Help Please? Power cord trips GFI

Francesca Knowles wrote:
There's nothing in the O.P.'s threadstarter that indicates a GFI's involved...

It was stated "they tripped the outlet". As doughere stated, outlets don't trip due to overload - only short circuits.

doughere provided the best information.

If it pops/trips instantly it is more likely a short rather than an overload. Overloads take a bit of time depending on the magnitude of the overload to heat the thermal trip elements. GFI is instantaneous.

To the OP:
You are obviously using a conventional 15/20 amp extension cord for the last connection to the GFI. Are you using a 3 wire and are all the prongs are present and working?

Yes it is possible when the "automatic" cord was replaced it might have been installed/wired incorrectly and causing the trip of the GFI.

Mandalay Parr wrote:
Regardless of who says what, you have an electrical problem if the GFI trips.
Suggest you get an electrical person to help you. Several conditions can cause it.

I have seen where the the MH was not properly wired causing such a problem. It had the neutral and ground wires connected together at the power distribution panel.

Suggest you get it corrected whatever it is.

I totally agree. Frustrated as we bought this coach on the 19 of November and have had it in the shop all but 5 of those days. Service dept say they have fixed things and they haven't and then when we get it back there is something else wrong with it. I see you live in Phoenix, who do u trust to service your coach? Thank you!

You have a wiring problem or a cord problem. You can test the operation of the storage facility's outlets by plugging in a device with a ground (three prong) connector. Something like a work light or drill is a good test choice.

Get a volt meter, set it on an ohms scale and check for continuity between the ground and neutral prongs on the cord. there should be none.

Regardless of who says what, you have an electrical problem if the GFI trips.
Suggest you get an electrical person to help you. Several conditions can cause it.

I have seen where the the MH was not properly wired causing such a problem. It had the neutral and ground wires connected together at the power distribution panel.

Suggest you get it corrected whatever it is.

I suggest trying it on another gfci protected circuit, perhaps at home. If it trips, you have an issue that needs to be addressed.

Thank you. We took your suggestions and went back to storage to trouble shoot. We turned off house/engine batteries, all the breakers above driver seat (including inverter). Plugged in and still popped the GFI 120 outlet at our parking space. We spoke to the on site mechanic and he said some of the larger/older coaches are not GFI friendly. Also the facility where we park have about 100 coaches plugged in and said depending on coach may or may not work because of all the other coaches plugged in. He suggested an echo charger for both house & engine batteries. He seemed knowledgable however it seems odd to me that it would trip when all is off. Also, we live in AZ and the weather is sunny and a beautiful 68 degrees outside. I wouldn't think weather/moisture would be the issue. But what do I know...that's why I am on this forum. ;-p

There's nothing in the O.P.'s threadstarter that indicates a GFI's involved...

Sounds like ordinary overload of the circuit, which MIGHT be shared with others in the storage yard.

What's unclear to me is what's meant by "everything's off in the rig". Unless all the breakers are turned off, the fridge for example could autostart when sensing AC current, possibly leading to overload especially on a shared circuit.

A modern GFCI will trip if it detects a neutral to ground fault. Turning off the circuit breakers will not prevent a trip in this case. If you are comfortable digging into the guts of your electrical system, I made an older post that describes how to find GFCI problems.

There are two types of "tripping". One is caused by an overload on the circuit, this will typically trip a standard circuit breaker. The other is due to "leakage current" that will trip a GFCI device due to incorrect wiring/faulty devices/jumping into the tub with a hair dryer/etc.

The outlet type trip only due to ground fault, they do not trip due to overload, the circuit breaker type will trip due to ground fault, or overload; often making it hard to tell which condition caused the device to trip.

Above advise to turn all breakers in your unit off to start is a good start. If unit trips, then you have a problem in wiring from outlet to main breaker in your unit; possibly person who rewired winder goofed. If that is good, start turning on other breakers until you find problem. Number of possibilities listed above good places to start.

Doug