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!

[hohenwald48]

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.

[herbhyde]

There might only be 20 amps/single phase going to the Horse shed. You must find out what wires are in the panel. Using a 100 foot extension cord (even 12 gauge) just causes more voltage drop.

[tobydog927]

Diplomat_St_Poodles wrote:
The converter in your RV basically does two jobs.
1) When you are plugged into electricity it converts a portion of the 120 volts coming into the RV down to 12 volts so all of the 12 volt devices like overhead lights and fan motors will operate without draining the RV battery.
2) It has a battery charger built in the converter to keep the RV battery charged.

A bad element in the fridge will not normality cause a breaker to trip unless it has a short.

Unless the second plug is on another circuit it will likely not help your power situation.

Ah, I see. Yeah I notice the lights and radio if it's on stay on when the power trips.

How much solar or wind power can I get with $700 haha. The wind here is insane.

Also, could the cold be affecting anything, I mean temps have been below freezing most nights, windchill is painful too.

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

The converter in your RV basically does two jobs.
1) When you are plugged into electricity it converts a portion of the 120 volts coming into the RV down to 12 volts so all of the 12 volt devices like overhead lights and fan motors will operate without draining the RV battery.
2) It has a battery charger built in the converter to keep the RV battery charged.

A bad element in the fridge will not normality cause a breaker to trip unless it has a short.

Unless the second plug is on another circuit it will likely not help your power situation.

[tobydog927]

Diplomat_St_Poodles wrote:
As a temporary solution can you run a second extension cord for the electric heater? When we are camped where there is only 15 or 20 amp service we run a second extension out the window for the electric heater on a separate circuit.
Even if you are not turning anything on, the converter may be turning on causing the power to trip. Or the breaker heats up and trips.
Is there anyway for someone to show you how to remove the propane tank and have it filled. If the fridge doesn't work on power it may work on propane. Likely the heater element in the fridge needs replacing. Fairly simple process, elements usually cost less then $20.

Good luck.

I could possibly do an extension cord for the heater, possibly, I'd have to plug it in to the same outlet though that the trailer is plugged into, it's the closest option.

It just doesn't make sense to me that it all worked great for awhile then suddenly nothing. I hope it's just the heating element in the fridge - could that be tripping the breaker?

I had someone take a look at my gas tanks once and said they were probably too old/rusty and no one would refill them so I would have to buy new tanks. On my budget I decided the space heater would get me thru the winter instead. I still need to skirt the trailer too... And buy furniture now that I took out the old couch and dinette and sold them to redo my floors. Ripped up the carpet and put down floorboards, it's amazing the difference! But now all the big issues start happening.

What is the converter/what does it do? Why would it randomly come on? I think a guy I used to work with has a little TT, he lives a good hour drive away though but might be worth asking what he knows and can show me possibly.

[beemerphile1]

STBRetired wrote:
Just to be clear, it's the breaker in the box on the horse shed that is tripping. It does not have a red or yellow button labeled "Test".

Stuff in you fridge is melting because it is not working. If the 120V power is on and you still get a "Check" light then there is something wrong with the fridge itself. Don't forget that the fridge uses 120V power as well as your space heater.

When you talk to the electrician, tell him you need a 50A RV hookup, which is really just a 25A 120/240 household connection. If the box at the horse shed has 240 power, which I suspect it does, then he could give you 50A RV service, which is really 2 25A household circuits. He might have been thinking you need a single 50A connection.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. A 50 amp RV service consists of a pair of 50 amp circuits providing a total of 100 amps.

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

As a temporary solution can you run a second extension cord for the electric heater? When we are camped where there is only 15 or 20 amp service we run a second extension out the window for the electric heater on a separate circuit.
Even if you are not turning anything on, the converter may be turning on causing the power to trip. Or the breaker heats up and trips.
Is there anyway for someone to show you how to remove the propane tank and have it filled. If the fridge doesn't work on power it may work on propane. Likely the heater element in the fridge needs replacing. Fairly simple process, elements usually cost less then $20.

Good luck.

[tobydog927]

I just spent a good several hours inside with heater going (not at its highest) and nothing else (nothing I physically plugged in or turned on etc). All was fine then randomly all tripped the breaker again. Just flipped it over.

Can't get the outside panel open to check behind the fridge, I'll have to find the right tool or something and check in the morning. Could it be a dying fridge tripping the breaker?

