where the problem lies), but when you get to the one that stops the tripping, you know you have the culprit!

John Canfield · Mar 17, 2016

Gary RV Roamer said:
...If you don't have any lucjk visually inspecting for a short, disconnect the wires that daisy-chain to the next outlet and see if the trip still occurs...

I was going to recommend he do that but Winnie doesn't break the wiring at an outlet - it just presses on the Romex.

Gary RV_Wizard · Mar 17, 2016

My coach is the same and it's a pain to disconnect outlets. However, I don't know any other way to isolate a short if a visual inspection doesn't turn up the problem area.

He only has to disconnect the hot (black) wire at each point, so one wire only.

John Canfield · Mar 17, 2016

He would have to cut the black wire since the mid-run outlets are pressed into the wire.

Gary RV_Wizard · Mar 17, 2016

Yeap. Not pretty.

I don't know about Winnies, but the GFCI may not be a press in. The rest probably are.

John Canfield · Mar 18, 2016

His GFCI should be the usual household duplex outlet.

Bob T · Mar 19, 2016

If his gfci is the usual household outlet and is protecting outlets downstream there will be line and load terminals, so the receptacle wont be pressed on. Feed wires into line and downstream protection on load terminals.
A gfci works by measuring the amperage that goes out ( on black wire) vs what comes back (on white wire). If it is 5 mA or greater difference it will trip out
If there is a direct short, ie power to ground, the breaker or fuse should be what trips.
First place I would look is to ensure the white and black on line side are both from the feed set. This is because you changed the plug.
Another place to look is to find out what the cct is feeding. There may be something on the cct that has a ground fault in which case the gfci is doing its job.

Photog · Mar 19, 2016

We had a very small water leak in a shower pipe that sprayed on an outlet. It kept setting of the GFI. It took a while to find it.

John Canfield · Mar 20, 2016

Bob T said:
If his gfci is the usual household outlet and is protecting outlets downstream there will be line and load terminals, so the receptacle wont be pressed on...

AFAIK, the outlets are pressed on to the wire, like the image below. I'll have to check mine to see what kind of receptacles I have downstream of the GFCI, you might be correct.

Bob T · Mar 20, 2016

To the best of my knowledge, if Winnie is using pressed on connections the only one that wouldn't be pressed on is the gfci.
The terminals have to be seperate (line and load) so downstream protection may be achieved. Everything else may be and probably is the way John described.

Gary RV_Wizard · Mar 20, 2016

I think we all agree the non-GFCI outlets will be the press-in type. The real question is whether there is enough wire slack at those outlets to pull them out enough to work on. It's not impossible to pull the hot wire from a press-in, but it takes some effort and needle-nose pliers and you need to be able to get at the back side with tools.

John Hilley · Mar 20, 2016

If you are working with the Hubbell Wirecon receptacles, you can snip the black wire between the two insulation displacement connections. Then just remove the downstream conductor. Snip off the area that had been in the contact and press the new end back into the contact with a slip joint plier. Continue to the end of the circuit. If you want to replace with a conventional receptacle, and there is enough depth, you can use Wago 3 conductor connectors. Insert the two conductors from the Wirecon receptacle and a pig tail a few inches long into the connector. The connect the pigtail to the new receptacle.

Hubbell Wirecon Installation Instructions
http://www.hubbell-wirecon.com/literature/InstallationGuide.pdf

Wago Connectors
http://www.wago.us/products/terminal-blocks-and-connectors/installation-connectors/overview/

John Canfield · Mar 21, 2016

Thanks for that bit of info John!

2000 Adventurer 35U - 110v Elect Problem

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