Issue with 110V system...

[redynvre]

Hello All,

I am having a weird issue here. I was doing some cleaning inside the coach one evening, it was a little cilly so I ran a small portable heater out of one of the 110V outlets. This was the the only thing running. I was using the 12V lighting.

After a while, no more heater. The main breaker in the barn went off. I turned it back on, and it went off again. There is a short somewhere it seems. I unpluged the rig, and then no more problem. The problem is not in the barn. I went in the coach, and put all the breakers on OFF position (none of them went off when the short occured). Plug the rig's cord, and the barn's breaker goes off again. Therefore, the short must be somewhere between the rig"s breaker box and the end of the power cord.

Did anyone had something similar happened? I am not too sure were to look for the problem. Any insight would be great!

Thanks!

Francois.

[thenewkid64]

Make sure the coach is unplugged.

Since you have no power to the outlets remove the cover from the breaker box and look for burnt wiring. If there is no burnt wiring in the box Then I would try running the AC system off the genset, after replacing the cover.

If the AC works off the genset then the trouble is between the cord reel and the transfer switch. The transfer switch is sometimes under the bed or the dinette.

Let us know what you find!

[Over59]

If the breakers are off in the coach and the barn breaker trips then between the coach breaker box and the barn breaker box is the area of interest. Start at the barn end. Plug something that pulls 15 or 20 amps into the same outlet. Could be a weak breaker or short in the outlet. If that's ok check for a short in the cord to the trailer. If you have a standard adaptor to plug into a standard 110 outlet on a different breaker than the one that triipped in the barn try that. If it trips you have your answer. If not you made need a meter to check where the cord connects to the coach without any power to the coach. You should get an infinite resistance between any two of the three prongs.
If you were using a long household extension cord it may have tripped the breaker if it was too small and too long. Is there anything else in the barn on the circuit turned on or cycling on and off, maybe not the coach?

[redynvre]

Over59,

I did that already.The barn electrical system works just fine when the rig is unplugged. I tried the space heater on the same plug that I used for the rig, and it was just fine. It is as sson as I plug the rig in that the barn's breaker goes off (with the rig's breakers all Off).

I will try to run the AC either tonight or this week end.

Thanks for your input! Keep it comming!

Francois.

[87MH]

The male plug on the rig may have internal corrosion, spider webs, or other kritters in residence -

It only takes a couple of minutes to take the male three prong plug apart (mine, anyway, is held together with three screws), clean any corrosion, and retighten the wires to the contacts.

Luck

[garry]

I will assume you are not using an extension cord.
The problem could be in the coach 30 amp wire to the braker.
The braker itself.
Or the transfer switch.
Running the genset with no problem will verify one side of the transfer switch and the breaker pointing to the coach 30 amp feed wire.
Be careful messing with electricty can be dangerous.

[59toaster]

turn off the breaker to the battery charger and try again. It might be that with the charger and the heater you are exceeding the rating of the breaker in the barn.

[74Argosy24MH]

Originally Posted by redynvre

I tried the space heater on the same plug that I used for the rig, and it was just fine.

The heater and mh don't have the same plug, so how are you plugging the mh in? If you are using an extension cord it could be too small.

John

[87MH]

Francois -

I totally agree with John's (74Argosy) diagnosis above - extension cord too small (too much of a voltage drop when a load is placed on it)...

If you DO discover you have a dead short in the MH.....

I think you narrowed down the area of difficulty when you wrote:

"I did that already.The barn electrical system works just fine when the rig is unplugged. I tried the space heater on the same plug that I used for the rig, and it was just fine. It is as sson as I plug the rig in that the barn's breaker goes off (with the rig's breakers all Off)."

The problem HAS to be in the extension cord, the umbilical cord or connector, the retract mechanism, or in the wiring between the retract reel and the breaker - you stated the barn circuit breaker popped when all of the rig CB's were "off"...

The retract reel has a good possibility of being the problem...it is also a real beeatch to get to.

Get a copy of the wiring diagram if you find the problem to be between the retract reel and the breaker box - there is a "switchover solenoid" that automaticaly isolates the umbilical line when the generator is running - on my 345 the solenoid box is physicaly mounted under the bed - not a likely source of your short, but a possibility.

[ALANSD]

I had to get a 30 amp rated extension cord for mine. The off the shelf cords HD were not rated high enough and my a/c would trip the breaker in my garage. With the correctrated cord it handles the load. There was just one on Ebay a 25 footer for 10 bucks.

[grizzy]

Is the breaker tripping or the GFI? I had a problem with tripping GFI last year. What I finaly discovered was that one wire connection to one 110v outlet was loose, which tripped my GFI. AIt was a pain to find but easy to fix.

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by grizzy

Is the breaker tripping or the GFI? I had a problem with tripping GFI last year. What I finaly discovered was that one wire connection to one 110v outlet was loose, which tripped my GFI. AIt was a pain to find but easy to fix.

I had GFI issues on the outlet in my garage. Whenever I used my TV in the Safari while using garage power, the GFI would flip on the garage outlet. I thought the TV was bad (it was new) so I returned it for another (same model). It also poped the circuit (never had it pop anything on the road). It's obviously not the trailer. The same TV plugged into the same extension cord and GFI outlet outside the trailer will not pop the breaker. Apparently there is some type of voltage leakage occuring across the chasis in combination with the trailer antenna.

I forgot about that problem when I bought the Classic and the same thing occured when I plugged the TV in.

Jack

[redynvre]

Thank you all for your help!

I have now some good lead to follow to solve this issue. I will make sure to keep you updated on the progress!

Francois.