30 amp breaker keeps popping

Just so you know that when the air condition is on you can NOT use other appliances at the same time it will trip. I.E. coffee pot, electric frying pans, crock pot, hair dryer etc. Zip, zero, nada can be on same time as ac.

Agree as it sounds like you could run one appliance at home on 20A but not multiple appliances on the CG 30A. It could also be low CG voltage.

It's very helpful to know the actual voltage. Get a $5 voltmeter at HF and sometimes free. Or as suggested a $30+ clamp on ammeter (make sure it will also measure DC amps) to measure AC/DC voltage and amps. Don't leave home without it.

A $25 Kill A Watt is also useful. Plug it in and it will monitor the voltage. Plug the hair dryer into it and it will then tell you the new voltage under load and the amps and other information. Use it at home also but it only measures amps on an appliance that plugs in - ie not your shore power or A/C. But on a 20A pedestal you can plug the shore cord in and monitor the entire rig. Turn off the power, discharge the batteries to 50% SOC and let the Kill A Watt tell you the charger draw which will taper down as the batteries charge.

Those are the less expensive options. I installed a full power protector that also displays the voltage and amps coming into the CB panel. The charger displays it's voltage and output amps which includes both house and battery loads. A battery monitor displays the battery voltage in/out of the battery and other useful information. Many folks balk at the expense of these items and just do without or replace batteries. But they cost me $0 for the current rig as I just moved them from the last rig...

I am thinking you were just using too much power.
Keep the water and fridge on propane when running the air or a space heater.
Really should limit to 24 amps. Get a clamp-on ammeter if you prefer to verify the power being drawn.

Also check the battery is in good shape and water level is proper. Converter can draw a lot of power charging a bad battery. If you arrive with a low battery the converter will draw a lot of power the first 90 minutes during recharge.

For DW to use her hair dryer, we have to turn off everything else except the converter/charger.

DSI/lp

Quite possible that you are just overloading the 30 amp.
Is that a 120 volt water heater or just DSI/lp?

To smkettner..........first the campsite breakers tripped...several times, then the main breakers in the coach plus the campsite.

The test at home with the 20amp and a dedicated 30amp line did not include the water heater being on..everything else was on....but both did pop when I tried adding a hair dryer.

Breaker replacement is a routine job at state parks with 30A service. Our first Class C had a 13500 A/C and Atwood water heater with electric element. We could run everything on 30A UNLESS the breaker was bad. Current RV has 15000 A/C and we can't run the Suburban water heater on electric in summer even on a new breaker in the pedestal.
RVers abuse pedestals by plugging/unplugging their coach with their full load ON. If the Breaker's ON, then the socket gets scorched. If it's OFF and he coach load is ON, that taxes the Breaker too.

Breakers can become weak, if it was the campground breaker that tripped then I would say that was where the problem could have been.

Hi,

You might have had a problem with the 30 amp receptacle at the RV park, if it has a week socket, then there can be a voltage loss through that connection. This will increase the amperage on the air conditioner, and perhaps the microwave.

At home, you likely did not try to run the microwave and air conditioner at the same time. Each will draw about 14 amps, so it will work fine on a 20 amp circuit. Your receptacle at home is not worn out, and the brass contacts inside will hold the adapter tightly.

It is the campground receptacles that get overheated, the brass gets loose, and will not hold the plug tightly. This caused further overheating! and more damage to the campground receptacle.

Also at the campground, you probably have the TV on, a 1 amp load.

Things like toaster and coffee maker can also use 12 amps each, and overload the circuits too.

My blame is on the campground receptacles. They get used almost 300 days a year, and much of that time they will see more than 80% full load. It is a 50 amp circuit that does not have a problem, as they normally never see more than 30 amps, or about 60% of full load, and have much larger brass contacts, and larger surface area to transfer the 30 amps that the RV used.

Have fun camping!

Fred.