House GFI tripping - Montana Owners Club

magibson · 07-17-2006, 01:55 PM

I just got my new mountaineer home and I plugged it in to the house GFI outlet and it triped. Unplugged the trailer from the back reset the GFI and plugged in the shore power cords with adapters (50 to 30 and 30 to 20)and no problems...plug it trailer and it trippes. Removed plug from back of trailer turned off all breakers from the inside pannel reset GFI and as soom as I plug in the trailer the House GFI triped. Anyone have any Ideas?

gungho · 07-17-2006, 02:08 PM

Likely a ground problem in the trailer. Check its wireing.

Montana_1240 · 07-17-2006, 02:58 PM

Is there any particular reason you need to plug it into a GFI circuit?

And, if it's a GFI circuit, what's it capable of providing, amperage-wise? It's possible that since it's a new rig, the battery is charging full. With taht going on, plus the other 12V items being fed from the battery/convert power, it might just be too much of a load for a mere 15 or 20 amp circuit.

Steve

magibson · 07-17-2006, 03:24 PM

The only reason I am using the GFI is that I have an outside outlet at that location. All of the trailer breakers are turned off and the GFI is a 20AMP circuit.

VanMan · 07-17-2006, 03:38 PM

If you have one of those little yellow plug-in testers, check the house outlet for polarity. If you have a big enough/long enough extension cord, try another outlet not on the GFI.

Montana_1240 · 07-17-2006, 03:39 PM

With all that stuff turned off, it should work. At least I'd think so. I never tried this rig on a GFI circuit, myself. But it was fine on a 20 Amp circuit until I got my 30 Amp circuit installed.

I'm just not all that fond of GFI. All I've ever gotten from that junk was frustration when one pops for no apparent reason. And when you're in an unfamiliar place, unless you know where the GFI outlet is, you can stumble around in the dark, cursing, wanting to find the stupid thing so it could be reset.

All in all, I'd say...It seems there IS probably a grounding problem.

Hang loose for a while, and when the more expert/experienced folks get around to perusing this thread, you'll hear a few more intelligent responses, with tips on what to try, or do. Happens in almost every case of troubles posted.

Meanwhile, I'd say that maybe you could use a meter to see how much resistance there is between leads on your Mounty's electrical connector. You could read them from the plug-in, itself, or at the end of the power cord. It doesn't take much, though, so try to set the meter to a very sensitive level after you see if it's not some direct short.

Good Luck,
Steve

William H. Collier · 07-17-2006, 03:41 PM

I had the same problem, any time a drop of water got around the plug going into the Monty the GFI would trip. It is a 20 amp circut so I just replaced the GFI with a heavy duty 20 amp recepticle, no problems for 2 years.
Bill

magibson · 07-17-2006, 04:20 PM

I did check the circuit and the polarity is good. It must be something in the trailer equipment that the GFT does not like. I tried another GFI circuit and the same thing. Tried another circuit ( not GFI ) and it works. So don't expect to use a GFI outlet.

ols1932 · 07-17-2006, 05:13 PM

We have found at the Escapees Escapades that some units will not operate on GFI receptacles no matter what you do. The GFI circuit looks for an imbalance between wires (milliamps, very small differences). If for some reason there is some imbalance in your rig (not necessarily bad), the GFI circuit will trip. I would try to find a different receptacle to plug into. If you then have power to your rig you're in business.

Orv

drhowell · 07-24-2006, 04:27 AM

Have you ever used the GFI outlet before? If it continues to trip when anything is plugged into it there is a possibility that it wasn't wired correctly. I speak from experience here. On a 50 amp GFI the (white) neutral wire from the outlet to the Main panel must go through the GFI breaker. There is usually a factory white lead on the breaker that goes to the neutral bus in the main panel and sometimes people wire the neutral lead from the outlet to the same bus. It will cause the breaker to trip as soon as you plug in any load. A 50 amp GFI has three terminals vs a standard 50 amp breaker that has only two. On both you wire the two (black) hot leads to the outer two terminals (gives you 240 volts) but the neutral (white) lead is different between the GFI and standard. Standard it goes directly to the bus but with the GFI it has to go through the GFI breaker and then to the bus. Thats where you get the circuit protection for the GFI.

