GFI clicking off when I plug my Camper in????

[Larwyn]

You have it narrowed down to a small area. I would disconnect the feed to the breaker box, wire nut, tape, or safely isolate the bare ends and see if it still trips. If not, check for continuity from the ground buss to the neutral buss, if the reading is not infinity, fix it, also check from hot to ground. If so disconnect the other end at the inlet if it still trips, since you have already eliminated the extension cord, the problem is the inlet itself. If not, reconnect everything and give er another try.

Sometimes these things will work after re-assembly even though we never saw the actual problem while taking it apart. One stray strand of wire is often the culprit on a new installation, and sometimes very hard to see.

Isolate and analyze.

[planovet]

1. You pluged in something else to the GFCI and it did not trip. GFCI should be good. Correct

2. I'm guessing that when you pluged the cord into the GFCI without plugging in the TD it did not trip? Cord could still be bad. Did you plug something into the cord pluged into the GFCI? Did it trip? I plugged a box fan into the cord and then into the GFI and it did not trip. Turned on the fan and the GFI did not trip. I'm assuming the cord is ok.

3. With all the breakers off and the cord pluged into the GFCI it will trip. Correct
All circuits when pluged into a non-GFCI check good with power on. Correct
A GFCI will only trip if current is passing through it and one side is not equal with the other. If the breakers are all off then no current should be flowing. It looks like you have something up stream of the breakers. Is the 12 volt converter upstream? I don't have a converter. The cord from the power inlet goes directly into the power center with no branches. Could the power inlet be bad?

4. The GFCI in your breaker box looks like it only has one white wire going to it. It should have a white wire out of the breaker that is connected to the neutral bar. The white wires coming back from the circuits that the GFCI protect should go to the GFCI neutral terminal. Not the neutral bar. You may have it this way, I just do not see it in the photo. The pigtail from the GFI breaker was connected to the neutral bar, just hard to see in that photo. I was going to use the GFI breaker as the main. I switched it out this morning for a regular breaker and the GFI outlet still trips.

PS By the way, that is a Beautiful TD you have. First class all the way! Thank you. I would hate to burn it down with bad wiring though....

[planovet]

You have it narrowed down to a small area. I would disconnect the feed to the breaker box, wire nut, tape, or safely isolate the bare ends and see if it still trips.

Thanks Larwyn, that was the next thing I was going to try.

[cokebottle10]

Larwyn is right. You do not have much else to check. You have isolated the problem from the plug in the side of the trailer to the distribution box. Now you just have to take it apart. I would start be pulling the wire off the distribution box that was the feed from the side of the trailer plug. Wire nut the ends and then connecting them back one at a time until you have the problem.

david

[planovet]

This problem is really bugging me. Thankfully I have it isolated to a small area. I will try and go home during lunch and try your suggestions. I hope it isn't the power inlet, I have it sealed pretty good to the side of my tear. But I want to get this figured out now BEFORE I put my countertop down for good. After that, access to my electrical compartment will be rather cramped at best.

One other question. Is using a GFI breaker a good idea for the main breaker (the breaker where the shore power comes in)? Will it help protect in a wet environment or will it always be tripping when there is a little moisture outside?

Thanks for all your help so far. I wouldn't be this far along if it wasn't for the fine people on this forum. I'll let you know what I find out when I get back home.

[Miriam C.]

This problem is really bugging me. Thankfully I have it isolated to a small area. I will try and go home during lunch and try your suggestions. I hope it isn't the power inlet, I have it sealed pretty good to the side of my tear. But I want to get this figured out now BEFORE I put my countertop down for good. After that, access to my electrical compartment will be rather cramped at best.

One other question. Is using a GFI breaker a good idea for the main breaker (the breaker where the shore power comes in)? Will it help protect in a wet environment or will it always be tripping when there is a little moisture outside?

Thanks for all your help so far. I wouldn't be this far along if it wasn't for the fine people on this forum. I'll let you know what I find out when I get back home.

A good GFCI is one that fails easily. If the GFCI is your main and it goes just because it can you may be forever changing it. However the new ones are supposed to not have as many fail for nothing happenings.

My bias. On the other you bought the box..........the box could have a small piece of soldier off. If you don't isolate your inlet then take that box apart and you might even look for any small thing that is touching any other small thing.......Look very carefully where the wires come in........ Look for screws on the lid and things touching when you can't see them like on the lid.

Also read the paper work and see if it has a built in connection between the neutral and the gound.

Did you plug this up with the lid off????????????

