Power issues, breaker trips always now?

[tobydog927]

Hi all.

So I've been living full time in a 1999 Coachmen Catalina since about mid-October. I've never had a TT before so it's all been an experience and learning experience so far.

Anyways, I haven't had the money to pay an electrician $750+ to hook up a proper 30amp spot for me where I'm parked, so I've been running off an extension cord. The trailer is 50amp, so it's got an adapter to 30, which I bought a little adapter at Walmart to make the 30 to 15 to use the extension cord. It worked GREAT until about just over a week ago. I barely ever tripped the breaker. With just me in here it was very easy to not use things at the same time.

But now, I can be laying in bed with only my electric blanket and a small space heater going, and randomly it will all just switch off. Earlier I was microwaving my food, 4 minutes in and then it switched off. Nothing else had been turned on or started.

I don't know why this is happening. It's unpredictable and it's very cold here so having to run all the way to the breaker box at night is not fun.

A few things to mention:
- other people live on the property in the main house, last weekend, one of them replaced an outside outlet at the front of the property (I am all the way at the back, it was like complete opposite side and corner from where I am), anyways, when he out the new outlet box on it didn't work, I don't know what he did to get it to work in the end, he called an electrician friend and got it to work. But basically since then my trailer trips it's breaker all the **** time. Multiple times a day.

- My fridge is running off electric, everything is as I don't know how to replace the gas & tanks. But I noticed recently that the CHECK light is also on next to AUTO on top of the fridge. I don't know how long it has been on. I noticed today that things are being dropped on inside my fridge. Looks like some ice or something is melting inside the fridge. I also can't even tell if it's actually cold in there, because inside the trailer itself is cold. I could just leave my food out on the counter and it'd stay cold enough!

- It's cold. I don't know if that's making things act up. I'm still trying to finish covering the rest of my water hose.

- Came home a few weeks ago to see plastic scattered all over the yard. The wind was so bad that my AC on top had broken and pieces flew everywhere. It looks to be just the outside plastic casing of it, not the actual AC.

I'm a total newbie to this, with no one around knowledged on TT's to help.

Anything is appreciated.

Thanks!

[hawkeye-08]

Sounds like your water heater was the culprit..

[herbhyde]

tobydog927 wrote:

herbhyde wrote:

tobydog927 wrote:
It could still be the breaker, sure, but it's been 24 hours now without a single power trip, since the water heater has been off.

I finished all the foil & foam thing over my outside water hose yesterday, woke up expecting water. Nothing. Giant icicles down the foam covered hose leading out from the trailer, lots of ice. Not sure why it's leaking there in the first place to make that much ice, but any suggestions?

Broken water lines due to freezing. You just made your problem a lot worse. You sound as if you are on a limited budget. Right now the trailer is not livable.

What water lines? Everything works when the hose is thawed out

Broken water lines inside the trailer. If the water is turning into ICE, it has to come from somewhere.

[tobydog927]

herbhyde wrote:

tobydog927 wrote:
It could still be the breaker, sure, but it's been 24 hours now without a single power trip, since the water heater has been off.

I finished all the foil & foam thing over my outside water hose yesterday, woke up expecting water. Nothing. Giant icicles down the foam covered hose leading out from the trailer, lots of ice. Not sure why it's leaking there in the first place to make that much ice, but any suggestions?

Broken water lines due to freezing. You just made your problem a lot worse. You sound as if you are on a limited budget. Right now the trailer is not livable.

What water lines? Everything works when the hose is thawed out

[herbhyde]

tobydog927 wrote:
It could still be the breaker, sure, but it's been 24 hours now without a single power trip, since the water heater has been off.

I finished all the foil & foam thing over my outside water hose yesterday, woke up expecting water. Nothing. Giant icicles down the foam covered hose leading out from the trailer, lots of ice. Not sure why it's leaking there in the first place to make that much ice, but any suggestions?

