Main Breaker Tripping

[Chris562]

I recently had my North Country out for the weekend....a VERY hot and muggy one at that. Anyway, I had the 15K AC on full blast all day just to keep the camper tolerable. I attempted to fix dinner using the microwave and it kept tripping the main and ac circuit breaker. It did this numerous times. I checked and the microwave is on it's own breaker as indicated on the panel. Is this common?

 

[Pulltab]

Were you using a 50 or a 30 amp connection at the campground? If on a 30 it was quite possible. Neither overloaded the particular breaker but together may have possibly over rode the 30 amps there for popping the breaker main

Once you add the amps from the AC the Microwave and all the parasitic loads you could exceed the 30 amps especially if the converter kicked in high charge for the batteries.

 

[Chris562]

My North Country is only takes 30 amp connection.

 

[Pulltab]

My North Country is only takes 30 amp connection.

That was the problem most likey. Maybe next time either turn the ac off or down on low while using the microwave.

 

[itsbeertime]

I had the same thing happen first trip out with ours. We have 50 amp service but only one AC so I use the 30 amp hookup. Main breaker tripped several times. I think the problem was the breaker in the pedestal though. It was really loose and quite hot and they came out and replaced it but it still wasn't right. I haven't had it happen since though. But yeah, turn enough stuff on and like pulltab said with all the parasitic stuff you could exceed 30 amps and trip the breaker. The wife has done it with her hairdryer on more than one occasion, even though hairdryers are supposed to be taboo.

 

[skyguy]

Don't assume that your breakers are necessarily what they are supposed to be, either.

I contacted customer service, got the ratings for each one of the main 12 volt DC breakers, and found two of them to be a lot smaller amp rating than what they were supposed to be.

 

[Chris562]

Did they exchange them for you?

 

[cookie]

Chris562, skyguy is talking 12 volts. You are talking 110 volts. But like he implied, check that you have the correct breaker. I suspect you do and are just putting toooo much of a load on it. Although you stated that the microwave has it's own breaker, all the circuits run through your main. So combined, you were most likely drawing over 30 amps.

Peace
Dave

 

[jmgratz]

There are charts that you can find at campgrounds, and online that list how many amps different appliances draw. You can use those charts as a guide to know how close you car to the max available. One heavy draw is the water heater when it is on electric. If you are using 30amp and have your water heater set on electric, your refrigerator on electric, then have your air conditioner on, when you add the microwave to that, you will very likely trip a 30 amp breaker. When we run on 30 amps we only turn on the water heater a few minutes before we need hot water and then only on propane. Also on a very hot day on 30 amps we run the frig on propane. Hope that helps.

 

[charlie51]

My 3101b did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. My wife had the half-time oven going, the 15k A/C, and when she tried to plug in the electric griddle it tripped the main breaker. I just shut the air off while she was cooking and didn't have any more problems. It was only about 10 minutes anyway.

 

[Chris562]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know if things were messed up or not. We never had this problem with our 07 Keystone Outback so I just thought there was a problem. We just turned off the AC until we were finished with the microwave.

 

[Erma]

As the others have stated, especially on 30 amps, you need to watch what you are running at the same times.

 

[Jimmyt5]

Was your Outback 30 or 50 Amp service??

 

[Chris562]

My Outback was a 30 amp unit.