Electrical bug

[gomotomoto]

Brought the airstream to the boatyard for winter storage. Was a little sad

I noticed when it was at my house, it kept tripping my outdoor GFI outlet.

The outlet works fine and does not trip with other things I plug into it, so I know it's not the GFI

While we were camping, I was able to plug into the electric provided by the campgrounds without any issues however I did notice that one of the campgrounds there was some faint buzzing coming from the electrical panel but it went away after a few moments and everything seems fine.

Just trying to figure this out over the winter so we can use it in the spring anybody have insight on what this might be?

[Protagonist]

Do you have anything plugged into a GFCI outlet inside the trailer? At work, we have noticed that many instances of "nuissance tripping" of GFCIs happen when there are two GFCIs in series with each other, in other words a GFCI plugged into another GFCI. The first GFCI (closest to the source) treats the second GFCI (closest to the tool or appliance) as a ground fault, and trips.

If you switch off the GFCI breaker inside the trailer, the GFCI on the service pedestal shouldn't trip anymore.

If switching off the GFCI circuit inside the trailer doesn't fix the problem, at least you've eliminated that as a source, so succeed or fail, you're still one step farther along on the troubleshooting routine.

[richinny]

some people have reported issues with the converter popping a gfci outlet. as mentioned, turn all the breakers off and the one that trips the gfci when turned on has the issue. sometimes it is just moisture in an outlet such as the exterior outlet or the refrigerator.


please update the model you have in your profile so we can have a better idea what rig you have :-)

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by gomotomoto

I noticed when it was at my house, it kept tripping my outdoor GFI outlet.

There are 4 typical causes.

1) Wet wiring in the outdoor convenience outlet on the trailer. Solution is to disconnect shore power, remove the outlet cover, and dry with a hair dryer. (Rarely, other wet wiring due to condensation)

2) Miswired breaker box. Common problem on older trailers and ones with recent wiring changes. RVs require the neutral (white) and ground (green or bare) wires to be kept separate with no bonding between them. Sometimes the fix is just a matter of removing a bonding screw, other times a ground bar has to be added.

3) Short between neutral and ground, usually at the air conditioner, but not always. Sometimes a visual check of the wiring at the air conditioner will show an obvious probelm. Otherwise, difficult to diagnose, with shore power disconnected and all the breakers off each of the neutral wires has to be disconnected one at a time from the bus and checked with an ohmmeter for continuity to ground.

4) Failed MOVs in a surge protector, either a plug in one, or the surge protection built into the converter or some piece of electronics. Easiest thing to do is unplug all this stuff and see if the problem goes away.

Common problem, good luck.

[68 TWind]

Before I installed a 30amp outlet here at the house I would just use an extention cord plugged into the GFCI outlet under the carport to power the trailer. One day it started tripping the GFCI when I plugged in the trailer to charge the battery. After a lot of searching (several days checking things), I found that my outside outlet (curb side on my Trade Wind) was wet from a bad gasket and the outlet was also in bad shape. I replaced the outlet and put a new weatherproof cover on it and that fixed the problem.

[gomotomoto]

Thanks guys, I start with your suggestions and go from there.