Burned up the 50amp breaker and almost the camper

[ShepVA]

Was out camping this weekend and when I plugged up to the campsite and turned on the power on the pole I only got half the power on the camper, like one leg was out. The breaker on the campgrounds pole did not look the best so I tripped it a few times and the power came on, so I did not think much of it. Later that evening we were sitting in the camper enjoying a few drinks when my wife noticed smoke coming out of the breaker panel on the camper. Well I hurried over and there was smoke coming out of the 50 amp main breaker on the camper. Well I shut it all down real fast and took the panel apart to find that the one side of the main breaker was melted and hot. About another 10 minutes and we would have had a larger campfire than we wanted.

Well we pulled the breaker out and went to Lowes and got another CH breaker and changed it out and have had no problems since, but I have no idea what caused a breaker to fail like that and not trip. Kinda scary for sure.

Anyone else had any breaker problems with these campers?

 

[brianharrison]

Wow. I will be watching this thread. Glad you caught it in time. Yea for the acute smeller on the wife....

The part about the campground breaker has me worried that the campground power may be of bad quality. Obviously you do not have an EMS system installed, but any other concerns in the campground? I would tell the campground owner just in case it is his power supply, and not just your breaker.

I will be interested in the breaker concern theories of others. I have had breakers go bad, but not to the point of smoking and ready to ignite.

Brian

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

It's certainly good news hearing you were able to prevent a bigger camp fire. The first thing that comes to mind is a possible loose line in wire at the main breaker in the rig. It MAY have loosened a bit over time. Loose connections cause heat. Regarding the campground pedestal, a surge protection device is a "must have".

 

[marvmarcy]

Problems in the cg wiring could have caused your breaker problem or contributed to its failure. A few weeks ago we stayed one night in a cg near Lumberton, NC, and they were having overvoltage on some of their sites. We have a built-in electrical monitoring and protection system, but I got out my trusty Fluke meter to check our pedestal and several around us. I found our site had slightly high voltages, but several around us had dangerous issues, likely caused by ground-neutral bonding problems. It showed up on 20a, 30a and especially on 50a circuits. Any rig without protection could experience damage.

 

[Vtxkid]

The way to ensure that you don't have shore power or generator issues that could damage your onboard electrical system is to install EMS. Progressive has excellent Electrical Maintenance System that will give you peace of mine not to mention they have the best warranty out.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

 

[hoefler]

It's certainly good news hearing you were able to prevent a bigger camp fire. The first thing that comes to mind is a possible loose line in wire at the main breaker in the rig. It MAY have loosened a bit over time. Loose connections cause heat. Regarding the campground pedestal, a surge protection device is a "must have".

No surge protect would have kept this from happening. It was a loose wire like Ray suggested. As an annual preparation for the year, you should remove the cover of the breaker box, NO POWER CONNECTED, and tighten all connections. We have traveling earthquakes going down the road, everything will need tightening at some time.

 

[Gaffer]

40 years as an electrician tells me that this was a loose connection at the 50 amp breaker in your coach.

 

[wdk450]

ShepVa:
First of all I will defer to my friend P.J.'s electrician experience. I won't defer to his choice of taking 20 miles of dusty, dirt, washboard, roads leading me from Cody to Gillette Wyoming last year; but that is another story (Ha Ha).

If you are not well versed in RV electrical systems, I would recommend you study the website listed below, paying special attention to the "50 Amp Service" and "Open Neutral" sections.
http://www.myrv.us/electric/index.htm

I am editing this post to add a thought I just had about the breaker panel in general: One a year everyone who takes their trailers out on the road needs to remove all sources of A.C. power, and check/tighten EVERY electrical connection screw in the A.C. circuit breaker panel. This panel is not especially made to prevent critical electrical connection screws from vibrating loose while you travel. A loose screw can cause current to produce heating, with possible further degradation of the electrical connection, smoke, etc.