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04-30-2005, 04:37 PM
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#1
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Georgetown
Posts: 1,411
M.O.C. #956
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Help!! Electrical Problem
We have been hooked up for 3 weeks in our driveway and running a 50amp to 30amp cord with a 20amp adapter. Have been careful about what we have used and haven't had any problems. This morning while we were gone we blew the gfci on the house. We have turned everything off in the monty and have reset the gfci, 5 or 6 times now and it keeps tripping. We took all the plugs apart and dried the 50 amp hook up/receptacle on the monty with a hair dryer (there was a little moisture). It still keeps tripping the gfci circuit. Need some suggestions. We are living in the monty as we have sold our house and have moved the furniture to storage and are still packing things!!!
Myrna and Bob
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04-30-2005, 06:41 PM
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#2
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Montana Master
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Gardnerville
Posts: 749
M.O.C. #2165
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If you've dried the other connectors and plugged the cords in one by one, starting at the gfci receptacle, try connecting to another gfci. It doesn't take much leakage current to trip one of these things, and they do go bad. Try plugging something else into the gfci, too. Did you turn off the Monty by switching off the main circuit breakers? That will specifically isolate the rest of the Monty from the circuit.
Isolate and substitute are the key components to troubleshooting. Take it step by step and don't do more than one thing at a time.
Bob
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04-30-2005, 06:54 PM
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#3
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 3,430
M.O.C. #29
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It is very likely that you have a loose connection somewhere. That's been the main cause of this type of failure. You might start checking each receptacle for a loose wire.
RVWheels
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05-01-2005, 11:02 AM
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#4
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Montana Master
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Oceanside
Posts: 20,028
M.O.C. #20
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A couple of outlets to not overlook -- not sure how it is on the 3400 but on our 3295 of 2003 vintage the outside patio outlet and the refrigerator are both on the gfci circuit. If you remove the outside cover behind the fridge you'll see where it is plugged in. There's an extra outlet there. That and the patio outlet are accessible from outside so maybe you have a bug crawled in the outlet and is shorting things out. The one for the fridge is open so this could easily happen.
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05-01-2005, 11:52 AM
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#5
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Georgetown
Posts: 1,411
M.O.C. #956
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Thanks for all your suggestions. I am happy to report we are functioning again. We think it boiled down to moisture in the main plug in the monty. Thanks Steve for those other locations of gfi plug ins. We tried several different scenarios and went through each step like suggested and even ran the hair drier on the main connection again. Bob had washed the monty earlier and I guess the water got into the 50 amp receptacle. Anyway the last time around it finally stayed on. Were we ever relieved. We are not electricians, so we are very glad to have this resource. We are puzzled however how the moisture got into the plug when it is pushed in and the black screw down was in place etc. Back to packing and sorting.... Thanks again...MOC rules.
Myrna
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05-01-2005, 02:07 PM
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#6
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Montana Master
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Oceanside
Posts: 20,028
M.O.C. #20
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Myrna, probably the best way to figure out what happened is to have Bob come over and wash and wax our Montana (the waxing part is important). Then, if ours has trouble with the electricity, we'll know it's a design fault. If not, then we'll know it's something with your rig and Bob could go back and research yours, knowing it's a local problem. Sound ok to you?
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05-01-2005, 03:29 PM
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#7
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Seasoned Camper
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Kalispell
Posts: 85
M.O.C. #2953
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And then Paul says you can come over and wash and wax ours as we have the 3400RL too. So that way you would know for sure because we have the same model. I know that Bob will find out what the problem is if he washes and waxs ours. And Paul said he would even supervise. He has done that very well for 40 years as a Electrical Foreman. Kathi
2002 Dodge Diesel 3500
Banks exhaust brakeing system
05 3400RL Montana
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05-01-2005, 03:57 PM
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#8
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Cedar Rapids
Posts: 4,876
M.O.C. #1944
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Imp
Thanks for all your suggestions. I am happy to report we are functioning again. We think it boiled down to moisture in the main plug in the monty. Thanks Steve for those other locations of gfi plug ins. We tried several different scenarios and went through each step like suggested and even ran the hair drier on the main connection again. Bob had washed the monty earlier and I guess the water got into the 50 amp receptacle. Anyway the last time around it finally stayed on. Were we ever relieved. We are not electricians, so we are very glad to have this resource. We are puzzled however how the moisture got into the plug when it is pushed in and the black screw down was in place etc. Back to packing and sorting.... Thanks again...MOC rules.
Myrna
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Dampness in the gfi receptacles will cause them to trip prematurely. Another thing you might want to know is that a lot of RVs do not like to be plugged into gfi circuits. My experience has been that some don't mind and others do. Our rig doesn't like gfi and Travel Supreme rigs hate gfi. If at all possible, don't plug into gfi circuits. If you must, be sure you run your refrigerator and hot water heater on gas to avoid ANY overload.
Hope this helps a little.
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05-02-2005, 01:29 PM
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#9
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Georgetown
Posts: 1,411
M.O.C. #956
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After finishing our monty, I don't think he is ready to do another one for a long time... Of course sometimes bribery works!!! We went over to our church's campgrounds yesterday(helping with the spring clean up) and got all set up and again had no power. Now we were really thinking something horrible was wrong. Much to our relief the power was not turned on to that area in the RV park. So far no more problems there. Thanks again for all your help. Orv it is hard to find an outlet that is not on a GFI line when we are plugged in at home. I will be glad when our house closes and we head out to the campgrounds where we can have 30 amp hook up and not worry about it.
Myrna
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05-02-2005, 04:51 PM
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#10
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Montana Master
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Machesney Park
Posts: 534
M.O.C. #798
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I keep the Montana plugged into a outlet in my garage, all the outlets in the garage were on a 15 amp gfi circut. GFI would trip whenever it rained or when I washed it. I replaced the gfi with a regular heavy duty outlet and the 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp. I have had no problems since.
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05-03-2005, 02:40 AM
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#11
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location:
Posts: 643
M.O.C. #1109
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I believe the GFIs trip when you get less that 100 ohms between gnd and common. So the next time it trips you can measure between gnd and common if you have an ohmmeter. Agree it is probably moisture.
Watch for the moisture condenseing on the plug area.
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