[Larwyn]

Series main breakers serve no purpose, unless you are trying to limit your draw to less than what the campground is supplying. On my trailer the breaker for the shore power serves as the main, I have no main breaker in the trailer, only two 20 amp branch circuits, each feeding a 20 amp GFCI outlet. If one is giving me trouble, I can swap a plug or two and try the other. If they both give me trouble I can plug directly into the shore power cord thus bypassing all the trailer wiring. I have had too many over sensitive GFCI's over the years to allow one to spoil an outing, or even slightly detract from it. The ground wire I dropped from my breaker box to attach to the trailer frame remains not connected at this time, I have yet to decide whether I want to ground the AC electric to the frame or not, cannot see it making a difference either way. Yes, if a hot wire touches the ungrounded frame the frame will be come "hot", but for that to happen somebody would have to come along and clip their own hot wire to the frame, as I have no AC wiring on the outside of my TD. Though I have had no trouble with the electrics on my TD, If I were to do it again I would probably just use an extension cord and not waste the time and effort on AC wiring. The more connections you have, the more opportunities you have for one of them to fail. A simple extension cord can get the job done, is easy to use, easy to troubleshoot, and less expensive.

[wlooper89]

If the tester that you show in your post reads good when you plug the TD into a non-GFCI then check to see if the neutral bar and the ground bar are connected some how. If you used a small breaker box for your circuit breakers then you may have a "bonding screw" in the neutral bar. This will have to be removed. This screw or jumper connects the neutral to ground (back of box or to ground bar) The neutral is designed to carry current. The ground is not. If they are some how connected the ground is carring some of the load and this will trip the GFCI. This could be as small as one strand of wire poking out of a terminal and touching the back of the box. Much like the problem in the beginning of this post.

P.S. I also think that you should connect the ground to the TD frame. I look at the TD as a appliance that you plug in. A table saw, refrigerator, washing machine all have metal frames and the metal frames are grounded. I also think that the RV manufactures do this. But this is just may opinion. Grounding the frame or not has nothing to do with the problem that you have now.

I agree completely with the quoted post. I am surprised the plug-in circuit tester is not showing a fault, assuming the cord is three prong with circuit breakers on and the two amber lights showing normal at each outlet.

It is also curious that the GFCI in the trailer does not trip when you plug into a non-GFCI outlet, but the GFCI for the house outlet does trip when it is used. Since the GFCI in the trailer is only looking at things on the load side or downstream I would suspect either the power cord or the wiring from the power inlet to the trailer GFCI. If the fault is on the other side (load side) of the trailer GFCI it should trip when you plug into a non-GFCI house outlet.

The easiest way I know to check for a short to ground besides the plug in tester is with a volt-ohm meter, if you have access to one. They can be purchased for under $10. Begin with the power cord unplugged from the house but still plugged into the trailer. This will also test the cord and the wiring from the power inlet to the trailer GFCI. Check for continuity between neutral and ground and also hot to ground. They should both show open no connection. If one or the other does show a connection unplug the cord from the trailer and check again. If there is still a connection the problem is in the trailer and the cord is probably okay. This method should narrow it down to either hot or neutral and because the trailer GFCI does not trip I would strongly suspect the wiring at the power inlet to the trailer GFCI.

If things still check out normal I would test for continuity between hot and the trailer frame, and also neutral and the trailer frame. If one or the other wires is touching the frame somewhere there may be enough current going to earth to trip the house GFCI, perhaps through the tongue jack especially if the ground is wet.

Together with what Cokebottle10 and Larwyn have said, that is about all the ideas I have. Good luck finding the problem.

Bill

[planovet]

Problem solved!!

As a veterinarian, I like a diagnostic challenge from time to time but this one was driving me crazy. Fortunately help from the kind people above (Miriam, Larwyn, Bill and David) brought me to the solution. I went home and unhooked the main wire from the power center and plugged in the cord. No trip! At least the inlet was OK. Now I have the problem confined to the power center (oh silly, silly man). I do not have an ohm meter so I decided to hook the neutral and ground wires to the power center, leaving the hot wire unhooked. Plugged in the cord and the GFI trips. Neutral and ground are connected somewhere. I search all over the neutral and ground bars and there is nothing touching. Great, I have a problem somewhere in the wiring where the ground and neutral is touching. Did I drive a screw into a wire?? As I was contimplating this senario, I looked down on my unfinished galley counter and saw the cord I'm going to use for the galley plugs. (I know you know what's coming now but it was a major "DUH" moment for me.) The end of the cord was just cut off, waiting to be hooked to a plug. It was hooked to the power center but the breaker was off. Foolishly I thought since the breaker was off everything was dead to that wire. Well, it seems that a neutral and ground wire was touching at the cut end. I separated the wires at the end and plugged in the cord. No GFI trip! Problem solved. Mark feels like a stupid ass. I'd feel much worse if the sheer joy of finding the problem didn't balance it out a little.


Thanks to all that helped with advice, it truly helped a lot.

[Miriam C.]

I am so glad you found it! And very glad you had the breakers off........

[wlooper89]

Congrat's on a great bit of detective work! I am very glad the problem is solved.

Bill

[Larwyn]