halfdome, Danny wrote:.
The maintenance man thought the problem was that we had a 15 amp vs their 20 amp GFCI. I wasn't buying into his theory since we have hooked up the same way in other campgrounds including Oregon campgrounds without any problems. Anyway, since it has 12-2 romex with ground and a 20 amp breaker box I was planning oAlson changing everything out to 20 amps.
I'm Mike Sokol from the No~Shock~Zone. My articles have been linked to on some other threads on this forum, so I thought I would jump in here about GFCI theory. First of all, if you're talking about a GFCI outlet with the built-in TRIP and RESET buttons, then the total amperage draw has nothing to do with this. In fact, that type of outlet needs to be fed by its own circuit breaker, typically rated for 20-amp even thought the GFCI outlet may not have the sideways T-shaped contact of a 20-amp version. But any of the 15-amp receptacles can safely carry 20-amps of current as long as the wiring and breaker feeding them are rated for 20 amperes. See my article on GFCI theory at
http://www.noshockzone.org/rv-electrical-safety-part-viii-gfci/ Be aware that GFCI's are tripped by any more than 6 mA (milli-amps) imbalance of incoming and outgoing current. So anything that leaks a little current to the frame ground of the RV is suspect. One thing that's often the culprit is the basic surge protector power strip. The MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) inside will often leak 1 to 3 mA (milli-amperes) of current between the hot and ground wires. And those leakage currents are additive, so while a single surge strip may not cause a GFCI to trip, two surge strips plugged into your RV can often add up to more than the 6 mA tripping point. Also, any kind of moisture in a junction box can cause this type of leakage as well. I've seen a number of RVs with a torn gasket on a junction box that allowed water to accumulate in the bottom, and that was enough to cause the GFCI to trip.
I will note that there are indeed a lot of failed GFCI's out there, but they typically break by not tripping at all or not resetting. There's not a lot of GFCI failures where they trip at too low of a level. I'm sure that's possible, but I've never seen it in the field personally.
One more thing... I'm pitching the idea of the RVIA supporting me presenting some on-site seminars about electrical safety for various camping groups. So let me know if TNTTT has any sort of jamboree or other type of community meeting on the east coast you might want me to teach at. For more info on all the topics I cover in my seminars see
http://www.NoShockZone.org Let's play safe out there....