Broken water lines due to freezing. You just made your problem a lot worse. You sound as if you are on a limited budget. Right now the trailer is not livable.

[tobydog927]

It could still be the breaker, sure, but it's been 24 hours now without a single power trip, since the water heater has been off.

I finished all the foil & foam thing over my outside water hose yesterday, woke up expecting water. Nothing. Giant icicles down the foam covered hose leading out from the trailer, lots of ice. Not sure why it's leaking there in the first place to make that much ice, but any suggestions?

[larry_cad]

Not to be rude, but I want to repeat that it is possible the breaker you are tripping may be going bad. After a breaker has been in use for a while, and particularly when it has tripped frequently, the breaker tends to trip more easily than a new one. You may help your problem by simply changing out the breaker to a new one. You would help significantly if you would change the 100 ft of wire to #12 and install a new 20 amp breaker.

You really need the help of a "good" electrician who knows how to troubleshoot and repair residential circuits.

[tobydog927]

I turned off the water heater, and turned off then on the fridge and now the "check" light has turned off on the fridge. Possibly was the water heater having to try too hard to keep the water hot with this cold weather. I did go out the other side though and noticed my water hose connection to the trailer is leaking from being frozen and there's a huge thing of ice down the side of the trailer from it.

[tobydog927]

herbhyde wrote:

tobydog927 wrote:

Boband4 wrote:
The OP has continously remarked that everything is electric, no gas-and it has been cold and windy. Could the electric side of the water heater be cycling on more? The water heater in conjunction with the space heater and electric blanket would probably overload a 30 amp circuit. Recommend the OP look for the water heater and see if there is an on/off switch.

I do hear the water heater often outside once I've had to reset the breakers after it trips. Even if I haven't used any hot water in hours or all day. I have noticed my hot water somewhat sprays/spits out of the tap in the kitchen at first occasionally, it never used to do that.

Do your suggest if there is an on/off switch to only switch it on as needed, like to shower? Not sure how long prior to a shower it would need to heat though, I will take a look for the switch today, if there is one.

Where does the water pressure come from??? An external hose(Well Pump)
or the water pump in the TT.

External hose. The hose or the hose spigot part from the ground had been freezing, I've almost completely finished wrapping it in foil & foam things and burried half of it.

[herbhyde]

tobydog927 wrote:

Boband4 wrote:
The OP has continously remarked that everything is electric, no gas-and it has been cold and windy. Could the electric side of the water heater be cycling on more? The water heater in conjunction with the space heater and electric blanket would probably overload a 30 amp circuit. Recommend the OP look for the water heater and see if there is an on/off switch.

I do hear the water heater often outside once I've had to reset the breakers after it trips. Even if I haven't used any hot water in hours or all day. I have noticed my hot water somewhat sprays/spits out of the tap in the kitchen at first occasionally, it never used to do that.

Do your suggest if there is an on/off switch to only switch it on as needed, like to shower? Not sure how long prior to a shower it would need to heat though, I will take a look for the switch today, if there is one.

Where does the water pressure come from??? An external hose(Well Pump)
or the water pump in the TT.

[tobydog927]

Boband4 wrote:
The OP has continously remarked that everything is electric, no gas-and it has been cold and windy. Could the electric side of the water heater be cycling on more? The water heater in conjunction with the space heater and electric blanket would probably overload a 30 amp circuit. Recommend the OP look for the water heater and see if there is an on/off switch.

I do hear the water heater often outside once I've had to reset the breakers after it trips. Even if I haven't used any hot water in hours or all day. I have noticed my hot water somewhat sprays/spits out of the tap in the kitchen at first occasionally, it never used to do that.

Do your suggest if there is an on/off switch to only switch it on as needed, like to shower? Not sure how long prior to a shower it would need to heat though, I will take a look for the switch today, if there is one.

[tobydog927]

hohenwald48 wrote:
There are some things a good electrician could do to get you more than 30 amp service. However, some of them are "non-standard" installations and would depend on who has jurisdiction over electrical installations in your area and how flexible they are.

