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Old 08-06-2019, 08:02 PM   #1
footz1941
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Electric hook up procedure

Recently pulled into a site with bad circuit breaker in the pedestal. Maintenance man came and replaced breaker. When I started to plug in I turned off breaker. Maintenance man said do not do that. He said in a s&b do you turn off the breaker if you are going to plug in a coffee pot?

I have always shut off the breaker, plugged in then turn the breaker on. What is the proper procedure?
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Old 08-06-2019, 08:19 PM   #2
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Turn breaker off. Plug your rig in. Turn breaker on. When you leave, turn breaker off, then unplug rig. Smart way, pedestal breaker off, plug in your Progressive, turn on breaker, wait for no error on Progressive, plug in rig.
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Old 08-06-2019, 08:32 PM   #3
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You don’t turn off the house breaker to plug in a coffe pot because the coffee pot is not on when you plug it in. Unless you turn off your trailer main breaker there is likely to be something such as the converter that will be energized as soon as contact is made. That causes arcing on the plug and outlet contact points and leads to burn marks on both. Do as you have always done.
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Old 08-09-2019, 05:09 AM   #4
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The way I see it, there should not be any high amp draw things on in your unit when it is plugged in. So breaker on or off should not matter.

My unit is stored in a pole building at home. When I return from a trip, I plug it in right away without turning the breaker off.

How many of us plug our units in at home ? I would bet most of us. How many of us are going to go through the trouble of going down into the basement (or where ever your panel is) to turn off the breaker. Go back to the rig and plug it in. Then go back to the panel to turn on the breaker. I would bet none or not many of us. To me that would be overly anal.
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Old 08-09-2019, 06:50 AM   #5
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I've done our Jazz both ways. Just plug it in or turn the breaker off then plug it in and flip the breaker back on. More of late is the latter though. I have noticed some arcing when just plugging in. It's not going to hurt anything by turning it off then back on. When the Montana arrives, (end of this month finally!) I will flip the breaker off first. Worst that will happen is the breaker wears out faster.
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Old 08-09-2019, 07:18 AM   #6
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Any time there is an arc, that creates a hot spot. It may leave a tiny black spot with low current. Or a larger spot with higher current. But each time it will add to it.
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Old 08-09-2019, 07:50 AM   #7
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I have never and would never plug in with the breaker on. Too many things in the rig are always on and others, including ACs, water heater, frig etc. could have been forgotten and left on. It's a simple thing and great protection.
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Old 08-19-2019, 10:26 AM   #8
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I always try and turn the AC units off when we shut it up to tow, but I am sure there are times I forget. We always make sure breaker is off before plugging in and then flip breaker...and the reverse when unplugging. Better safe than sorry.
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Old 08-19-2019, 10:33 AM   #9
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Always do it like you have been doing it...the guy was wrong to advise you otherwise. We always hookup electric after backing/pulling in before we do anything else so the PI EMS can do it's thing in case of a problem. Learned the hard way!
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Old 08-19-2019, 11:52 AM   #10
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Traveling with A friend with SOB he replaced a converter and coffee pot after connecting his 50 amp cord with breaker on. We assumed that the ground connection was not made until after the hot connections wreaking havoc and costing $$. Whatever the reason, always turn off the breaker before plugging in.
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Old 08-19-2019, 04:31 PM   #11
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I agree and turn off the pedestal breaker at the campground before I plug in.

But what about when you return home ? (if you store your unit at home and plug it in). Do you all turn off power to the receptacle your unit plugs into before plugging it in ?

I have the ability to do so, since the breaker is 50 feet from the camper plug. But I don't do that and have never had an issue.

We always make sure that everything possible is either turned off or unplugged upon leaving the campground.
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Old 08-19-2019, 09:12 PM   #12
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We have been at a couple parks over the years that did not have a breaker at the pedestal, so plugging in hot is the only way. One of the nice things about having a hardwired EMS is, when it sees power, there is a delay while it determines if the power is good, and then it closes the internal switch which makes the power go to the rig's main panel. If you have to plug in hot, make sure the twist connection at the rig is made first, then plug in the pedestal end of the shore cable.
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