Need some Power Center help!
Greetings Everyone! Right to the point: I was having trouble with the AC tripping the 15amp breaker (in the home) where we were staying in Florida this past summer. So I jumped on RV.net and searched...
Forum Discussion
Wow!
I very strongly suggest you replace that load center completely, including the breakers, and a good length of the wires leading into it. The neutral bus has clearly gotten extremely hot, and may be compromised in ways that cannot be seen. It's hard to know what may be happening to the other components, too. Please don't use the AC electric system in the RV until it's been completely taken care of; that's a fire waiting to happen.
Heating can often be caused by a poor or loose connection. If the connection has a (relatively) high resistance, there is a fair bit of power being dissipated in a small area when there's a heavy current flow. Maybe the connections were not torqued down properly or worked their way loose, or the contact surfaces weren't clean.
Alternately, is there something that might produce heat next to the load panel? Is there a wire that runs there that may be is pinched or chafed?
Also, is the outlet in the house a working GFCI, and have you verified that it's wired properly? If there's a ground fault in the RV somewhere, and a hot/neutral reversal in the outlet, you could end up with trouble (that bypasses the RV load center breakers).
I very strongly suggest you replace that load center completely, including the breakers, and a good length of the wires leading into it. The neutral bus has clearly gotten extremely hot, and may be compromised in ways that cannot be seen. It's hard to know what may be happening to the other components, too. Please don't use the AC electric system in the RV until it's been completely taken care of; that's a fire waiting to happen.
Heating can often be caused by a poor or loose connection. If the connection has a (relatively) high resistance, there is a fair bit of power being dissipated in a small area when there's a heavy current flow. Maybe the connections were not torqued down properly or worked their way loose, or the contact surfaces weren't clean.
Alternately, is there something that might produce heat next to the load panel? Is there a wire that runs there that may be is pinched or chafed?
Also, is the outlet in the house a working GFCI, and have you verified that it's wired properly? If there's a ground fault in the RV somewhere, and a hot/neutral reversal in the outlet, you could end up with trouble (that bypasses the RV load center breakers).
