Electric breaker question

[Mel]

I have a breaker out for the dining/living room area of our 2009 3400. It effects, as far as I can tell: 1)the light over the dining table, 2) the lamp between the dining table and sofa, 3)the plugin between the sofa and table and 4) one plug in on the sofa side of the rear area. I can see no fuses blown, but the breaker will not reset. Any ideas what to check.

I thought maybe I have a bulb burnt out that is shorting the system

[Art-n-Marge]

Try swapping out THAT breaker with another in the rig of the same type and rating. If it still fails it's not the breaker, but this is how I found out that I had a bad breaker when things starting working again. For me, this all occurred in the bedroom around the lavatory. I also found a bad breaker in another stickhouse this way too.

If that doesn't find a bad breaker, you might have to start pulling things out and checking connections that are causing problems and you might have to go throughout the rig to find all the outlets being a problem for that circuit. It's not unusual for things to be squirrely coming from the factory only to find bad workmanship much later down the line. Hasn't happened to me, but I've read about others who've had that problem.

Please let us know what you find out.

[Ishler]

I wood look under the slide where the power cable runs are.

[Tom S.]

Breakers and fuses are completely separate from each other. The breakers protect the 120V circuits while the fuses protect the 12 volt circuits. A burned out light will not trip a breaker. Breakers trip because of one of two things: a short circuit or an overloaded circuit. If you don't have anything plugged into your outlets, you have a short somewhere. There have been reports here of junction boxes under the trailer (in the slides if I remember correctly) that were poorly sealed and filled up with water causing a short, so that's one thing to check.

As Art suggested, breakers can go bad, so swapping one of the same rating will quickly tell you if that is the issue. They pull out and snap in, but for safety sake, make sure the main power is off.

[bncinwv]

And check to see if there are any GFCI's on this circuit? I can't remember for sure, but I thought the external outlet with GFCI may be tied to this circuit. I also think that the dining room light and the lamp (if it is the wall lamp) are DC powered which would be controlled by a separate fuse and not a breaker. The DC lights could also be experiencing switch problems which are very common.
Bingo

[mail2us]

Check the GFCI rese near the bath sink?

[BB_TX]

Do you mean it will not reset? Or that it immediately trips when you try?
Turn off the main AC breaker to shut off all AC to the trailer. Then see if the breaker will reset.
If it still will not reset then it is a bad breaker.
If it does reset, then turn the main breaker back on and see if it trips again. If so, then there is probably a short somewhere, although it could still be a weak breaker. As Art suggested, swap a same amp breaker from another slot and see if it still trips.
If it trips, then you have to start looking for a wire with broken or cut insulation, a loose wire touching something else, or some other short in that circuit. Probably not an easy task since a lot of that wiring is hard to get to. You would start with the obvious places first in the exposed wiring under the slide.

[racerjoe]

Are you first shutting the breaker off then back to the on position? that is how to reset it. If it trips again then start looking for a short as talked about

[Art-n-Marge]

NOTE: even when resetting using the toggle switch or the button on a GFCI, a bad breaker might pass these tests - it's happened to me twice and can drive you nuts when indications are that you think it's working but still doesn't. That's why I recommend swapping out the breaker altogether. It originally looked like a GFCI problem but turned out to be the breaker. I have had GFCIs go bad too.

If the breaker or GFCI makes no difference then it's time to check wiring where trailers have common problems with either poor workmanship, poor insulating or connection problem with the shaking during travel. Other owners have had to check every outlet and fixture, first to find out what breaker (or fuse) works with what, then check each junction. Expect this to take a long time especially when you have to keep cycling power when debugging. It will be ON when testing, and OFF when checking or changing, connections. Don't get confused or it could hurt.

[NCFischers]

Circuit breakers rarely go bad. Try turning the breaker off and then turn in back on and see if that works. That is the way to reset a breaker.

[Hooker]

GFIs can go bad. I had a probem with my MH...the GFI itself was bad.

[twindman]

I have had 2 GFCI go bad in my home and one or 2 regular breakers in the Montana go bad, so it happens more than one would think.

[Champ_49]

quote:Originally posted by Tom S.

Breakers and fuses are completely separate from each other. The breakers protect the 120V circuits while the fuses protect the 12 volt circuits. A burned out light will not trip a breaker. Breakers trip because of one of two things: a short circuit or an overloaded circuit. If you don't have anything plugged into your outlets, you have a short somewhere. There have been reports here of junction boxes under the trailer (in the slides if I remember correctly) that were poorly sealed and filled up with water causing a short, so that's one thing to check.

As Art suggested, breakers can go bad, so swapping one of the same rating will quickly tell you if that is the issue. They pull out and snap in, but for safety sake, make sure the main power is off.

Exactly what happened to me. Water filled up junction box under slide. From a small leak in a water line. It dripped into a wiring harness and right down into the box.

Dave