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mgronbeck30's avatar
mgronbeck30
Explorer
Jul 12, 2015

20 Amp House circuit will not power camper, generator will

Hello, I"m new to the forum, hopefully someone is able to help me out. I purchased a 2003 Keystone Hornet last fall and tested the electrical on the lot using my inverter generator, its only a 2000w model, not very big at all. The generator powers everything great, very happy with it, however the first time I plugged in the camper to a household power source, it tripped the GFCI immediately. I narrowed it down to the converter circuit and realized that I had stupidly hooked up the battery backwards. I unplugged and removed the battery, but the problem persists. Thinking I fried my converter I replaced it ($200) and the new one exhibits the same problem. I have also tried a different breaker and different household circuits, 20A, 15A, 15A, they all trip the GFCI. I assumed this meant I may have a short to ground, so i tested every possible DC circuit for continuity to ground and none of them are shorted. Finally i decided to remove the GFCI from the house circuit, and I could see a surge happen when i flip the converter circuit on. Now I had power, but not much, the fridge wouldn't run without turning off and on, the fan nor AC would not even try switching on. If I turned on more than 3 lights, they would start flashing. Does anyone have any idea what I could be missing? I would love to start camping here soon.
Thanks,
Matt
  • gchackett's avatar
    gchackett
    Explorer
    Jul 12, 2015
    My TT has a switch to select the microwave or the water heater (to run on electric) if I forget to put it back to neither or on the microwave I always trip out my gfi as soon as I plug it in.
  • ktmrfs's avatar
    ktmrfs
    Explorer II
    Jul 12, 2015
    mgronbeck30 wrote:
    Huge thanks to the last two responders, I had no idea that the GFCI tripping was likely a neutral/ground problem, this allowed me to test continuity between the neutral bar and ground bar and i found that there was an intermittent short, pulling wires out one by one isolated the water heater circuit as the problem. I'll keep looking for where the short is occurring but with LP i should be able to be fine without an electric water heater. The best part about it is that I learned something new. Thank you all so much!
    Matt
    Happy Camping!


    likely you need a new water heater 120V element. like the fridge 120 element they are know for devloping leakage to ground.
  • mgronbeck30's avatar
    mgronbeck30
    Explorer
    Jul 12, 2015
    Huge thanks to the last two responders, I had no idea that the GFCI tripping was likely a neutral/ground problem, this allowed me to test continuity between the neutral bar and ground bar and i found that there was an intermittent short, pulling wires out one by one isolated the water heater circuit as the problem. I'll keep looking for where the short is occurring but with LP i should be able to be fine without an electric water heater. The best part about it is that I learned something new. Thank you all so much!
    Matt
    Happy Camping!
  • ktmrfs's avatar
    ktmrfs
    Explorer II
    Jul 12, 2015
    the other possibility is that you have a ground/neutral bond somewhere in the trailer. GFI will trip if they find neutral and ground bonded together downstream of the GFI. this is also consistent with the operation with generator but not household powere. Generators have isolated neutral/ground, while house circuit has ground and neutral bonded at the panel.

    It sounds like you may have a ground/neutral bond AND a loose neutral connection at the panel of the trailer.

    with an ohmmeter, check to see the resistance between neutral and ground on your trailer by measuring resistance between the ground and neutral pins on your plug. (power disconnected of course)

    It is possible that either the PO or you in replacing or working on the converter tied neutral and ground together in the trailer. If this is the case immediately rewire so ground and neutral are NOT connected. It is a NEC code violation, and a possible safety hazard that can lead to a fatal shock if hot and neutral are reversed at a hookup.

    RV fridge 120V elements are known for developing a low enough resistance to ground to trip a GFI as are 120V heating elements in the water heater. Check them as well.

    And the GFI doesn't care about anything running on 12V. It does care about ALL the things on the 120V side. Once you verify and/or fix any ground/neutral bond, turn off ALL the 120V breakers in the trailer, including the 30A main. ,plug it into the house. should not trip the GFI. Then turn on the 30A, then one by one turn on the 120V breakers in the trailer. Find the One(s) that trip the GFI and then see where the leakage to ground or ground/neutral short is. Fix them and you will be back in business.
  • BB_TX's avatar
    BB_TX
    Nomad
    Jul 12, 2015
    The GFCI will trip due to a fault in the 120 vac system, not the 12 vdc system. The GFCI compares the current flowing into the hot pin to the current flowing out the neutral pin. If there is more than something like 5 milliamperes difference it will trip. Likely you have a neutral to ground fault somewhere. A hot to ground fault will usually (but not always) trip a breaker.
  • mgronbeck30's avatar
    mgronbeck30
    Explorer
    Jul 12, 2015
    Thank you for the quick replies, to answer the first question, yes the generator still powers everything I am trying to power, i ran the a/c, lights, radio and fridge for about 45 minutes without a problem. To answer the second question, in my other troubleshooting I had only the converter hooked up, no other 12V circuits attached to the converter so I don't think the fridge could be part of the problem. Thanks again for the replies,
    Matt
  • You_can_t_take_'s avatar
    You_can_t_take_
    Explorer
    Jul 12, 2015
    See my recent posting about my tripping GFCI. Try unplugging the fridge (at the back) and see if you still have the problem.

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