sapperb wrote:
opnspaces wrote:
sapperb wrote:
Ok good evening, everyone. I was able to do some more research on it today. Ok I plugged it into a non-GFI outlet I flipped up all the breakers in the camper. Everything worked for about 30 seconds, then I heard a click, and everything went off. It never threw a breaker in the camper; it threw the breaker in my main fuse panel in my house (where it was plugged into). So, I flipped down all the breakers in the camper and hit the breaker back on in my house. So now I went and turned on the breakers in the camper one by one and it clicked again when I flipped up the breaker to the converter. So would this mean my converter is bad and causing this? I have to accept the fact that this converter may be as old as the camper, 22 years old. The converter should be located in the fuse panel of the camper? Again thank you everyone who is helping me.
Bruce
Most likely the converter, or it could be the charger. Many times they are in the same box but separate. It could also be something else on the same circuit. Unplug all electricity, take a photo of the fuse locations and pull all the fuses. Then see if you can open the front of the converter/charger. If so undo the wires from the breaker to the charger only. Now put the fuses back in and carefully plug in shore power, flip on the offending breaker and see what happens. If no tripping you have a bad charger. If it trips there is a short in the breaker panel or some other device like the microwave or whatever is also on that same circuit.
Here are some pictures

I had a 2001 Elkhorn 8S and yep - that looks like the factory panel and converter/charger.
However I'm at odds remembering how the thing was wired as there is a breaker for:
1. Converter/charger
2. Air Conditioning
3. Microwave
4. General
5. Main
Stock the items that can draw AC power are: the fridge, converter/charger, air conditioning(if installed), microwave (if installed). Stock your water heater is GAS only.
So the question would be if ANYTHING is getting power with the "main" breaker off.
Obviously SOMETHING is causing the house breaker (and the 'Main' one in the camper) to trip.
I'd assume that your doing what I used to do before a trip, plug in the camper to pre-cool the fridge/freezer and top off the battery.
BTW: WARNING! THAT model converter/charger is known for boiling batteries and wreaking them. There are drop-in replacements (or used to be) that have multistage charging.
Personally I'd try to isolate by shutting everything off and all breakers and just turn on the "main" breaker and see what happens.
A DVM, trouble light or probe will be useful to see where you have power. Since the goal is to charge the battery and/or pre-cool the fridge, if the "main" breaker does not trip with all the other breakers off, next turn on the converter/charger breaker with the main and see what happens.
Then do each breaker one at a time paired with the main and see which ones can be on with the main without tripping.
- Mark0.