I recently got rid of a hot tub on my deck that saw no use.I have a 50 amp breaker for it in my panel. I checked the two hot legs at disconnect were hot tub was and have 240v,120v from each hot to ground and 0v from neutral to ground. Picked up some wire and a rv outdoor power outlet a 50 amp 14-50R.Pluged in my progressive industries surge protector and it said all was good. Pluged into rv and blows breaker at panel.I'm going to call my electrician buddy but looking for suggestions.Here is a pic of the breaker that blows in the panel. It has a test button on it could that be the cause? To dark outside for any others.

Your house 50 amp is different than an RV 50 amp. Your house runs two hot leads and a ground while the RV runs two hots, a neutral, and a ground. What an RV circuit actually is is two 120 volt separate circuits. Nothing in your RV requires the 240 volts your house delivers. You RV only needs 120 volts. Your RV fuse box will be divided into two separate 110 circuits.

Looks like a GFCI breaker or similar so I assume you have some type of ground fault in the RV. Could replace the breaker but I would still try to locate the issue. Start with turning off all breakers in the RV and plug in again. Turn on one breaker at a time and see what trips. Start with the main and then each branch circuit.

That is a 50amp gfi breaker for a 3wire sauna application. Your hot tub was actually 240v not two 120's. If you look at the tub, you are only hooking up two hots and a ground. By hooking that curly pigtail white wire(a dead giveaway for gfi), you are not providing a true neutral to the panel, only completing the circuit for the gfi portion of the breaker. Ditch the gfi breaker and run a true 4 wire connection(2 hots, neutral, and ground to a double 50a breaker.Dave

Yes it is a GFI breaker, code requires one for a hot tub. I installed one for our hot tub. I'd replace the breaker with a regular 50 amp double pole breaker. It should already be a 3 wire feed. I see 2 hots and neutral and there is almost certainly a ground.

azdryheat wrote:Your house 50 amp is different than an RV 50 amp. Your house runs two hot leads and a ground while the RV runs two hots, a neutral, and a ground. What an RV circuit actually is is two 120 volt separate circuits. Nothing in your RV requires the 240 volts your house delivers. You RV only needs 120 volts. Your RV fuse box will be divided into two separate 110 circuits.Not at all true. 50 amp RV service is identical to house service save for the size of the circuit breaker. Mains in a house are often 150-250 amps. not 50. but all the same wiresHot/Neutral/Hot and Safety ground are all present in exactly the same configuration.. NO DIFFERENCE at all. Not one bit. The only difference worth mentioning is that the breaker panel in the RV is wired as a SUB panel.. Not a "Main" panel.. but this too can be done in a house. I had a "Sub" panel in my garage for example.

Running a 50amp line to plug into | Good Sam Community

59 Replies

enblethen
Nomad
Sep 17, 2017
Mike:
I missed reading the original.
mike_brez
Explorer
Sep 16, 2017
time2roll wrote:
mike brez wrote:
Did as you said and everything is good......WTF.
I'm going to let it sit awhile go and check again. Unplug and plug in a few times and see what happens.
No insta hot and there is nothing plugged into coach outlets.
OK maybe time to make a mental note and not worry about it. Good ground does keep you safe and the PI will verify the ground is always good. Hard to find an intermittent issue. With nothing plugged in on those inverter branch circuits it would seem to point to an issue with the inverter and could well be normal enough.

Ran the two roof tops for a couple hours,fridge is running as it is always on,used some 12v to draw down batteries and they are charging,pluged some lamps and drills into outlets and all is still good. I forget to try and use the inverter.
At work until tomorrow night see if it's still good then and if so try the inverter.
mike_brez
Explorer
Sep 16, 2017
enblethen wrote:
Mike:
The photo you posted is Seimans, but the RV panel OP posted is Square D. The Seimans panel with 200 amp main is house type panel.

I think every photo was mine.
The 50amp breaker that was going to be replaced was the one in the 200amp panel with the attached gfi.
Nothing is being touched in the rv panel.
time2roll
Nomad
Sep 16, 2017
mike brez wrote:
Did as you said and everything is good......WTF.
I'm going to let it sit awhile go and check again. Unplug and plug in a few times and see what happens.
No insta hot and there is nothing plugged into coach outlets.
OK maybe time to make a mental note and not worry about it. Good ground does keep you safe and the PI will verify the ground is always good. Hard to find an intermittent issue. With nothing plugged in on those inverter branch circuits it would seem to point to an issue with the inverter and could well be normal enough.
enblethen
Nomad
Sep 16, 2017
Mike:
The photo you posted is Seimans, but the RV panel OP posted is Square D. The Seimans panel with 200 amp main is house type panel.
mike_brez
Explorer
Sep 16, 2017
time2roll wrote:
mike brez wrote:
Ok shut off the two 20amp breakers and removed those two black wires on top.
Ems reads ok,turned on main 50amp breaker in Moho and flipped all breakers on one at a time and all good. Then turned on the two 20amp ones and still all good.
Went to re connect the two black and triped the 50amp gfi in my basement.
Good. Just a bit out of sequence to narrow it down.

Could still be the charging system, transfer switch, or something on the two branch circuits.

Diagram shows the two feeds as 525 (A/C pass through input) and 528 (power for charging system). With the 20a circuit breakers off reconnect one of the black wires at a time and hopefully identify which one is what.

If that holds then turn on the 20 amp breakers one at a time. I suspect the inverter charging system or the insta-hot. Unless you have something odd plugged in.

Or explain what you have done and let your electrician evaluate the rest.

Did as you said and everything is good......WTF.
I'm going to let it sit awhile go and check again. Unplug and plug in a few times and see what happens.
No insta hot and there is nothing pluged into coach outlets.
time2roll
Nomad
Sep 16, 2017
mike brez wrote:
Ok shut off the two 20amp breakers and removed those two black wires on top.
Ems reads ok,turned on main 50amp breaker in Moho and flipped all breakers on one at a time and all good. Then turned on the two 20amp ones and still all good.
Went to re connect the two black and triped the 50amp gfi in my basement.
Good. Just a bit out of sequence to narrow it down.

Could still be the charging system, transfer switch, or something on the two branch circuits.

Diagram shows the two feeds as 525 (A/C pass through input) and 528 (power for charging system). With the 20a circuit breakers off reconnect one of the black wires at a time and hopefully identify which one is what.

If that holds then turn on the 20 amp breakers one at a time. I suspect the inverter charging system or the insta-hot. Unless you have something odd plugged in.

Or explain what you have done and let your electrician evaluate the rest.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Sep 16, 2017
The 2 black wires in the RV panel are labeled Shore Guard. Perhaps they are connected to the Surge Protector shown on the wiring diagram.
mike_brez
Explorer
Sep 16, 2017
rhagfo wrote:
enblethen wrote:
He has a Square D Homeline panel, Who ever put the Eaton breakers in did it improperly.

X2
You beat me to it.

I thought it was a Siemens?
The cover and every breaker says Siemens on it.
I'm gonna get a Siemens instead of the square d
rhagfo
Explorer III
Sep 16, 2017
enblethen wrote:
He has a Square D Homeline panel, Who ever put the Eaton breakers in did it improperly.

X2
You beat me to it.