Motorhome is shorting my house??

[PattyShipc]

First timer here. I have a 30 amp MH. I use a 30 to 15 amp adapter to plug into my home to charge my MH. Both times, using different plugs and adapters (one of the sets came with the rig), I tripped something in my home. I don't just trip a circuit breaker, I have to reset the home's MAIN to get power back to the outlet, although everything else is fine.
Any ideas as to what's up?
Why would my mini motorhome keep disabling the outlet it is plugged into?

Thanks so much!!

 

[John From Detroit]

That is a new one unless you have like 100 amp service in the home and sans the Rv you are using like 90 amps

One POSSIBLE answer and how to figure it out
You need a CLAMP ON ammeter Mine is a Crafstman that can measure both AC and DC via the clamp less than 100 bucks but AC only will do and I think around 20 at horrible Frienht
Now caution there is a danger in this

Remove the cover from the breaker box
Clamp the meter over one of the MAIN wires (The wires going to the main beaker) and observe the amprage

Same for the other main breaker's wire

If one of these is near the breaker rating (And the other very low) you need to have your box re-balanced.

I do know how to do this (it simply involves moving breakers and wires) but it might be best to leave it to someone who has done it before,

 

[SpencerPJ]

Are you plugging it into a GFI outlet in the garage? Sometimes they act wonky.

 

[Rene T]

Shut all your circuit breakers in the MH then plug into home outlet. If all is good, turn on one breaker at a time. if all is good, turn it off then do the same to another one. Repeat that process until you check all of them.
If all is good, turn them all on and tell us what happens.

 

[SuwanneeDave]

I suggest calling an electrician

 

[HappyWanderer]

I suggest calling an electrician

And ignore the previous suggestion to open the electrical panel.

 

[PattyShipc]

Are you plugging it into a GFI outlet in the garage? Sometimes they act wonky.

yes. so, try a non-gfi?

 

[PattyShipc]

yes. so, try a non-gfi?

Thanks, it worked, so far!

 

[PattyShipc]

Shut all your circuit breakers in the MH then plug into home outlet. If all is good, turn on one breaker at a time. if all is good, turn it off then do the same to another one. Repeat that process until you check all of them.
If all is good, turn them all on and tell us what happens.

I chose the path of least resistance first and plugged into a non-GFI outlet. Seems to be good If this trips the circuit I will use your idea next. Thnaks

 

[SpencerPJ]

Keep us posted and don't run your Air Conditioner while plugged in with 15A. Anything else should be fine. It will be best to use a decent quality extension cord as well.

 

[garyb1st]

Our 70 year old home only has 100 amps and it doesn't take much to trip a breaker. Still I can keep our Pace plugged in without issue. My guess is that the circuit your RV is plugged in to has some other appliances using most of the 15 to 20 available amps.

 

[Matt_C]

Please keep us posted. I have seen this before and it was a very dangerous situation. Fortunately, the repair was inexpensive.

 

[John From Detroit]

if it is holding on the GFCI it sounds more and more like a balance issue (And note when I said to meter the currents with a clamp on meter that requires opening the panel I also gave a danger warning)

On a guess I'd say the non-gfci outlet is on the other leg and thus you are "balancing"

YOu should have the panel checked, if you do not wish to risk the danger of removing the cover and exposing the wires (And as I said that is dangerous) Have a professional do it.

NOTE also that a properly balanced panel can lower your power bill.

 

[LarsMac]

Just to back up a bit, if you are plugging in to a single 15A plug, and it pops your entire house breaker, there is likely something wrong with that circuit. Possibly something simple as how the GFCI was wired.

And, if plugging the RV into a another plug which does not pop the house breaker, it pretty well points back to the first circuit being hinky.
I recommend talking to an Electrician about that.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

If I understand all the above, you changed to using a different house outlet and now it works ok. That the other was non-GFCI is irrelevant to this sort of problem. GFCI doesn't know or care about amp overloads.

You will want to understand a few things about power usage and shared circuit. That 15A outlet in the house isn't a guaranteed 15A at each outlet. In most homes, several outlets share a single 15A circuit, i.e. a single 15A breaker serves multiple outlet. In other words, it is 15A total for that set of outlets, not 15A each. Depending on what else is sharing that 15A, there may be little or nothing left for your RV when you plug it in. Changing to a different outlet apparently moved the RV amp load to a different circuit, so not sharing in the same way.

It also appears that your total amp load in the house is close to its main breaker limit, at least part of the time. The same extra amps that tripped the 15A breaker also pushed the main over its limit. Try plugging another high amp device into that GFCI outlet that caused the main to also trip. Somethnig like a toaster or hair dryer that uses a lot of power. I'm betting the same problem will occur.

As