Bighorn - 120 volt hook up

[WBG]

Re: ATF: Bighorn - 120 volt hook up

I have a gfci on my home circuit to the trailer. No problem. May be a wiring fault in your coach.

Again, Thank you, Thank You for all your excellent suggestions. I picked up our rig from our favorite repair shop today and the problem was determined to be a grounding short in the heater element of our water heater (Suburban, 12 gal.)

They told me they had seen this problem before with Suburban Water Heaters.

When I tried to diagnose he problem by turning off all the breakers and then turning them on, one at a time, I found that the GFI tripped immediately when the water heater circuit breaker was enabled, but even with the water heater circuit breaker turned off, the GFI still tripped after few seconds. The repair shop said that a water heater fault could traced back to the wiring harness.

I guess the lesson learned is that if you have a Suburban Water Heater, and have a GFI problem, check the water heater out out FIRST!

Happy Rving!

WBG

 

[wdk450]

Re: ATF: Bighorn - 120 volt hook up

WBG:
Thanks so much for posting the solution to your GFI trip problem so the rest of us can store it in our RVing memories. The water heater element leakage problem is common, as it is usually associated with the heater element corroding out, which will happen eventually especially if the water heater sacrificial anode has done its job and sacrificed itself.

Again, Thank you, Thank You for all your excellent suggestions. I picked up our rig from our favorite repair shop today and the problem was determined to be a grounding short in the heater element of our water heater (Suburban, 12 gal.)

They told me they had seen this problem before with Suburban Water Heaters.

When I tried to diagnose he problem by turning off all the breakers and then turning them on, one at a time, I found that the GFI tripped immediately when the water heater circuit breaker was enabled, but even with the water heater circuit breaker turned off, the GFI still tripped after few seconds. The repair shop said that a water heater fault could traced back to the wiring harness.

I guess the lesson learned is that if you have a Suburban Water Heater, and have a GFI problem, check the water heater out out FIRST!

Happy Rving!

WBG

 

[danemayer]

even with the water heater circuit breaker turned off, the GFI still tripped after few seconds.

You may still have something else causing the breaker to trip after a few seconds. Have you tried the same cord setup since getting home?

 

[scottyb]

If your fridge is set to AUTO, it will also add to the load along with the converter, as soon as it detects AC. I had the same issue once when I tried to use a 100' long 14/3 cord. I didn't need the length but was trying to keep from unspooling the big cord just to keep the fridge running and the batteries charged. After a couple attempts, I ran the big cord to the same plug using a 50/30 and 30/20 adapters, and it never tripped again. This tells me that the cord was too small and too long to handle the load the converter and the fridge was pulling.

 

[SeattleLion]

I use a 10/3 100' and a 50' cord currently. The 10/3 prevents much voltage drop and everything seems to run ok. I have it on a 20amp GFCI

 

[WBG]

You may still have something else causing the breaker to trip after a few seconds. Have you tried the same cord setup since getting home?

I did try it as soon as I got home. I plugged in the cords with the battery disconnect switch in thee OFF position. When I tuned the battery disconnect switch ON, the GFI tripped. I then disconnected the extension cords, reset the GFI, connected the extension cords and BEHOLD IT ALL WORKS!!!. Imagine that. The batteries charged, the fridge cooled and all seemed to work as expected.

I think the water heater fault was the main an I hope, the only culprit.

Thanks so much to all of you for you very valuable suggestions.

The Heartland Owners Forum is truly a wonderful collection of caring people.

God Bless!

WBG