AC Voltage Through Frame/Stablizers

You're basically trying to diagnose this from the wrong end of the problem. Instead of finding the electrical path of any power, first, establish ground continuity.
Here's the rules: Your RV grounding system should have a ground continuous to the frame from the load center. That ground should not be connected to neutral in the RV load center or anywhere else in the RV. The ground path should be continuous from the trailer load center and frame, through the shore cord, and to the receptacle that delivers power, then continuous to the ground of the load center, either on a pedestal or in a house.

As smkettner says, with the AC leaking current, you've found half the problem. The other half is to have an uninterrupted ground from the RV devices to the power source, the pedestal or the load center in your house. Every receptacle and device in the RV should show continuity to ground and you should be able to measure power from hot to ground when the devices are powered.

The ground should not have power but it is a safety wire in case you have a ground fault. Something is leaking current to ground. In addition you have a bad ground.

Several have advised you to check with the 3 light tester and to plug into a GFCI circuit which is a good idea.

A very small leakage to ground (under 5ma) is acceptable but above that a GFCI will trip.

I am hooked up at my house at 30amps. I have verified the cable is correct as well as the incoming cable from trailer side to breaker box is not an issue. The issue lies within the wiring surrounding the AC and its breaker.

Keep in mind the pedestal connection is the only FRAME GROUND you get. Really important to have good cables and use all conductors (three conductor for 30AMP and four conductor for 50AMP service)

Like said above ADAPTERs are usually the culprit. Of course the CAMPGROUND PEDESTALS SERVICE is used everyday and really start going downhill early on from being used so much.

If I see a CAMPGROUND 30AMP Service PEDESTAL looking pretty bad I will use my 50A-30A Long Adapter and plug into the 50AMP side just to get the better contacts...

Also having the circuit tester on hand is must for me as well... I have one plugged into a KILL-A-WATT meter outlet and plug that into the camp ground pedestal before hooking up. I can see the line voltage as well as the correct grounds and polarity lights being lit up on the circuit tester. Just takes a couple of minutes to test.

Roy Ken

I keep getting more and more confused. Either I have a flawed understanding of AC current and/or something is messed up.

I have unhooked all the grounds from the block. When I turn the AC breaker on which is #2 after the main breaker, all the grounds now appear hot (other than incoming power)when connected to the white wire block. The white wire and ground each have a block and the black wires go through the breakers. With the breaker off, I get no power between white and the grounds. With this breaker on (all others are fine) I get power between the white and the grounds.

My thought was the white and black should have power, not the grounds....but, maybe I am wrong.

I cant imagine how, but could the breaker be the problem?

mbrooks43 wrote:
I have used the multi-meter to check the plug I use to connect the trailer to power. I can only get voltage through two connectors, which I believe is what I want. When I go into the breaker box, I was getting power between the black/white wires and black/ground (solid copper). I disconnected the ground from the incoming power wire and can still get power from the ground. I am wondering if one of the AC appliances is causing a problem, or the wiring to it is the issue.

You need to get an outlet tester like THIS which indicates if you have open ground, reversed hot/neutral and normal (correct) wiring.

But you can use a multimeter by plugging in the meter into the ground and then plug the other lead into the wide slot (neutral), this should result in zero volts. If you get 120V then the outlet is miswired.

Keeping the one lead in the ground move to the narrow slot (HOT) you should get 120V if you didn't then outlet is miswired.

There is a possibility of an open ground on the trailer (or even outlet) which can allow the trailer frame and skin to be HOT from electrical leakage from bad appliances. One which does come to mind is the RV fridge heating element which is located on the fridge boiler tube. This element can go bad and create a electrical short to the ground connection..

You can verify by opening the fridge access panel and unplugging the fridge 120V cord. If hot problem goes away then the fridge heater is the problem.

Blown electric water heater element can also cause the frame to be hot also.

This is a dangerous situation so needless to say, do not use your camper until you find and fix this problem.. Unplug the shore cord, do not leave plugged in with this condition.

Now you probably found the second problem... the leakage in addition to the bad ground connection.

I have narrowed it down to the air conditioner circuit. If I turn it off, my problem goes away. I turn it on, the problem is back. Not sure why it is not tripping the breaker if that is the issue though.

Are you parked under hi-tension wires?

I think I'd take that Voltmeter around to the main service entrance, shut off all the circuits but leave the mains connected and see what's still hot. There are supposed to be 3 wires in, red, black, and white/ground. You should see 120 v from red to ground, ditto from black to ground, then 240 v between red and black.

The house circuits are supposed to use either red or black for hot leads and white, green, or bare for ground leads, so I'd have a look at all the wires going out of the breakers to see that they are all properly color coded.

If that all checks out, I'd start looking at the circuits one by one and making sure they were right.

For sure, the frame/jacks of your rig should not be hot. That could kill somebody. And I agree you need to find the problem before it does. I don't, however, think one of those little circuit testers is necessary. It can't do anything more than a voltmeter can, and it certainly does less.