Tradewind ac panel

[ghvoelker]

We just bought a 76 Tradewind. When we viewed it before buying, it was hooked into a dedicated 30 amp exterior receptacle. There was no battery in the trailer. All of the circuits worked fine. After we bought it I installed a battery while it was still connected. Again all worked fine. when discnnected from shore power all of the dc circuits appeared fine. The running lights all worked when I towed it home.

Once I got it home, I used an adapter to plug the trailer into a 15 amp GFCI outlet. It immediately popped. I tried a different GFCI on a seperate circuit. it popped as well. I even tried it with all of the breakers in the trailer off and it still popped.

The plug and cable looked new even so I tested it and found continuity between the neutral and ground. I opened the breaker box and discovered that the frame and shell ground was hooked to the neutral bus. It effectively bonded the ground and neutral which was causing the GFCI to pop.

It appeared that at some point someone moved the heavy copper wire from the ground bar to the neutral bar, probably when the cable was changed. I moved it back to the ground bar and when I plugged the GFCI all was well.

Attached is a picture showing the as found condition.

[markdoane]

Six out of ten* electricians do it that way. The other four have travel trailers or motorhomes and know better.

*non-statistical average.