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Old 07-24-2005, 11:24 AM   #21
Montana_1424
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OK, everyone is sold out of the plug in meters down here, even CW (Man they are rude there too).
Anyway, got a multi tester, just tested the voltage in one of my outlets, is right at 120 v, now I have no idea what it could be.

Would the breaker only trip when the voltage actually tips?
Right now it is 5:30, so I would think this is a pretty heavy use time. AC has been working fine today since I reset the breaker, but still need to know why it is doing it. With new unit, I would think it would be the voltage, but accoriding to the meter, that is not the case.
Anyone have an expliantion???
 
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Old 07-24-2005, 11:50 AM   #22
Montana_2785
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by kozzy45

OK, everyone is sold out of the plug in meters down here, even CW (Man they are rude there too).
Anyway, got a multi tester, just tested the voltage in one of my outlets, is right at 120 v, now I have no idea what it could be.
Ed, Did you test the voltage at the time you experienced the CB trip-out? If not, wait until it trips again, give things a couple of minutes to cool off, then check the voltage while you reset the breaker. You want to see what the voltage is when you are actually having problems.

Quote:
quote:Would the breaker only trip when the voltage actually tips?
Right now it is 5:30, so I would think this is a pretty heavy use time. AC has been working fine today since I reset the breaker, but still need to know why it is doing it. With new unit, I would think it would be the voltage, but accoriding to the meter, that is not the case.
Anyone have an expliantion???
Exactly which breaker is tripping? I assume it ISN'T your 50amp main breaker....

If the voltage tests out to be OK, then it is either a bad circuit breaker (it does occasionally happen) or there are more things on that circuit than you think. Also, the more a breaker trips itself (vs being used as a switch) the more sensitive it gets to amperage load and they will trip on less and less current.

I would say that if the voltage continues to test out, then turn off every breaker except the one the A/C is on and see what you are able to run. That will let you know what other loads you will need to manage when you use your A/C. OR, if there are no other loads or you are absolutely sure other loads were turned off, then I'd say try replacing the circuit breaker.

Also, what size is the breaker that trips? 15 or 20amp. I would think it should be a 20 amp breaker for your A/C. If it isn't a 20 amp breaker, I wouldn't put a 20 in unless I had talked to Montana Customer service to see what they think...

On my 2002 Monty, my A/C seems to be tied directly to my main breaker as there isn't a separate breaker for it... Yet another screwy construction job to take apart and document AND FIX

Eric
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Old 07-24-2005, 12:45 PM   #23
Thunderman
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For what it is worth, my a/c is also tied into the main breaker. However, the 5er is wired for a second a/c and that breaker is 20 amp.
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Old 07-24-2005, 01:03 PM   #24
Montana_1424
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Eric,
Again, in advanc, thanks for all your input. Your information is helping me out a lot.

My AC is on it's own breaker, 20 AMP. I also have a 20 AMP breaker for the second AC, wiich I keep off, becasue I do not have one.

I did not test the voltage when it happened, becasue it happened overnight. I would assume, however, it I was going to experience low voltage, it would be during the day, during high use for the whole campground, vs the middle of the night. I could be worng, but seemed like a good assumption. I have not thought about replacing the breaker, that would be my next step. I just dont think it is the AC unit now, as it was just replaced with a brand new one.

Also, FYI, the AC is by itself, nothing else is tied into that breaker. And my 50 AMP main is not tripping, just the 20 AMP ac breaker. Everything else in the coach is functioning normal.

One more thing, i did check and recheck my Hunter Thermostat upgrade, and that seems to be correct.
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Old 07-24-2005, 01:49 PM   #25
Montana_2785
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by kozzy45

[...]
I did not test the voltage when it happened, becasue it happened overnight. [...]
FWIW: I was in a campground in Wisconsin several years ago and they had a large power station off-line due to some problem. A VERY large part of the state was experiencing brownout conditions for most of the summer (and it was a HOT one.) I woke up the first morning after getting to the campground late the night before and something didn't seem right. I laid in bed for a while before I finally realized that what I was hearing was the A/C blower motor speeding up and slowing down!!!! It was late enough in the morning that more load was being put on the electrical grid. (I was always able to run the A/C at night.)

