Grounding Your Camper Part II

[Leon]

Electric code calls for the Neutral and ground to be connected back at the supply, which for RVs and Mobile homes is back at the meter, not inside the camper. You should have a separate buss bar for the neutral that is isolated from ground. If you test the plug on your trailer (unplugged from any power source) there should be an "open" from ground to neutral.

[Jim Marshall]

Leon, I really appreciate that information. I will disconnect the ground wires in the breaker box and tie them together to the feed ground wire that way the ground wires and the neutral wires will be seperated. The grounds will be connected to the grounds and the neutrals will be connected to the neutrals but not neutrals to grounds. Thanks again my friend.

[TD4FREEW/CTD]

yo jimmy,

be sure that your neutral bus is not "bonded" (electically continuous) to the chassis of your breaker box. only the grounds should be bonded to the box. also, Code requires that you physically bond your trailer and all electrically conductive parts inside to the ground.

these three pictures show a good example:

notice that the neutral bus is insulated from the chassis by being mounted on a piece of plastic.

i know i've posted this before but sometimes its hard to follow a 5 page thread with lots of bs in between.l

(EDIT: oops, that was the other grounding thread)

[Jim Marshall]

TD, thanks for looking out for me. I went out there today and took all of the ground wires loose from the neutral strip and tied them together with the lead ground wire. I will check tomorrow to be sure the neutral strip isn't connected to the breaker box. If it is, I will take the common wires loose from the neutral bar and tie the commons together to the lead common, that way I will know that everyting will be OK. What do you think? Thanks again my friend. I appreciate your help.

[TD4FREEW/CTD]

if its a small sub panel it should have a "floating" (insulated from the panel chassis) nuetral bus. if not, you could tie the neutrals directly to the incoming neutral wire as long as you can fit it in a wire nut.

if you dont use a proper grounding bus for your ground wires, make sure you "bond" a wire to the panel and trailer chassis by attaching a wire to a screw tapped into the breaker box and trailer chassis. if you are using stranded wire make sure you use a proper splicer to attach it to the screw.


keep in mind that the NEC requires that a separate ground wire comes from your ground bus/bundle and goes directly to a bonding device on the trailer, as well as one on the breaker box. simply bonding the breaker box and attaching it to the trailer frame is not enough. they must both be bonded with their own wire.

[Jim Marshall]

TD, I couldn't wait until tomorrow, I went out in the shop and looked in the breaker box in our tear and the neutral bar is insulated from the box. It is on a thick piece of black plastic like in the picture you posted. Thanks again buddy.

[Jim Marshall]

TD, I do have a dedicated ground wire screwed directly to the trailer and aluminum skin. I will fasten the ground wire to the sub breaker box tomorrow and I will be all set.

Our posts must have passed in cyberspace.

[TD4FREEW/CTD]

sounds good!

[montanablue]

This is great info. We were camping at a Corp of Engr. Campground this past week and I couldn't plug their power into my Teardrop. Their breakers kept tripping. I ended up running two power cords for all of our needs. This thread is my answer since my box also has only one bar for neutral and ground. So it seems that their GFCI didn't like my set up. With this info I plan to add another bar for the ground wires and run a separate ground wire to the trailer just for safety. This news could have saved my life. Wow.