Power Problems at Campground

SDcampowneroperator wrote:

Breaker tripping in ped. , replaced with new by camp, still tripped., but not in camper main panel. Thats amperage overload that could be caused by poor connections or undersized wiring downstream of the breaker. Assuming your cable to the rig is a 10/2 in good condition then it may be poor connections in the ped between the breaker and outlet, or in your rig where your shore cable connects into your panel or junction box.

Poor connections will heat, which causes resistance, resulting in low voltage. As the result, amperage increases to supply the wattage demand. Its why welding cables are so big.

The magnitude of the current flowing through the campground breaker and the RV main breaker is identical, as they're in series and Kirchhoff's current law applies. (I guess technically in this case the surge protector unit would consume a milliamp or so that would not go through the RV breaker, but it's not enough to matter in the grand scheme of things.)

Poor connections are high resistance connections, and the comparatively high resistance is what causes the localized heating--the resistance dissipates power. Some loads in an RV do have increased current due to decreased voltage, but certainly not all. Purely resistive loads will have lower current consumption. It doesn't really matter where the voltage drop is for those effects to occur.

At any rate, I do wholeheartedly agree that checking for and fixing bad connections is a very wise step to take, as is keeping tabs on one's power consumption.