I checked my voltage meter and saw a voltage in the 95 volt range and fluxuating like crazy. I turned off the A/C for the day, switched the refrigerator to gas and opened the windows....

Didn't trip the breaker. AND this was an old A/C that was rated to use 17.5 amps when running normally!!

Granted, it could be low voltage related, but I'd think that there is a higher probability of the root cause being something else.

Lets push a few numbers around to get a feel for the ballpark range we are talking about.

I think that my 15,000BTU A/C is rated for 14.X amps when running (likely at 70 something degrees outside temperature). At a high outside temperature, it will pull more than than. But you said that it happened during the night so I'm assuming that the night time temperature wasn't some rediculous 3 digit value. That being said, 15amps X 120Volts gives us 1800 voltamps. Dividing that by 20 amps gives us 90 volts to make your A/C draw 20 amps. AND a 20 amp breaker will tolerate that for a while before heating up to the point where it will trip. It doesn't happen as soon as 20 amps is reached.

I'll pretty much guarantee that you would notice if you only had 90 volts in your system!!! The TV would look funny, incandecent lights would be dim, fans would run slow, etc.....

YMMV

Eric
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Old 07-25-2005, 07:05 PM   #26
Montana_1424
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when they replaced the AC, they did say the old one was drawing too many amps.
I think I will try and replace the breaker this week, and go from there.
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Old 09-05-2005, 05:40 AM   #27
Garin1
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Kozzy45,

I have a new 3650rk and had the problem with the a/c tripping breakers. I did an ampload test and found the a/c was OK. I went to Lowes and bought a new breaker. No problems since.
Good luck and Happy Travels.
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Old 11-06-2020, 01:33 PM   #28
Displaced Alaskans
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Just to chime in since I just went through this yesterday. I just located to Tucson, and my main AC tripped after about 3-5 minutes of running. It was blowing good cold air, but I did notice that the air flow was not quite as strong as it was before the move. I did the usual checks on the top end, and everything was good. I got looking at my incoming power. On a 50 Amp service there are two (2) 120 Vac lines, one (1) neutral, and one (1) ground. I have a surge protector that monitors the power, and it all read good.

I found that one of the 120 Vac legs was 118.5 Vac, and the other was 105 Vac. Further investigation found that the AC unit was on the leg with the lower voltage. Simple fix was to swap the power line to the side with the main AC. I started it up, and the issue was fixed. I monitored the voltage through the evening and later in the day, after it cooled off from 97 F, the legs were closer at 119 Vac and 117.5 Vac. It is due to the park and the load on that side of the power grid.

Just one more thing to check if all the stuff above doesn't fix the issue.
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Old 11-07-2020, 07:03 AM   #29
jeffba
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Displaced Alaskans View Post
Just to chime in since I just went through this yesterday. I just located to Tucson, and my main AC tripped after about 3-5 minutes of running. It was blowing good cold air, but I did notice that the air flow was not quite as strong as it was before the move. I did the usual checks on the top end, and everything was good. I got looking at my incoming power. On a 50 Amp service there are two (2) 120 Vac lines, one (1) neutral, and one (1) ground. I have a surge protector that monitors the power, and it all read good.

I found that one of the 120 Vac legs was 118.5 Vac, and the other was 105 Vac. Further investigation found that the AC unit was on the leg with the lower voltage. Simple fix was to swap the power line to the side with the main AC. I started it up, and the issue was fixed. I monitored the voltage through the evening and later in the day, after it cooled off from 97 F, the legs were closer at 119 Vac and 117.5 Vac. It is due to the park and the load on that side of the power grid.

Just one more thing to check if all the stuff above doesn't fix the issue.
This is a 15 year old post. I would hope they have it fixed by now
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