Does a GFI actually trip on over current?

[Chuck Craven]

All National and state campgrounds converted to GFCI in the late 90’s.
Some privet and town campgrounds have not converted. They were grandfathered out of the requirements, (Electrical Codes). A GFCI in your camper should not trip a GFCI circuit it is pluged in to unless your camper is wired wrong or you have a high resistance short in your wiring. Take an ohmmeter and check for a high resistance short from hot to safety ground or neutral to safety ground.

Chuck

[prohandyman]

Removing the grounds and connecting them separately took care of the problem. Thanks all.

[davefullmer]

Dan,

I'm glad to hear you solved the problem.

I bought a GFCI receptical yesterday just to read the instructions and see what they had for a schematic. It sure looked to me like putting your ground and neutral together in your breaker box was going to trip the shore GFCI.

Good job, and just note that sometimes we have to take a step back and really look electrical stuff over. I have had to set up a test circuit several times to see how things work. Especially if it is something out of the normal work load for me.

I don't wire but one or two houses a year (for Habitat for Humanity) and I don't get into ground fault circuits on my job as automation technician, so the GFCI devices are not my normal thing.

Dave

[AFoxworthy]

Guys, The reason for separating the grounds and neutrals is that your trailers panel is (for NEC purposes) a branch circuit, not a panel. The grounds and neutrals are bonded together at the primary service (The main panel serving the RV park, home, etc.) After that point it is illegal to bond the ground and neutral together in a subpanel, unless that subpanel is in a structure that is not attatched to the buliding with the original panel (then you have to drive new ground rods and re-establish a ground).

Again, the trailer is an extension of a branch circuit, so again it is not a subpanel. It would essentially be about the same as putting the ground and neutral wire on the same screw on a receptacle. So make sure to separate those grounds and neutrals.

As for the original GFI question, there's not much left of that dead horse to beat.

[wlooper89]

I recently installed a 30A GFCI at my shore power inlet to protect the whole trailer from ground fault. The document with the GFCI lists things that a GFCI will and will not do. It does not protect against overload. It also does not protect against touching two conductors of opposite polarity. The GFCI sees this as a load. And it does not protect the line side. I connected this one directly to the shore power inlet.

According to the documentation what it does is detect a very slight difference in current between the primary and common A/C wires on the load side of the GFCI. As an example this might occur if A/C primary or common is shorted to the trailer chassis. If there is not a path to ground nothing would happen immediately. But if a person completes the path to ground by touching the chassis while standing on wet ground, then the GFCI would trip protecting against shock. In this photo the GFCI is near the left rear of the compartment.



I believe that a circuit breaker is needed to protect against overload, while the GFCI is a good safety device to protect against shock.

Bill