20A shore power issues anyone?

The WC was plugged into shore power at the house while getting ready for the maiden voyage. This is a 20A GFI circuit. Everything was fine for a few days, then the GFI started popping. There was almost no power draw, but it kept tripping anyway. I tried the WC breakers one at a time and during my testing (over two profanity laced days) each breaker would trip the shore GFI at some point when power was supplied. Hmmm. Was acting kind of like a "brown out", not enough power and didn't know what was going to work and what wasn't. To make matters worse the converter quit charging the battery.

I gave up and charged up the battery and a spare and went camping anyway. I plugged into the 30A hookup at the site and it was like a miracle, everything worked!

When I got back home I was able to plug into a 50A circuit with a 30A adapter and all is still working as it should be. I let a buddy borrow the trailer for a few days and plug into his 20A shore power in his garage. The same problems happened and it started tripping the shore GFI.

Do these WCats demand 30A service to work correctly, or are most of you able to use 15A or 20A shore power at home?

I am plugged in at home all the time with the outlet on the side of my house. It is either 15 or 20 amp, not sure but it is certainly not 30. Never had a problem. I have even run my air conditioner off this with everything else shut down. Something weird is going on somewhere to pop the breaker when you are not demanding a fair amount of power.

When home in Winona we often have the WC plugged into a 20 amp GFI protected circuit; have never had the GFI trip. There is usually only a small draw: refrigerator on electric and battery charging.

We plug in at home with 20amps. The only thing we can't use is the a/c with other appliances. I think we HAVE used the a/c, but it shut down after awhile - maybe when the refrigerator compresssor kicked in.

Tater

I have used 15 amp circuit for the Cat. It is marginal for the air conditioner. Have since installed a 20 amp breaker with a line only for the Cat. Have not had any problems, but it does work better to not have the fridge on electric when running the a/c.

Bad GFI?

Is your hot water heater on electric?

I have been on camp sites that supply only 5 amps @ 230 volts
(This equates to 10 amps @ 120 volts) All i have to do is make sure that I turn major items off be fore I turn others on.
Sean

Scruffy and Tater wrote:Probably not a bad GFI. It works fine on 30amps.

He plugs into a GFI plug which pops. That is why I say a bad gfi. Grab a new GFI plug and give it a shot. I have had that happen in the house a long time ago. Once I replaced the GFI everything worked fine.

I run into the same problem. I believe it has something to do with the Cat not being grounded like a house is. I put in a 30 amp rv plug and fed it out of my shop panel with the proper breaker and wire . That way I can run the air , water heater etc... for guest or whatever. I also have a 30 amp rv plug in the shed I built for our campers...

Oh my - I stand corrected.

The house GFI is fine, as I tried a 20A GFI outlet in my garage on a separate circuit-same problem. Just for grins, I wired up a spare GFI I had and that didn't help. To answer oldelmer, water heater is gas only.

I didn't have to to turn the a/c, fridge, or outlets on, just energize the circuits via the trailer breaker to get the house GFI to trip.

Most gfi's don't work well in the same circuit. I know if I plug my house GFI system it will trip due to the wildcat having a GFI circuit if I plug into my shop circuit no problem. My 30 amp in the Catport and it is fine IMHO GFI's Just don't like each other

Run a 30 AMP for the trailer. Solves the problem.

BamaWildCat and Oneton I have learned something new. More than 1 gfi on a circuit and they fight.

I stand corrected about a gas only water heater. I found a pic oldelmer posted of the switch for the WH, and sure enough, I had the hidden switch too. It was on, so there has always been a power draw whenever the WC was plugged in. I haven't had water in it until recently, so I am sure the element is burned out. Guess I will be doing the interior switch mod pretty soon!

Portagie1968 wrote: Run a 30 AMP for the trailer. Solves the problem.

BamaWildCat and Oneton I have learned something new. More than 1 gfi on a circuit and they fight.

I think the reason GFI's trip other GFI's is because the GFI is always checking for an inbalance in the circuit ie you touching hot and ground causes inbalance the same happens with other GFI check of balance causes small voltage to ground for test thus causing the house GFI to trip.

Thank you. Never thought of that.

NorCalCat wrote:I stand corrected about a gas only water heater. I found a pic oldelmer posted of the switch for the WH, and sure enough, I had the hidden switch too. It was on, so there has always been a power draw whenever the WC was plugged in. I haven't had water in it until recently, so I am sure the element is burned out. Guess I will be doing the interior switch mod pretty soon!

I believe I posted pictures of the inside switch install also, but you could just use a light switch too.

Just post if you need any help doing the inside switch.

If I'm not mistaken, once any grounded appliance (could be anything that draws 120V power and has a ground prong) is plugged into a grounded circuit on the house panel, the appliance is grounded to the house system. This would be the same for our RV's.

It sounds like there is a minor fault somewhere in the trailer 120V that the GFCI doesn't like. It could be a loose ground wire on an outlet, or it could be the GFCI circuit in the trailer fighting with the GFCI circuit in that the trailer is plugged into.

If you check the back of the 120V receps, you'll find that the wires are only held by pressure clips not screws. Loose connection = resistance which GFCI's hate.

JMHO

That's my understanding as well.

Thanks, all. I truly appreciate all of the help. Still a newbie and the learning curve on these trailers is pretty steep! I will stop by the hardware store tomorrow and pick up a switch for that mod. I also noted that the wiring in the WH was a little burned, so yet another issue to work on. Thanks for the offer of help, Tom (oldelmer1).

Here is a quote from a Eletrican on GFCI's

Q: Wouldn't installing 2 GFI's be more like a back up protection just in case the other one fails.

A: the reason it doesn't always work is because the GFI monitors the Line and Neutral Conductors, measuring the current flowing out and returning back. When in balance the GFI believes everything is working correctly. Sometimes having the second GFI confuses the first GFI and causes it to trip because it acts as if there is Current(Amps) leakage (Ground Fault). As far as additional protection, thats why the manufacturers recommend testing your GFI once a month.

oldelmer1 wrote:

NorCalCat wrote:I stand corrected about a gas only water heater. I found a pic oldelmer posted of the switch for the WH, and sure enough, I had the hidden switch too. It was on, so there has always been a power draw whenever the WC was plugged in. I haven't had water in it until recently, so I am sure the element is burned out. Guess I will be doing the interior switch mod pretty soon!

I believe I posted pictures of the inside switch install also, but you could just use a light switch too.

Just post if you need any help doing the inside switch.

On a 30RLBS there is a plug, that is in the way and useless, next to the propane switch for the HWH. Plan to remove that plug and insert a plug/switch combo. Plan to hook up the HWH to the switch. Save time and mess making a new hole.