Overloaded circuits
It's been a while since I've posted here...Just didn't have anything interesting to add to any of the conversations. Anyhow, this came up recently when we had a battery problem that caused the battery charger to have a higher than usual load which in turn caused the breaker to trip...read on for the whole "saga"...
My 2013 Zinger ZT33BH has (had, actually, more on that later) six breakers. 'Main', 'front', 'back', 'wtr heater', 'micro' and 'A/C'. The main is 30A, the A/C is 20, and the rest are 15. 'Front' has the 12V converter/battery charger and 13 receptacles wired to it. 'Back' has two receptacles wired to it. The rest are self-explanatory.
The two receptacles wired to the 'back' are the GFCI plug in the kitchen and the outlet that the main fridge plugs in to (outside in the compartment behind the fridge.) The 13 outlets wired to the 'front' breaker are the GFCI in the bathroom, and 12 outlets throughout the rest of the trailer (All protected by the bathroom GFCI receptacle.)
Don't get me started on the naming of the circuits...
When the breaker tripped, I noticed the lights get really dim and pretty much the entire trailer went dead except for the main fridge. I reset the breaker and about 30 seconds later it tripped again. So, I shut off every appliance I could (an outside fridge, a water cooler, an ice maker and a TV.) Reset it again and it stayed on. Went and checked the battery since the lights were very dim, and the cables were quite hot and my panel inside registered that the battery was empty. Disconnected the battery since it seemed like it was faulty (it spent winter outside so I'm betting it sustained some damage. The water was full in it, so it wasn't boiled off or anything) and just let the converter power the 12V system for the rest of the evening.
So at this point I have the converter and 13 outlets on a single circuit which is definitely too many devices on one breaker. I headed down to my RV store and picked up a new breaker (this one) and pulled the cover off the panel. The breaker labelled 'front' I pulled the wires from, untwisted the marrette and put the converter on one side of the new breaker and the AC circuit on the other, leaving the old breaker with nothing attached (it had been popped a number of times already so I figured it was getting weak and decided to just leave it out of the system entirely.)
I can now run all my AC appliances and the converter without worrying about tripping breakers. I still can't run a hair dryer in the trailer because it's just too much load on that 15A circuit, but we solved that problem by using a heavy duty extension cord run back to the pedestal and just through an open window when DW needs to dry her hair.
I post mostly because this appears to be a fairly common theme with these trailers, and this is a pretty simple fix to the problem. If you're having similar issues, it's definitely a place to start looking.
My 2013 Zinger ZT33BH has (had, actually, more on that later) six breakers. 'Main', 'front', 'back', 'wtr heater', 'micro' and 'A/C'. The main is 30A, the A/C is 20, and the rest are 15. 'Front' has the 12V converter/battery charger and 13 receptacles wired to it. 'Back' has two receptacles wired to it. The rest are self-explanatory.
The two receptacles wired to the 'back' are the GFCI plug in the kitchen and the outlet that the main fridge plugs in to (outside in the compartment behind the fridge.) The 13 outlets wired to the 'front' breaker are the GFCI in the bathroom, and 12 outlets throughout the rest of the trailer (All protected by the bathroom GFCI receptacle.)
Don't get me started on the naming of the circuits...
When the breaker tripped, I noticed the lights get really dim and pretty much the entire trailer went dead except for the main fridge. I reset the breaker and about 30 seconds later it tripped again. So, I shut off every appliance I could (an outside fridge, a water cooler, an ice maker and a TV.) Reset it again and it stayed on. Went and checked the battery since the lights were very dim, and the cables were quite hot and my panel inside registered that the battery was empty. Disconnected the battery since it seemed like it was faulty (it spent winter outside so I'm betting it sustained some damage. The water was full in it, so it wasn't boiled off or anything) and just let the converter power the 12V system for the rest of the evening.
So at this point I have the converter and 13 outlets on a single circuit which is definitely too many devices on one breaker. I headed down to my RV store and picked up a new breaker (this one) and pulled the cover off the panel. The breaker labelled 'front' I pulled the wires from, untwisted the marrette and put the converter on one side of the new breaker and the AC circuit on the other, leaving the old breaker with nothing attached (it had been popped a number of times already so I figured it was getting weak and decided to just leave it out of the system entirely.)
I can now run all my AC appliances and the converter without worrying about tripping breakers. I still can't run a hair dryer in the trailer because it's just too much load on that 15A circuit, but we solved that problem by using a heavy duty extension cord run back to the pedestal and just through an open window when DW needs to dry her hair.
I post mostly because this appears to be a fairly common theme with these trailers, and this is a pretty simple fix to the problem. If you're having similar issues, it's definitely a place to start looking.
