progress made, and a new question

[WhidbeyDave]

SO went on our first trip and had a great time. It's great to unhook the campsite and take it for a drive on a day too rainy to make sitting around any fun. Learned a lot of things (gotta change that bed - that was miserably uncomfortable..) and added to our list of fixes needed. All the leaks we knew about had been repaired, and those areas stayed nice and dry, which of course meant we found new leaks.....$%^&&%$#@@@@! So now I'm working on those, and got a new mattress to install today. But my question for all of you concerns electrical issues: When plugged in with the thirty amp "umbilical" I have no problems. But if I put an adapter on and plug that into a standard household 110 circuit with a GFCI, the GFCI immediately trips - every time. I asked on RV repair guy who simply said "You're not supposed to use a GFCI circuit", whereas another repair guy said there's probably a short in the system somewhere. It makes sense that there's a problem somewhere that trips the GFCI, but why no problem with a direct 30amp outlet? Any ideas on how I trace this down? Everything seems to work OK in the rig, no known problems. (BTW, my understanding of electricity is almost on par with my understanding of black magic.....) Thanks in advance for your help

[Maineah]

GFI problems are very hard to track down early GFI's were very sensitive particularly with any thing resistive. Most of the 30 amp campground outlets were not GFI protected. If you had a short it would trip the breaker but what trips a GFI is an imbalance between the line and the neutral so with out a lot of science what I would do if you have another GFI to plug it into is try that first but I'm going to bet a new GFI probably will fix it they have improved a lot over the past few years in regards to false tripping.

[WhidbeyDave]

GFI problems are very hard to track down early GFI's were very sensitive particularly with any thing resistive. Most of the 30 amp campground outlets were not GFI protected. If you had a short it would trip the breaker but what trips a GFI is an imbalance between the line and the neutral so with out a lot of science what I would do if you have another GFI to plug it into is try that first but I'm going to bet a new GFI probably will fix it they have improved a lot over the past few years in regards to false tripping.

I've tried two different GFI outlets. One in a campground, and one fairly new one in my workshop. Both trip immediately....... Thanks for the thought though... Any other ideas?

[Maineah]

I've tried two different GFI outlets. One in a campground, and one fairly new one in my workshop. Both trip immediately....... Thanks for the thought though... Any other ideas?

Yeah but it involves electrical work. First try turning off your breakers one at a time (leave the main on) and see if one trips the GFI. If they don't then you will need to take the cover off of your breaker panel then check the wiring all of this done with it unplugged!! There will be black, white,and green wires nice big ones they are from the power cord. The black wire goes right to the main breaker the white wire goes to an insulated buss bar with a bunch of other white wires no green or bare wires and the green goes to an uninsulated buss bar with other green and bare wires no exceptions. If that's all right the next thing you need to do is disconnect the converter/charger they are usually wired to the input side of the main breaker (it can't be turned off) it maybe be a smaller wire under the big black wire or there maybe a connector for the converter/charger all are a bit different make sure the loose converter wire can't get tangled with any thing and plug it in and see if the GFI works. If it has an older charger /converter they are suspect as far as tripping GFI's. That's the best I can do for you from here in Maine.

[WME]

Does your RV have a GFi in it some where?? You can not use GFIs in series.

[WhidbeyDave]

Yeah but it involves electrical work. First try turning off your breakers one at a time (leave the main on) and see if one trips the GFI. If they don't then you will need to take the cover off of your breaker panel then check the wiring all of this done with it unplugged!! There will be black, white,and green wires nice big ones they are from the power cord. The black wire goes right to the main breaker the white wire goes to an insulated buss bar with a bunch of other white wires no green or bare wires and the green goes to an uninsulated buss bar with other green and bare wires no exceptions. If that's all right the next thing you need to do is disconnect the converter/charger they are usually wired to the input side of the main breaker (it can't be turned off) it maybe be a smaller wire under the big black wire or there maybe a connector for the converter/charger all are a bit different make sure the loose converter wire can't get tangled with any thing and plug it in and see if the GFI works. If it has an older charger /converter they are suspect as far as tripping GFI's. That's the best I can do for you from here in Maine.

Thanks - I'll try that. I may have mis-spoke about my understanding of electricity - I have done some home wiring and such without burning the place down (not that I really understand it.) I did look into the breaker panel yesterday and saw nothing loose or amiss, but I'll try disconnecting the converter and see how things work. Oddly enough, the place on my panel that is marked as a "main" is simply a blank plastic plug - no switch. There are two breakers marked "15 amp" - which seems to act as a main - and one marked 20 amp for AC, which is odd because there is no AC on my rig. Gguess I'll have to trace some wires and see what leads where.....

[Maineah]

The older converters used a big old transformer and the GFI see it as a ground fault to the neutral some times thru the transformer windings. My old one would trip about 50% of the time until I replaced it with a modern one. It’s not dangerous just old technology. Motor homes have an isolated neutral and for good reason it’s not a good thing to have a “Hot” MH frame you never know how well campgrounds are wired they could easily have reversed the black and white and you can’t all way relay on the ground to trip the breaker that’s why I like to see GFI’s in campgrounds they won’t work wired wrong I all ways leave a circuit checker plugged into my MH little cheap thing with 3 lights cost about $4 I really don’t trust others when it comes to wiring and with the lights burning properly you know it’s right.