Hope this explains the CFI circuit better.

Montana_1240 · 07-24-2006, 05:22 AM

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm....

I had no idea there even ARE 50 Amp GFI breakers.

I had an electrician originally wire my brick & stick house. He only put GFIs in where they were supposed to go, according to code. And even though there were only about three or four circuits, each of them used to make me crazy. It never dawned on me to look to using GFI for the 30 Amp circuit I finally installed for the Monty, before we started fulltiming. And, even if it was the code, I'd have still used a normal breaker, just due to all the hassles I had with the others.

But that's why I had a problem wrapping my mind around the very idea of actually plugging a Monty into a GFI.

Steve

dbrill · 07-24-2006, 05:56 AM

I had the same problem and it was a bad ground from the Inverter to the frame of the Mountaineer.

gungho · 07-24-2006, 09:05 AM

I always use a gfi at home and have never had a problem tripping. If cords are properly insulated and in good shape it should work.

Imp · 07-24-2006, 11:10 AM

We had the same problem and it was after washing the rig. We used the hair dryer to dry out the plug in on the rig and the plug. Worked fine after that. The other thing could be, do you have the electric turned on the water heater. It pulls a lot of power.
Myrna

drhowell · 07-24-2006, 11:36 AM

Usually you find the larger 30 and 50 amp GFCI breakers on spa's and that type of outside equipment. Usually codes require any outlet or circuit on the outside of your home to be GFCI protected. Especially anytime you can mix water and electricity with the possibility of human contact.

I have used a 110 GFCI outlet for limited RV usage. I run the refrig and the converter to keep the 12 volt charged. It will not handle much more than that without overheating and dropping out. Sometimes it will drop out as soon as I plug in the cord and I can get away with resetting it with the cord plugged in and it will work fine unless I forget and overload the circuit.

I Installed a 50 amp GFCI for my long term RV space just for peace of mind with grandkids playing around outside and mixing water with the electricity.

In reality, whether you use a standard outlet and breaker or a GFCI outlet or breaker the only difference is the added ground fault protection with the GFCI. The problem is usually when the amperage you draw through any circuit exceeds the capacity of the circuit and that does not change with the standard or GFCI to any extent.

GFCI circuits do tend to be more sensitive to surges however.

Montana_1240 · 07-24-2006, 12:06 PM

Well, I guess I was within code with my 30 Amp non-GFI outlet. It was in my garage, next to the power panel. Even if it was a yard away from the “mud sink” we used to wash the dogs’ feet off in before letting them into the house.

We did have loads of surges and power outages in Alaska. We usually were drawing our power in Fairbanks, from the gas-powered generators in Anchorage. Snowfall, ice storms, fires, and wind would cause the occasional outage. God knows how many surges there were, though. I only kept my TV stuff on a surge protected power strip, and computer gear on a UPS.

Steve

drhowell · 07-25-2006, 05:33 AM

California code requires GFCI in the garage, bathrooms, kitchen and outside. Anywhere water may be present. Some jurisdictions are more particular on enforcement and interpretation.

Montana_1240 · 07-25-2006, 05:38 AM

We can expect California to do that.

But seriously, I'm sure that if an electrician were hired to put mine in, he'd of had to install a GFI, as well. It was in the garage, AND near the mud sink.

Which is why I chose to do it myself. I didn't want to simply introduce more dang GFI headaches. Plus, we have no kids, so it's not like someone who couldn't tell that water and a live wire isn't a good idea.

Yeah. I know I will hear the "rules." I know them. I'm just being facetious. Life's more fun like this.

Steve

drhowell · 07-25-2006, 11:43 AM

Been there, done that also Gyro. Hey I'll bet you did the penny trick under the old screw in fuse also. I know I did back when I was much younger and didn't have a new fuse. And I am still here to talk about it. Or the gum wrapper around the car fuse. Now that time I wasn't so lucky. Ended up replacing some wiring in that old car.

Stay safe!

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