Thermal Breaker

[SDcampowneroper]

A (newbe) going full time guest tripped her 30a power in her '91 Itasca A coach. I looked at all I knew to help reset power, without luck. Our not yet back from Az. mobile tech. thought it was the thermal breaker that would reset itself when it cools down, which it did after 6 hours. We did give her schooling on 30a power management so it doesnt happen again.
Surely there is a manual reset somewhere?

[CharlesinGA]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
Thanks friends (soren) and all you others who know me and our park.
The lady has found the problem with her mh. An electriian found a poor connection in her manual gen. to park power switch. I suspected that, but as i'm handy, but not a journeyman electrician, I steered away from diagnosis to ere on the side of safety
We did keep her warm and safe that night. This young Lady is now not a newbe to 30A power management, propane use and safety and trust in our community.
She has moved on to her workcampiing position in one of our state parks, where I'm certain that her spirit will be commendable.
Max

Smart move considering you are in business, and would have placed the business at risk to do more than what you did.

Charles

[wa8yxm]

I have never seen a thermal breaker on the 120 volt side except for the breakers inside motors (A/C blower and compressor motors) Never seen one that supplied power to the RV.

Thermal breakers are common on the 12 volt side of life.

now: There is a thread around here somewhere (one of the rv forums) where the title is BANG no power... Same happened here a while ago. There was a BANG and no power. anywhere in the RV park (The Bang was a car v/s a utility pole just outside the park.. 4.5 hours later power was restored.

[enblethen]

Thanks for the update!

[soren]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
8".....6".....7" No need to share your personal information. Be aware however, that, as any competent statistician will confirm, all self reported data is considered suspect

Nice job Max. Good to hear that she is heading to the park. We have always had great experiences with the volunteers there, nice to hear that they found another good one.

[SDcampowneroper]

Thanks friends (soren) and all you others who know me and our park.
The lady has found the problem with her mh. An electriian found a poor connection in her manual gen. to park power switch. I suspected that, but as i'm handy, but not a journeyman electrician, I steered away from diagnosis to ere on the side of safety.
We did keep her warm and safe that night. This young Lady is now not a newbe to 30A power management, propane use and safety and trust in our community.
She has moved on to her workcampiing position in one of our state parks, where I'm certain that her spirit will be commendable.
Max

[wolfe10]

soren wrote:
I re-torqued everything I had access to, 120V and 12V.

Yup, part of the annual inspection!

Most 120 VAC breaker boxes are designed for houses.

A "rolling earthquake" tends to loosen connections.

[Old-Biscuit]

8".....6".....7"





SDcampowneroperator

Have the 'lady' replace her 30A Main Circuit breaker and check ALL connections within AC Panel tight

[soren]

dougrainer wrote:

One thing that needs verified and IT NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR SAFETY REASONS. Access the 120 breaker panel in the RV and verify the tightness of the incoming 30 amp power wires(Black and White) to the breaker and breakers. After 25 years, they may have melted/burnt and now has a loose dangerous connection. Doug

Yea, I covered this already. I certainly wouldn't want to wait a few decades to do this. My latest rig was eight years old when I got it. The #6 wire feeding the DC bus was so loose the eyelet stake-on was barely touching the screw holding it to the bus, and the screw was two turns from falling off. This connection got so hot that it melted insulation on the wire. The #6 12 volt feed from the converter was also flopping around in the terminal, and got hot enough to melt the "tinning" off the bare end. I re-torqued everything I had access to, 120V and 12V.

[MrWizard]

i'm electrician
and i agree, get one to come to RV
unplug shore power and check all 120v connections from the shore cord connection box, TS, all the way to the breaker panel a loose wire, or loose breaker is the likely culprit, and will only cause more problems

ATS is also suspect

[dougrainer]

soren wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
There is NO 120 volt Thermal Breaker that will auto reset in any motorhome. Especially a 25 year old 30 amp RV. I will bet the CG system was OFF and when it came back on she got her 120 power back. Odds are also on a 1991 WINNE/Itsasca 30 amp RV there is NO 30 amp transfer switch. Back then, Winne used a hardwire plug in the shore Cord compartment and you had to plug in the 30 amp cord to that receptacle to get Genset power. Doug

I agree with the lack of a thermal, and the probability that there is no transfer switch. The CG power is not the issue however. The OP is the owner and builder of the CG, and a all around talented guy. He would be the first to know if the power was out.

One thing that needs verified and IT NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR SAFETY REASONS. Access the 120 breaker panel in the RV and verify the tightness of the incoming 30 amp power wires(Black and White) to the breaker and breakers. After 25 years, they may have melted/burnt and now has a loose dangerous connection. Doug

[enblethen]

Here is basic information on circuit breakers.


"Thermal magnetic circuit breakers, which are the type found in most distribution boards, incorporate both techniques with the electromagnet responding instantaneously to large surges in current (short circuits) and the bimetallic strip responding to less extreme but longer-term over-current conditions. The thermal portion of the circuit breaker provides an "inverse time" response feature, which trips the circuit breaker sooner for larger overcurrents but allows smaller overloads to persist for a longer time. On very large over-currents during a short-circuit, the magnetic element trips the circuit breaker with no intentional additional delay"

It is possible that the circuit breaker may not want to reset as age a numerous trips can weaken the internal springs. Thus needs to be replaced.

[soren]

dougrainer wrote:
There is NO 120 volt Thermal Breaker that will auto reset in any motorhome. Especially a 25 year old 30 amp RV. I will bet the CG system was OFF and when it came back on she got her 120 power back. Odds are also on a 1991 WINNE/Itsasca 30 amp RV there is NO 30 amp transfer switch. Back then, Winne used a hardwire plug in the shore Cord compartment and you had to plug in the 30 amp cord to that receptacle to get Genset power. Doug

I agree with the lack of a thermal, and the probability that there is no transfer switch. The CG power is not the issue however. The OP is the owner and builder of the CG, and a all around talented guy. He would be the first to know if the power was out.

[dougrainer]

There is NO 120 volt Thermal Breaker that will auto reset in any motorhome. Especially a 25 year old 30 amp RV. I will bet the CG system was OFF and when it came back on she got her 120 power back. Odds are also on a 1991 WINNE/Itsasca 30 amp RV there is NO 30 amp transfer switch. Back then, Winne used a hardwire plug in the shore Cord compartment and you had to plug in the 30 amp cord to that receptacle to get Genset power. Doug

[Ivylog]

A six-hour 120V thermal reset is BS plus no such thing in a 25 year old motorhome or any MH. For $12 I would replace the 30 amp breaker for her if I could not find any loose connections.