Although your extension cord is only 50' you are still using another 50' (or is it 100'?) of permanently installed "extension cord" which may or may not be up to the task. Voltage drop will also be impacted by the size of that wire. It's been my experience that a lot of ranches and farms have old wiring installed by folks who might not be fully qualified.

It sounds like your best bet, at the moment, is to lessen the load as much as possible, maybe run a second cord from another circuit to carry the heater load and check for "phantom" loads. ie: those you might not be aware of like battery charger, water heater, refer, heat tapes and other devices that draw on your available current.

It's possible you have a bad breaker but that is a very rare event regardless of what you read on internet forums.

Your next challenge will be finding a good, qualified electrician who is able to be "creative" in finding a safe and economical solution to your problem in the long run.

One more thing. The closer your trailer is to the breaker box (not just the outlet) the better off you will be and the cheaper a permanent solution will be. You might want to think about a move.

Yeah, the ranch is definitely old and a bit sketchy with the way some of it is done. If 30amp is okay to run my 50 on, then I'm okay with not pushing limits for a 50. Honestly though I'd rather solar power or something. This property isn't mine, I don't know how many years I'll be here, but I don't think I'll get much solar for the price of installing the hook up.

I found a friend nearby who has trailers, who is gonna take a look at mine sometime soon, and help me switch the gas bottles so I can put the fridge to gas and see if that helps the breaker and fridge to work better.

I'd love to be closer to a breaker box but there wasn't anywhere else on the property I could put my trailer unfortunately. My only way out is across someone else's property behind us that's currently just land, so if they start to build sometime on that lot behind us, I gotta move.

[Boband4]

The OP has continously remarked that everything is electric, no gas-and it has been cold and windy. Could the electric side of the water heater be cycling on more? The water heater in conjunction with the space heater and electric blanket would probably overload a 30 amp circuit. Recommend the OP look for the water heater and see if there is an on/off switch.

[hohenwald48]

There are some things a good electrician could do to get you more than 30 amp service. However, some of them are "non-standard" installations and would depend on who has jurisdiction over electrical installations in your area and how flexible they are.

Although your extension cord is only 50' you are still using another 50' (or is it 100'?) of permanently installed "extension cord" which may or may not be up to the task. Voltage drop will also be impacted by the size of that wire. It's been my experience that a lot of ranches and farms have old wiring installed by folks who might not be fully qualified.

It sounds like your best bet, at the moment, is to lessen the load as much as possible, maybe run a second cord from another circuit to carry the heater load and check for "phantom" loads. ie: those you might not be aware of like battery charger, water heater, refer, heat tapes and other devices that draw on your available current.

It's possible you have a bad breaker but that is a very rare event regardless of what you read on internet forums.

Your next challenge will be finding a good, qualified electrician who is able to be "creative" in finding a safe and economical solution to your problem in the long run.

One more thing. The closer your trailer is to the breaker box (not just the outlet) the better off you will be and the cheaper a permanent solution will be. You might want to think about a move.

[tobydog927]

hohenwald48 wrote:
A 100' 14 gauge copper extension cord carrying a 20amp load will result in a little over 5 VAC drop.

You would do well to get some voltage readings with the heater in operation but it really sounds like you are just overloading the circuit. When you do that the breaker will trip.

Also, some of the info that has been given on here is correct and some is not. 50 amp service is two legs of 50 amp service providing a total of 100 amps for load. It is not 2 legs of 25 amps as someone stated. Find a good electrician and show him the link smkettner posted about RV feed wiring.

Actually, as long as there are no 240 volt loads in the trailer (and there probably is not) the two legs do not even have to be of different phases. However, the neutral size will have to be adjusted.

The extension cord is only 50ft, it's 100ft to the breaker box - the expensive part of setting up my hook up is due to the distance to breaker box.

So, I still couldn't get 50amp?