Friday (5/6) our SUNDANCE is home

Rollin_Free

Well-known member
After our purchase 3/15 we had to leave the Sundance in storage until the snow and freezing temps were gone. I also needed to replace the 6year old TowMax before even thinking about bringing it home. On Friday (5/6) Discount Tire called and said my replacement tires and wheels had arrived. I changed/upgraded to LT225/75R16 E1 BSW Cooper Discoverer HTP tires with a max load of 2680 lbs. which exceeded the TowMax tire max load of 2540 lbs. I gained a wider stance and raised the trailer about 1". On the way home I stopped at scales and have baseline semi empty trailer and loaded TV numbers. I'm in the green for everything for the first time. HooRa! Total trailer weight is currently 7540 lbs. so when I add the remaining 500lbs I'll still be well within my specs. Only need to repack the bearings before our first breakin trip on 5/20.

Sure glad SUNDANCE is finally home.

My 1st issue. I plugged into shore power this afternoon and later decided to program the TV. Well no AC power at any plugs except in the front bedroom. Found the GFI outlet had been tripped so I reset it and power everywhere including the TV. So the question is how many outlets can a GFI outlet support? It appears I have 4 + the GFCI itself so I think it may have too many.
 

Bogie

Well-known member
The number of recommended outlets protected by a single GFCI may vary form manufacture to manufacture. Manufacturers include labels with each GFCI that are to be placed on each subtending outlet. A good rule of thumb is to only have as many subtending outlets as the number of labels provided. Of course, you don't have this information since you didn't install it. That being said, I don't think having four subtending outlets is a problem.

The questions is, what caused it to trip? You don't say, so I'm guessing you may not know that. It could be from plugging in something with an internal ground fault.

If it trips frequently or continuously, either the GFCI itself could be faulty (yep that happens) or there is a problem somewhere else in the circuit (a ground fault). A ground fault can be caused by many things including a bad connection, a neutral wire touching ground or current leakage within one or more of the subtending outlets. It only takes 6 mills of current to trip a GFCI.

If I were investigating this problem, and the GFCI was tripping frequently for no apparent reason, I would first check the connections at the GFCI and each subtending outlet. If all that seems to be okay, I would change out the GFCI. In my experience, that usually takes care of it.

If that doesn't fix it, the problem may be harder to find using a process of elimination investigation.
 

Rollin_Free

Well-known member
If I were investigating this problem, and the GFCI was tripping frequently for no apparent reason, I would first check the connections at the GFCI and each subtending outlet. If all that seems to be okay, I would change out the GFCI. In my experience, that usually takes care of it.

If that doesn't fix it, the problem may be harder to find using a process of elimination investigation.

It was apparently tripped before when we got the trailer and didn't even think of plugging in before signing the bill of sale. Lesson learned check it out better next time before signing.

Anyway I'll wait to trouble shoot until it trips again but I'll make sure to have a replacement GFCI outlet ready to go if that does occur. I know my house has the outside outlet and the bathroom GFCI itself together but that is it. With the GFCI it just seemed odd to have that many on the load side of the 5th wheel.

Thanks much for the information
 

danemayer

Well-known member
If you have devices plugged into the outlets anywhere on the GFCI string, don't overlook the possibility that one of your devices is tripping it.
 

Bogie

Well-known member
It was apparently tripped before when we got the trailer and didn't even think of plugging in before signing the bill of sale. Lesson learned check it out better next time before signing.


It may be as simple as someone else pushed the test button on the GFCI before you bought it, and didn't bother to reset it.
 

Rollin_Free

Well-known member
We've decided to camp in the back yard tomorrow night. We're going to load the AC outlets with TV, hair dryer, and maybe a charger see what happens.
 
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Rollin_Free

Well-known member
Our 1st camping trip was to Southern Minnesota was just two weekends ago.

Friday night--> The trip there was uneventful, check in perfect, backing into site was with minimal effort. So far so good but there's more. When we set where we wanted to be it was time to drop the landing gear. Hit the switch and nothing. Checked breaker, good so tried several things but all were unsuccessful. Well manual crank it was and we did it that way but boy that takes a lot of energy. We were having company the next night so forgot about the manual landing gear issue and got everything ready for our guest.

Saturday--> I took the switch out and cut the protective insulation off the wiring. I had good ground but no +12v. Hum, power at the breaker but nothing at the switch. Opened the ring wrap off the wire harnes and followed it back toward the breaker. At 3' away from the switch I pulled the wire up from behind the battery box and wait what's that. It was a inline 30A mini fuse. Three hours looking and it was just a fuse. Why didn't I look closer earlier? Why is there a breaker connected to the battery buss and then a fuse within 6" of that connection. Oh well success, power restored to the landing gear.

All in all, great trip to a great park, great bicycling, excellent company (my wife), thourghly enjoyed our 1st of hopefully many more trips.

Oh yes I almost forgot I tried to cause the GFCI to trip and it stayed solid so it was probably tested by the previous owner and then just didn't get reset.
 

billyjoeraybob

South Carolina Chapter Leaders-Retired
Awesome! I am glad you are enjoying your Sundance. We loved ours. On the landing gear fuse, keep spares on hand but also know that the main reason that that fuse blows is the landing gear has been retracted to the max. This overloads the circuit. Carefully retract your gear fully while hitched to your truck releasing the switch as soon as it is tops out. Then extend the gear 1" and mark where the gear is with something paint tape sharpie. This will tell you where to stop when retracting. No more blown fuses.

Enjoy the Sundance! Safe travels☺☺☺
 

Rollin_Free

Well-known member
Yep that's what happened. I do recall when retracting I noticed a little extra noise but didn't check it out and kept on getting ready to go. Too anxious to get going. So then the question is why isn't there some kind of limit switch that would prevent this from occurring. It would be easy enough to put one together however that would only fix mine from the excess stress. I may go ahead and put one together but still............

Yes I now have spare fuses and will make the marks like you suggest. THANKS
 
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