110 volt electrical problems

[mikeb77]

i have a 2006 24' Gulf Stream King Sport trailer and this week have had an electrical problem that showed up out of the blue. i had my trailer plugged into the house like normal to get the fridge cold and when i checked the fridge the next day it wasn't running of power and was trying to run off of the propane. i noticed that the breaker in the house was tripped where the trailer was plugged into. same plug i have always plugged into. i checked the breaker in the trailer and a 15a breaker was tripped as well. after some narrowing down, i found it seems to the be the breaker that controls the receptacles that are not GFI. there is a seperate GFI breaker that controls all GFI receptacles that is working fine. i have turned off all breakers in the trailer, turned the breaker on in the house and one at a time turned on the breakers in the trailer. everything was good until i got to the receptacle breaker then it would trip in the trailer and in the house. the reason the fridge wasnt running on power was because it is plugged into a receptacle. does anyone have any suggestions on what i should check first? wasnt such a big deal this weekend because the fridge runs fine off of propane, but kind of a pain in the butt not having the plugs. and i did try plugging the fridge into and extension cord and into the house and it ran fine. any help would be great.

[mikeb77]

i had my electrician friend pull them and take a look. everything looked good except the one. that is a very poor set up

[myredracer]

mikeb77 wrote:
found the gremlin in the wiring! ... the hot wire had found its way a bit loose and touched some metal in the receptacle that is should not have been touching. ...

In our first TT, (3 TTs ago) I removed a recept. to relocate it a few inches and I too found a wire not connected. It was on the first RV type recept. ("SCD" for self-contained device) I ever pulled out. Not very good odds. They are supposed to use a tool specifically for these recepts. to correctly punch the wires onto the fingers. I guess it is too much above the skill set of some of the factory workers...

You might even consider pulling the rest of them to confirm they are all okay. I found a couple of recepts. in out current TT with reversed polarity. Actually, I've found many other examples of poor electrical workmanship too. Would be interesting to watch them do wiring in a factory - or maybe not. :E

[mikeb77]

found the gremlin in the wiring! the receptacles in my trailer are the self contained type that doesnt require an outlet box in the wall, so my electrician friend opened them all up and check the connections. of course the last one we check was the one the fridge was plugged into and the hot wire had found its way a bit loose and touched some metal in the receptacle that is should not have been touching. everything working 100% again. thanks again for all the help and suggestions folks!

[mikeb77]

thank you guys for all the suggestions. i do think that its a short somewhere and have an electrician friend coming over to help out and he can test each receptacle or see if there are some chewed wires

[budwich]

odds are high that one of the receptacle boxes has a receptacle that has moved "off-center" from travelor the screws loosened and now the wiring screws on the sides are touching the box. Pull each cover of the receptacles in question and check out what's happening therein.

[westend]

bobndot wrote:
Could be a lot of things that happened in the last 10 yrs. Lets try to localize the problem.

Turn off TT breakers then plug into the same house outlet as you normally have done. See if its the 30 amp TT cord. Then just try a different house outlet to be sure its not the house outlet that has developed a short.

If the house does not trip, turn on one TT breaker at a time, see which line it is and go from there. At least you will know which line it is causing the problem.

If your battery is very low and your converter is running at full trying to re-charge it , maybe its possible that your TT is drawing more than 20 amps while the fridge is on 110v.
You might try to fully charge the battery on a separate charger while not hooked up to the TT. Once that's done, hook the battery back up to the TT and plug in the TT to 110v, see what happens.
If you have an elec. water heater, shut it off.

Do you read the previous posts in the thread? All of what you posted about has either been done or eliminated as a cause.

[bobndot]

Could be a lot of things that happened in the last 10 yrs. Lets try to localize the problem.

Turn off TT breakers then plug into the same house outlet as you normally have done. See if its the 30 amp TT cord. Then just try a different house outlet to be sure its not the house outlet that has developed a short.

If the house does not trip, turn on one TT breaker at a time, see which line it is and go from there. At least you will know which line it is causing the problem.

If your battery is very low and your converter is running at full trying to re-charge it , maybe its possible that your TT is drawing more than 20 amps while the fridge is on 110v.
You might try to fully charge the battery on a separate charger while not hooked up to the TT. Once that's done, hook the battery back up to the TT and plug in the TT to 110v, see what happens.
If you have an elec. water heater, shut it off.

[westend]

It sounds like you have a short circuit in the branch circuit marked "receptacle". Common sources of that are failed heating element in water heater, failed heating element in fridge, loose wire in receptacle, failed receptacle, damaged wires.

I'd suggest to start removing receptacles to eliminate those as a source.

[_1nobby]

mikeb77 wrote:
when i open the panel door on the converter the breakers are labeled and one 15a is the converter alone. others are GFI, AC, Receptacles, and microwave.

Man....it could be many things.

First thing that comes to mind is a chafed or chewed wire thats grounding on the frame somewhere.

Can't be uncommon. I found a large mouse nest under the trailer sandwiched between the floor and coroplast. I also found poorly run 110V wiring AND chewed wires.....right to the copper.

That'll set a breaker off in a hurry.

[mikeb77]

when i open the panel door on the converter the breakers are labeled and one 15a is the converter alone. others are GFI, AC, Receptacles, and microwave.

[Artum_Snowbird]

You should hear it humming if it is running, and will stop humming when you shut off one of the breakers.

You can also look around where it is and see if it is plugged in behind the wall, and pull that plug.

Recently I followed a circuit that had the fridge, counter plug, and the converter on the same circuit. I pulled the converter and it worked.

[mikeb77]

please forgive me, but i am VERY new at the trailer thing. how would i know if it is on a separate circuit?

[Artum_Snowbird]

Is your converter on a separate circuit, or on the same circuit?