[tobydog927]

westend wrote:
The reason you can only have 30 amp installed is that there is a single 120V phase in that breaker box. I would suggest to buy a good 12 AWG extension cord and power your biggest appliance (probably the heater) with that cord. Connect the cord into a receptacle that is protected by a different breaker than the one you are using or install another receptacle on that different branch circuit at the breaker box. This setup will give you 40 amps of usable service and be cheaper than pulling new wire to a dedicated 30 amp receptacle.

The breaker box is a good 100ft from my trailer, over summer the A/C will be my biggest appliance thing, but can't individually hook that up. I had asked about getting another outlet thing installed too in the place he would set up the 30amp plug but he said wasn't possible

[tobydog927]

hohenwald48 wrote:
On the extension cord the wire size is printed, stamped or embossed on the outer covering of the cord itself. It will say something like 16AWG or some number usually followed by AWG the number will be an even number. Probably 16, 14, 12 or 10 followed by the AWG. Smaller number is bigger wire.

As far as the size of the wire connected to the breaker it should be marked the same way. With newer wire the color of the outer covering will indicate what the size is but if the ranch wiring is more than about 10 years old you will have to read the data on the wire just like on the extension cord.

If you are plugged into an outlet located outside it should be protected by a GFCI breaker if it was installed according to electrical (NEC) code. If the breaker is GFCI it will trip due to moisture on the connections.

400 amp electricity to the main service entrance won't help much if the distribution wiring is not up to the task.

Just got outside to check the extension cord, it says 14AWG. Couldn't open the breaker box further to see the wires, I can try tomorrow.

[time2roll]

http://www.myrv.us/electric/

Top left there is a link to 50 amp and 30 amp connections.

Each has a page to print and give to the 'electrician'.

[westend]

The reason you can only have 30 amp installed is that there is a single 120V phase in that breaker box. I would suggest to buy a good 12 AWG extension cord and power your biggest appliance (probably the heater) with that cord. Connect the cord into a receptacle that is protected by a different breaker than the one you are using or install another receptacle on that different branch circuit at the breaker box. This setup will give you 40 amps of usable service and be cheaper than pulling new wire to a dedicated 30 amp receptacle.

[STBRetired]

See if you can get him to install a two-pole 25A breaker and a NEMA 14-50R receptical.

I am familiar with the concept of how the fridge works, but not the details of troubleshooting one. When operating on 120V, there is an electrical heating element that is energized. You could remove the cover from the outside of the TT and check to see if there is power going to the heating element. If is wrapped around the vertical tube that has the burner tube going into the bottom. If there is power there, then the element is probably bad or the ammonia has leaked out. If there is no power at the element then the control circuitry is suspect.

[tobydog927]

STBRetired wrote:
Just to be clear, it's the breaker in the box on the horse shed that is tripping. It does not have a red or yellow button labeled "Test".

Stuff in you fridge is melting because it is not working. If the 120V power is on and you still get a "Check" light then there is something wrong with the fridge itself. Don't forget that the fridge uses 120V power as well as your space heater.

When you talk to the electrician, tell him you need a 50A RV hookup, which is really just a 25A 120/240 household connection. If the box at the horse shed has 240 power, which I suspect it does, then he could give you 50A RV service, which is really 2 25A household circuits. He might have been thinking you need a single 50A connection.

Yes, the breaker in the box on the horse shed trips, the breakers inside my trailer haven't yet tripped ever. No test button.

The fridge has the check light on constantly, all day, even with the heater off. How can I assess the fridge issue? That's a pain if it's needing to be replaced - I do assume it's the original from 1999 though, haha.

I did try to explain RV hook up, he even had to unplug my current hook up to take a look at the 30amp plug.. I don't know how else to explain it to an electrician if they've never dealt with an RV hook up, are there specific electricians I should be looking into in that case? I had two local electricians come out to give me a quote, both basically same price and both said only could do 30amp. Perhaps I'll have to find a third. Cause yeah, if possible, I'd prefer 50 long term.

Heck, at the cost I'm looking at due to the distance from the box I should invest that $750+ into solar or wind power for the trailer instead haha.

[STBRetired]

Just to be clear, it's the breaker in the box on the horse shed that is tripping. It does not have a red or yellow button labeled "Test".

Stuff in you fridge is melting because it is not working. If the 120V power is on and you still get a "Check" light then there is something wrong with the fridge itself. Don't forget that the fridge uses 120V power as well as your space heater.

When you talk to the electrician, tell him you need a 50A RV hookup, which is really just a 25A 120/240 household connection. If the box at the horse shed has 240 power, which I suspect it does, then he could give you 50A RV service, which is really 2 25A household circuits. He might have been thinking you need a single 50A connection.