Trailer is tripping a GFI in my garage....

[bcarroll]

I have a 2012 Dutchmen trailer that I keep plugged into the side of my garage.
Normally not its a problem but it has begun to trip a GFI plug in my garage.
I have narrowed it down to one circuit breaker in my trailer that seems to be the cause...
I have flipped all the breakers off in my trailer and turned them on one by one, and the only one that causes this is labled "GFI".
The GFI plug in my trailer is in my bathroom and has the outlets on the same wall in that circuit.
My refrigerator is in it also so I cannot use it on electricity.

I have swapped out the extension cord so that is not it.

Has anyone heard of this or has any direction I can check next?

Thanks in advance...

[road-runner]

Thanks for posting the update. A GFI doing what it's supposed to do. For all the things that we have problems with, it's nice when one of them does its job correctly!

[bcarroll]

Just as an update....
I got my trailer back from the shop - it was the heating element for the water heater.
It was encrusted with hard water deposits and caused enough trouble to trip the GFI outlet on my house.

[bcarroll]

riggsp wrote:
Did you by chance recently drain your water heater...if the electric element was left on when you drained it, it is now burned out and grounded which will make a gfi trip, but a regular breaker will not...don't ask me how I know or how long it took me to find that one.

I drained my water heater at the end of last camping season(Oct 2015), but it has not been left on or turned on.

[bcarroll]

Just as an update... I just came back from a camping trip, and while plugged into the campground power, I truned on the GFI breaker and... it seems to have worked. Nothing tripped a breaker, blew a fuse or caught fire so I assume it is ok.

I still will take it in to a repair place tomorrow to have it checked out by someone who knows what they are doing.
(the first thing this placed asked me to do, when setting up an appointment, was to plug it into a non-gfi outlet - which I did not do until the campground).
Not sure what this means other than I may not be able to continue plugging it in to the same outlet I've used for the last 2-3 years.

Yes, you are at the start of a new problem. Since you're not that conversant with electrical systems, advice about working within the loadcenter may be hazardous but that is where a diagnosis of your issues could start. I'm guessing that you don't own a hand held meter?

I do have a hand held meter but not sure how to use it other than testing the volts in my batteries.

[riggsp]

Did you by chance recently drain your water heater...if the electric element was left on when you drained it, it is now burned out and grounded which will make a gfi trip, but a regular breaker will not...don't ask me how I know or how long it took me to find that one.

[westend]

bcarroll wrote:
I have had my trailer plugged into the same outlet for years without a problem... until now.

Yes, you are at the start of a new problem. Since you're not that conversant with electrical systems, advice about working within the loadcenter may be hazardous but that is where a diagnosis of your issues could start. I'm guessing that you don't own a hand held meter?

[bcarroll]

I have had my trailer plugged into the same outlet for years without a problem... until now.

[vermilye]

And, depending on finding non GFCI receptacles in campgrounds is something you can't depend on. While rare, I've stayed in 2 different campgrounds (one the Trail of Tears in Missouri) that had GFCIs on all the receptacles, including the 30 amp.

As Bobbo said, your RV should operate correctly plugged into a GFCI. If it doesn't, something is wrong & it should be fixed. Among other problems, the fault that is causing the GFCI to trip could put the frame (and any other metal) of the RV at line (120V) potential. An open ground would then result in anyone touching the earth & the RV becoming the ground conductor, resulting in a shock. This is one of the faults a GFCI is designed to protect against.

[Bobbo]

luvlabs wrote:
Lots of answers for something that is easy to avoid. RVs and household GFCIs do not play well together because most RVs handle grounding differently. This is especially true in motorhomes who generally have their own sources of 120 power (generators and inverters). Your RV is covered by it's own GFCI circuits as well.

So, you either need to create a Service Panel (no GFCI) or, if you only need a few amps, plug it into a non-GFCI circuit in your house.

This is not true. A properly wired RV will not trip a GFCI. An RV's breaker panel is a standard sub-panel. That means there is no connection between NEUTRAL and GROUND. If a generator is aboard with a NEUTRAL/GROUND bond, that bond is only in the electrical system when the generator is powering the RV. If the RV is powered by shore power, the NEUTRAL/GROUND bond is completely out of the system.

An RV that trips a GFCI has a problem of some sort that needs to be repaired. Plugging in to a non-GFCI outlet, while avoiding the headache, is ignoring the problem, and some problems that can cause this are serious.

[bcarroll]

westend wrote:
I'd suggest to start the stove burners first. Make sure there is propane in the lines.

I do get propane to the stove...

[westend]

I'd suggest to start the stove burners first. Make sure there is propane in the lines.

[bcarroll]

enblethen wrote:
Did you have 12 volts DC to refer?

I discovered today that my batteries were dead. Not even enough to turn LED lights on.
I had lights about a month ago, but the problem has been much longer than that - thats why I thought I still had my batteries.

Put a trickle charger on them and I had power to the fridge.
Took the batteries to get them tested and they were at 10.55 and 9.88 volts.
Bought 2 new batteries, and even though I had power to the fridge, it would not start on gas - would click while it tried but never lit. Not sure if I just needed to try it more, but it normally does not take long to light.
I have an appointment on Monday(4/11) to have it checked out by professionals but we have a camping trip tomorrow...

I figure we will use the fridge as an ice chest, and run an extension cord from the cg power post into the trailer if need be.

Electrical problems are the worst for me as I know very little about it.

[Gene_Ginny]

luvlabs wrote:
... RVs and household GFCIs do not play well together ....

I have a GFCI on my rear deck that I plug in the extension cord for my trailer. They play together very well.

[enblethen]

Did you have 12 volts DC to refer?