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.

Sounds just like a problem I had in February 2018 when were staying a couple of days near Epcot. It was unseaonably hot and humid in Florida for February. We had the 1 A/C running in the late afternoon after got settled in. The CG 30 amp breaker kept tripping when we would run the microwave or TV. I was pretty sure all was ok with my 2017 Class C as we had been out to NM, AZ and NV and never had a problem with the A/C. Since we were going to be at Epcot all day the next day and leave our dog in side, I wanted to be sure the A/C stayed on. I used my 50amp-30amp adapter and switched to the 50 amp outlet on the post. Problem solved. I called the CG office and reported to them the issue the 30 amp breaker.

^^ what he said

tagretired wrote:
I used my 50amp-30amp adapter and switched to the 50 amp outlet on the post. Problem solved. I called the CG office and reported to them the issue the 30 amp breaker.

I had the same power issue at a few CG last summer. The 50 to 30 adapter solution worked for me too.

Thanks for all the insight. Initially I will go to another campground and see if it happens again. If not I can rule out my rig.

Get yourself a $10 voltage monitor you can plug in and keep an eye on it.

If you get low voltage, the amperage goes up proportionally so you may be going along fine until 3 or 4 rigs on the circuit turn on heavy loads and your voltage sags resulting in a higher draw and you trip the breaker.

pbastedo wrote:
Thanks for all the insight. Initially I will go to another campground and see if it happens again. If not I can rule out my rig.

Doesn't matter where you go, if you're not measuring the incoming source voltage and monitoring how it may vary over your stay you're flying blind and are just guessing. Since this Camco EMS you have doesn't have a voltage display the solution is obvious - invest in a DVM you can use to check the voltage, don't do that and you're wasting everyone's time, yours included. :R

tagretired wrote:
Sounds just like a problem I had in February 2018 when were staying a couple of days near Epcot. It was unseaonably hot and humid in Florida for February. We had the 1 A/C running in the late afternoon after got settled in. The CG 30 amp breaker kept tripping when we would run the microwave or TV. I was pretty sure all was ok with my 2017 Class C as we had been out to NM, AZ and NV and never had a problem with the A/C. Since we were going to be at Epcot all day the next day and leave our dog in side, I wanted to be sure the A/C stayed on. I used my 50amp-30amp adapter and switched to the 50 amp outlet on the post. Problem solved. I called the CG office and reported to them the issue the 30 amp breaker.

I use my 50 to 30 dog bone any time the opportunity is there. Don't see any need in testing (giving it a try) with the 30 outlet first. ;)

SoundGuy wrote:

pbastedo wrote:
Thanks for all the insight. Initially I will go to another campground and see if it happens again. If not I can rule out my rig.

Doesn't matter where you go, if you're not measuring the incoming source voltage and monitoring how it may vary over your stay you're flying blind and are just guessing. Since this Camco EMS you have doesn't have a voltage display the solution is obvious - invest in a DVM you can use to check the voltage, don't do that and you're wasting everyone's time, yours included. :R

I suppose there is some truth in the fact that you need to be able to monitor your voltage. However, saying going to another campground doesn't matter is pretty far off base.
If you move to another campground and you have no issues it's a pretty good bet that the problem was external to your coach. However, no mater what you are or what you are not monitoring, if you have the same kind of problems at a different campground it's a pretty good bet that the problem is local to your RV and you are going to have to start tracing down some wiring issues!

pbastedo wrote:
Thanks for all the insight. Initially I will go to another campground and see if it happens again. If not I can rule out my rig.

SoundGuy wrote:
Doesn't matter where you go, if you're not measuring the incoming source voltage and monitoring how it may vary over your stay you're flying blind and are just guessing.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
I suppose there is some truth in the fact that you need to be able to monitor your voltage. However, saying going to another campground doesn't matter is pretty far off base.

"Some truth? Off base?" ... hardly. :R If the OP goes to another campground but continues to ignore incoming source voltage (which varies constantly by load, his and everyone else's) he still will have no idea what he's dealing with or how frequently low voltage may be an issue and he'll be right back here again asking why he's still having problems. He's already made the mistake of buying an EMS which doesn't display voltage so his best recourse is to invest in a DVM or even an energy meter like the Kill-a-Watt that does.