Electrical Problem 2012 Flying Cloud

[Haimo]

I'm plugging in the trailer at our house overnight. It is a 15 amp household circuit and it is tripping the circuit breaker. The refrigerator is on and the converter goes on and off. Otherwise, nothing else is on. It takes about five minutes to trip.

The trailer is relatively new for us but we have plugged in like this a few times before and did it many time with our old trailer, a 2001 Excella.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Steve

[Al and Missy]

The items you list should not be drawing enough current to trip a 15 amp breaker. A 60 amp converter under full load should draw less than 8 amps and the fridge should draw around between 2 and 3.

Do you by any chance have a dual water heater, i.e. it runs off of propane and AC? If so there would be an additional switch in the bath area.

Is the breaker in question a GFCI breaker? If so you may have a hot to ground leak that is tripping the GFCI portion of the breaker. A common flaw is corrosion in the outside outlet box. A leak in the AC heater in the fridge is also a possibility.

Go to your trailer's AC breaker panel and turn all breakers off. Turn on shore power and wait long enough that you are sure it should trip. Turn the breakers on, one at a time, until you find the circuit that causes the trip.

Al

[SSquared]

Is it popping the breaker in your house, or the Airstream?

If it is the house breaker: Are there other things in the house on the same breaker? Perhaps you have a little space heater that you run now because it is winter......that would be the easy answer.

Are you sure you don't have the water heater turned on in electric mode?

The next thing to do would be to go to a good hardware store or home center and buy a "Kill a watt" or similar device. This is a little box that plugs into an outlet and has an output receptacle. It measures the current (and some other things) drawn by the device plugged into it. It will tell you how much juice is really being drawn by the trailer. You can debug from there (e.g., turn off the fridge and see how much the current changes).

These gadgets cost about 30 dollars.

[Haimo]

To SSquared - It's popping the house breaker. The circuit includes the living room and outside outlets and lights.

I'll check the water heater tomorrow. And get a 'kill a watt device'.

To Al and Missy - The breaker is a GFCI breaker. The TV and a couple of lights were on. Twice the breaker in the box tripped and once the GFCI itself tripped.

You both mentioned the hot water heater. I'll check tomorrow to see if the electric switch is on.

A lot of good advice from both of you.

We are leaving tomorrow for 18 days. I have a 30amp outside receptacle that I can reach from the street with a 25' 30 amp extension. I thought I'd plug it in and see if it trips that breaker. If it doesn't trip it I can go, plug in at RV parks and fix it along the way.

Happy New Year,
Steve

[Haimo]

This morning I decided to check the hot water heater. It was 'on' in the electric position. I turned it off and plugged the trailer into the house. So far, not tripping.

But, the refrigerator is in an 'EO' fault position. Pressing the refrigerator on/off has no effect. I'm thinking of finding the fuse for the frig and turning it off and on.

Any suggestions?

Steve

[goransons]

try leaving the refer off for about 30 minutes and try again. Had that happen once on ours and that fixed it.