Ground Fault outlet will not trip when converter is running

It sounds like everyone is as perplexed as me!
I e-mailed NU-WA (which by the way isn't in the manufacturing business any longer just a service center and dealer) and think I have a solution.
My trailer was built in a transition year when they were moving manufacturing from one facility to another and evidently were trying new things. The service man I talked to on the phone was very knowledgeable about HHII trailers. He was very surprised that the converter was on the same circuit as the GF outlet and said it shouldn't be. He told me to find another circuit (easier said than done) to power the converter.
By the way-after working with the trailer a little I found that the test button on the GF outlet worked just fine if the converter was not running(batteries fully charged), converter is unplugged, or the 12v batteries were disconnected.
Does anyone out there have a converter on a GF circuit?

Thanks for the input. I'll let you know the outcome when it gets a little warmer and I can work on it. I'm in Iowa and its been a fun winter!

Something is wrong with the GFCI receptacle or its wiring. Pressing the test button DOES NOT induce a ground into the system to trip the GFCI. The test button shunts current from the hot side to the neutral through a current limiting resistor. Conclusion: the GFCI is bad, the neutral is open, or the neutral and ground are reversed - in other words the wiring to the GFCI is messed up. JM2¢...

You said Converter, on most RV's the converter is working any time you are plugged into shore power so how did you test it when it was not running?

Now.. on some RV's there is a device called an INVERTER, this is optional.. I have one.. An inverter may be wired two different ways, Ground bonded to neutral, or unbonded. It matters not..

On the MAINS power. it is bonded, so an inverter with power pass through switches all 3 leads. Hot, Neutral and Ground. thus when it's "Not Running" neutral and ground are bonded and a ground fault is possible.

If the inverter is hooked up so that the ground is NOT bonded. then when you trip the breaker that feeds the inverter and let it power the down-line devices, one of which is often said GFCI, it is not possible to generate a ground fault, for there is no ground to fault to.

Is there any chance the Ground and Neutral are tied together at the breaker panel in your RV? Or that the battery ground is connected to the Neutral bus?

I am not exactly an expert on electricity. But I don't believe your problem is with the 12volt side of your converter. I believe one has nothing to do with the other, other than of course your converter is converting 110 to 12. So I would just concentrate on the 110 side of it. An open ground on the 12 volt side should not make any difference to the 110 side of it. It will be fun to see what the electrical experts on the forum come up with. It has to be a very easy fix. Say here is a thought. Do you have two GFIs on the rig? On one of the rigs I had the two gfis were on the same breaker and one of them was wired wrong which made the other one not work as well. So if you have two try disconnecting the other one and see what happens. Like I said I am no electrical expert. I only know what I know and that aint much. :-)

I too am at a loss. The 120VAC System has nothing to do with the 12VDC system. They both share the GREEN WIRE frame ground is about the only thing common.

The 120VAC INPUT to the Converter has three wires coming from the SHORE POWER SIDE being HOT (Black wire) - NEUTRAL (White Wire which must not be connected to the trailer frame ground) and GROUND (Green wire which connects to the trailer ground).

This is a drawing for the WFCO 8900 series Power Distribution Panel which shows this and is kinda hard to follow the grounding scheme.


This is another drawing showing where my 120VAC and 12VDC lines are grounded.


I would use one of these units on your incoming 120VAC Voltages from shore power and make sure all three leads are wired properly. (LOWES)





Roy Ken